Mr. Obama's Legacy

It appears that the 2010 mid-term elections may have several black Republican candidates, due at least partly, to the effects of Barack Obama'a presidency. Obama's influence shakes out in two important, though somewhat contradictory ways:

Party officials and the candidates themselves acknowledge that they still have uphill fights in both the primaries and the general elections, but they say that black Republicans are running with a confidence they have never had before. They credit the marriage of two factors: dissatisfaction with the Obama administration, and the proof, as provided by Mr. Obama, that blacks can get elected.

I am glad to see this happening for a number of reasons. First, though I evidently never wrote it down, I have been saying all along that Obama's presidency would eventually put a nail in the coffin of the trope that America is a racist country. I don't expect that to happen over-night (I am, after all, a conservative) but I am glad to see that this is already begining to happen.

It is ironic that Obama's failure should also be a spur to black Republicans, but that is how politics works. It is especially ironic since (as I noted here and here) much of Obama's success as a candidate was due to his avoidance of tactics typical of black candidates: he did not play the victim or incite racial resentment and he down-played his leftism.

Using many of the same tactics as Kennedy used to break the stigma of Roman Catholics in politics, Obama deserves credit for breaking the racial barrier, whether real or percieved. Now it is time for candidates with better political philosphies to take up the torch and make racial demagoguery truly a thing of the past.