Ever since I became a journalist, I've been offended by defining people by their presumed race. Thankfully, the practice has now disappeared from newspapers. We no longer see things like, "John Doe, a black man, was apprehended....." while never, of course, seeing "John Doe, a white man..."
So why are we talking about Barack Obama as the first black candidate? He's as much white as he is black. He is half white and half black. His black half is African, recently, not in the time of slave ships. His white half is Celtic, for crying out loud, a "whiter" race never having been seen on the planet. I know whereof I speak. I am a Celt myself, and the translucent white skin that runs in my family, not to mention all over the Republic of Ireland, is a shining beauty to behold.
So why, in heaven's name, do we not call Barack Obama what he is: the very first all-American candidate.
Moreover, and even better, he's a mutt, just like the rest of us. He has had to make his own way, just like the rest of us (except the Bush caste, of course, as their way was made by forebears whose gene pool degenerated with every passing inbred generation.)
I love mutts. Everybody loves mutts. They are agreeable, sturdy, usually intelligent. They have to be; they don't have a pedigree to hide behind. They are also, in my experience, undyingly grateful for the kindness they receive, especially if they were abandoned or orphaned mutts. Obama was raised by only one parent, giving him at least a toe into that particular special and greatly-to-be-praised area of mutt-ness.
So come on, people. Even if you don't like the mutt analogy (and there may be a few curmudgeonly people out there who don't know it is better to be a dog than any other mammal), Barack Obama is, without any shadow of doubt, the first totally American candidate, completely representative of the entire nation, that we have ever had. We have never had a better chance to heal this nation and make it what it can be.
Obama. Period. Obama.
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