IT'S OBAMA

The big story today is that Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination for the presidency and gave a great victory speech in St. Paul, MN.

Congratulations to the Obama campaign. Barack Obama has been an extremely attractive presidential candidate and he and his campaign organization have done a great job of playing on his personal appeal, plotting out a winning campaign strategy, and fencing attacks from Hillary Clinton and John McCain. As somebody who likes the rough and tumble of politics, I've been extremely impressed with Obama's ability as a political counter-puncher. Obama also did a great job of handling the Jeremiah Wright controversy. All of Obama's virtues as a speaker, thinker, and political performer were on display in his Philadelphia speech and he deserves a great deal of credit for dealing with Wright's comments head on like that.

It's a cliche that the Obama nomination is an historic event in the history of American society. But the historic character of the event is a cliche that I'm proud to repeat. Barack Obama is the first African-American to be nominated by a major party for the presidency. It's an enormous accomlishment for Obama as an individual. It's yet another major advance for African-Americans as a group and it's a major cultural accomplishment for white people as well.

As a white person who is often depressed by the racism of other white people, I want to focus on that thought for a second. Certainly, the Obama campaign is the first time that white people in the United States have really been ready for a big step in racial progress. Although African-Americans and their abolitionist supporters were ready for the end of slavery in 1863, neither Southern whites nor Northern whites were prepared to see the end of the slave system and neither were able to adjust. The same was the case with end of segregation during the 1970's and 1980's. Indeed, it pains me to say that I still don't think it's an exaggeration to say that tens of millions of white people are STILL not prepared to live gladly within a racially integrated society.

However, millions of white Americans were ready, willing, and eager to support Barack Obama's presidential campaign. That includes northern whites, southern whites, blue-state whites, red-state whites, liberals, moderates, independents, and a fair number of conservatives. Needless to say, the racist backlash has already begun. Nevertheless, Barack Obama's campaign has done a lot to make the United States the "one country" he says it is.

And that's a great thing.