Too much is made of Obama’s race

Carl Kaun, Henderson

Friday, Aug. 29, 2008 | 2:02 a.m.

The media — the press, radio and bloggers alike — are all over the announcement of Barack Obama as the “first black American to be nominated for president.” I contest this characterization.

The fact is that Barack is as white as he is black, the son of an African man and a white American woman, raised primarily in a white American household, schooled in the pretty much white Columbia University and Harvard Law School.

I have uniformly found Mr. Obama’s declarations on issues from the role of religion in government to race relations to contraceptive rights to reflect the best thinking of modern civilization on such matters. To me, his thinking bridges the divides of race, sex and social and economic status. And this is why I will vote for him.

I’m a white guy, too, and I like Mr. Obama not because he is a white guy, but because he’s an awfully smart and cognizant human being, black and/or white, who is in touch with real issues concerning America.

By the way, I would also have supported Hillary Clinton, not because she is a woman, but because she too is an awfully smart and cognizant human being who is in touch with real issues concerning America.