Why after years of African American candidates running for President did blacks and whites feel Barack Obama had a chance to win the 2008 Presidential election after he won Iowa? Why did Barack Obama win a majority of the black and Latina vote?  He also did extremely well with the white vote.

Why after a brief meeting in his office with Senator Barack Obama, did Sen. Harry Reid feel the unknown newly minted Senator from Chicago could win the Presidency over a well known accomplished Hillary Clinton or any other candidate?  Was it something the Senator said? Or the way he looked or his pedigree? Or did he just make the Senator feel comfortable?

Think long and hard before answering.

Actually the comments Reid made to a reporter are true.  Obama made it as far as he did (not excluding his many accomplishments) because he made people feel comfortable and didn’t present what some see as being the “Negro” stereotype.  Ouch! That sounds ugly, but it has truths.  

Jesse Jackson couldn’t do it and neither could Al Sharpton or Alan Keyes.  Colin Powell had a chance be he turned it down. However, Obama came out of no where and impressed the Washington elite when he addressed the nation during the 2004 Democrat National Convention and from that moment on the world began a love affair with him, with the media leading the charge.  Listening to black radio during the election year you would hear DJ’s appealing to blacks to vote Barack Obama because he was black. 

While we would like to believe we live in a race less, colorless or sexless society, it’s just not true.  Race, color and sex just a few factors many of us use to make decisions subconsciously on a daily basis. There’s nothing wrong with it and it doesn’t make us bad. That’s just the way our society is.

Until we sit down and have an honest dialogue on this matter we will never be able to move forward. In 2008, then Senator Barack Obama said we needed to have an honest dialogue about race. Many said it was the best speech ever, but what happen afterwards? Nothing. We are back to square one sweeping Race under the carpet.  Let’s talk about Race.

I previously wrote about race in a few postings on ireport:

Not A Black Face In Sight http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-129467

Yo! Are You Acting To White  http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-268356

Is Emiem Given A Black Pass http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-279411

Ebony And Ivory Is It Love Or Jungle Fever http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-301173

White Americans: What Do They Think http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-266584

The Possibilities Of History http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-194179

Attention White People… http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-116171

Are African Americans Ready… http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-91271

As for Trent Lott, it was the Republican’s who threw him under the bus not the Democrats. In fact the President at the time, George W. Bush, and his advisor, Karl Rove, led the charge.

“and we are not saved…”