Barack Obama

I'm going make a statement in this post that someone is sure to take the wrong way. This being the case, I'm going to add a disclaimer to this post, not because I'm worried about being offensive, but because I don't want to be misunderstood. I believe that the points I'm going to make are valid and well thought out, but I know that there are people who just won't understand what I'm going to say. I'm going to make some comments that could be taken as racist, but if you actually read them, you will see I'm being anything but.

On January 20th, Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States. Mr. Obama will no doubt begin his administration as one of the most popular Presidents of all time. However, I'm thinking more about Mr. Obama's eventual legacy; how will we look back on Mr. Obama's presidency ten, twenty or even fifty years from now? If the media coverage during his campaign, and President-elect interim could be considered an accurate prognostication of how he will be remembered, it is simply as the first black American President.

I've been considering this a lot over the last few weeks, and I've come to the conclusion that I feel sorry for Barack Obama. For some reason that I'm not really capable of understanding, the man's skin color seems to be more important than the impact he will have on the country. It might not matter in twenty years what the man does while in office at all.

Great American Presidents are remembered for all sorts of things. Abraham Lincoln is remembered primarily for his Emancipation Proclamation. John F. Kennedy is remembered both as a liberal icon, as well as for his philandering ways. George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson are all remembered as founding fathers of this nation because of their varied dedication and sacrifice for this great nation. Franklin Roosevelt is both remembered both for the social programs that he helped institute to help end the Great Depression as well as his roll of helping bring WWII to a close. More recently, Ronald Reagean is remembered as the great communicator, and Bill Clinton is remembered both for his economic policy as well as the sex scandal that surrounded his administration. Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, James Madison, William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson; I could go on and list what these Presidents have been remembered for, and while I'll agree that the fact the United States would elect a black man as their president says a lot of about the state of the county and the progress its people have made, it doesn't say anything about the man. Being black is just something he is, nothing more.

Will Barack Obama's presidency be one of economic growth? Will he lend the auto companies what they need to survive and grow? Will he pull America out of a war that practically no one wants any more? Will we be better off in four or eight years, or much worse? It's possible that the man will be an inept leader not capable of leading a nation out of a wet paper bag. Only time will tell how good or poor of a President Barack Obama will be. However when it's all said and done, will the nation in its own stupidity simply judge the man not on his actions, but instead on the amount of melanin in his skin? Is it possible that somehow the fact that he's America's first black president will be pushed through some PC spin that automatically equates black with good? How sad is that. He might be our greatest President ever. He might be the worst. Will he really be remembered not as good or bad, but instead as black?

There's other aspects of making too much of a deal of the man's skin color too. A friend of mine recently voiced the thought that we just might have a president who you can't disagree with or criticize without it becoming a racial issue. I'm not even talking about speaking offensively or in a bigoted way against the man himself. Is it possible that someone will really think that if I make a statement that I disagree with Mr. Obama's economic policy that that becomes a racial issue just because our President is black? I know that sound extreme, but there are people who I have met and had conversations with who are so extremely simple and ignorant, that this is all that they will see. Just because I'm white, if I disagree with something Barack Obama does, someone will think I disagree with him because he's black.

Another thing I've heard about that is racist is also at steak in this presidency. If Mr. Obama turns out to be either a poor, or even just a mediocre President, there are some people who will think "I knew we shouldn't have elected a black man to the Presidency". If this happens, it's possible that a mediocre presidency could be spun into a good one because of the historic importance of Mr. Obama as the first black President. Barack Obama is already being touted as a representative of the black race by the media. Why can't Barack Obama just be an American and a man, and why don't we just judge him as a man?

Many Americans think that President Bush is an idiot right now, but I've never heard that it was because he was white. I don't remember anyone thinking that the Berlin wall came down because Ronald Reagean was white. America didn't rise to Kennedy challenge to reach for the moon simply because of his complexion. Our founding fathers didn't fight against the British because they were white. For Obama though, America's opinions of the man are already being shaped because he's black. This was demonstrated to me while listening to a morning radio host ask a caller during the primaries last year whether she was going to vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. The caller stated that she hadn't figured out whether being black or a woman was more important to her, and that she was going to vote for the candidate who she could identify with more based on which characteristic she identified more in herself. Simply stated, she couldn't decide between skin pigmentation or genitals. I assume that if Hillary had darker skin, or if Barack Obama had lighter skin, her decision would be easier. How sick is that? Why can't you state that Barack Obama more closely matches my political views, or even just say I think Hillary would do a better job? Incidentally I would be writing a post about Hillary Clinton today if she had won the Presidency because there would be many of the same issues surrounding her Presidency revolving around her gender.

How did we get so skewed that we can't just accept Barack Obama just as our President? Why do we have to modify it by adding an adjective and make him our black President? Either he will do a good job, or he won't, and being black won't have anything to do with it. I hope that he turns out to be a good President, one that America can be proud of based on his actions and decisions. I hope that nothing untoward happens to either him or his family. I don't agree with everything he stands for and I didn't vote for him, but I still think he's a good man, and I hope he does a good job for America.