Tearing up the rulebook on racism

Blimey. I really didn't think America would elect a non-white person as President. I really didn't think it was possible. The dice was stacked against him. After all: - It's a nation that voted twice for that international joke, Dubya. TWICE. - A generation ago, I don't think black people were even allowed to sit down in Washington D.C. ? - There's a national economic crisis. During a crisis, people's usual instincts are to protect their own - hell, Britain's cutting the numbers of immigrants it allows in because of the recession. - Obama seems clever, intellectual, almost slightly aloof, not someone you could have a beer witha nd talk about the Sonics (or whatever). And when was the last time America elected a clever President? So gosh darn it, now I can't blame the lack of success in my life because I is not white. or black. On the other hand, one of my friends - who won't date outside of her race - still wouldn't shag Obama. So latent racism is still alive! The more I read about Obama's life, the more I'm amazed he got to Harvard, let alone anywhere else. Now he's the US equivalent of Blair - arrives in office after almost a decade of slowly stagnated rule, with ludicrously high expectations. And it worked for Blair for a while - at least till Iraq happened. And hey, maybe a re-assessment of America's place in the world and a return to less consumer-ist times would mean things like the technically perfect, editorially disastrous and utterly pointless CNN hologram wouldn't happen... I almost want to say poor McCain. For a Republican candidate, he wasn't that bad - he could have been a whole lot worse. But it sounds like the party lobby just strangled his maverickness at birth.