in that his most signature qualities- poise, decency, refusal to stoop to nastiness- seem not to rub off on a large segment of his fan base.

This is in response to exchanges such as these:

"You give valid reasons for blacks to vote for Obama beyond race, and there are many. But you still ignore the disproportionate percentage."

"I don't see why, theoretically, black people can't vote together without it being race based?"

race based? What is that?

As if we're talking about some shallow, cosmetic distinction ("skin color") that's behind black people's enthusiasm about the first ever serious black contender for president (you know, something you could throw "It shouldn't matter if you're black, white, purple or orange" at.) As if you could take out the awareness of collective disenfranchisement which stretches back through the families of real people, which children grow up with, which informs an individual's experience of the world around him/her. Obama's candidacy is an historic event for black people in an intimate way at the same time it's historic on a symbolic level for the country as a whole. You only have to think for a minute how the experience of an African-American schoolchild coming to age with a black president in the white house would be qualitatively different than with the history books being how they are as of this date. The characterization of "voting for race" is kind of trivial when the story is as deep as the black experience in America.

thanks for writing what's seemed so obvious to me that i'm seeing the aptness of the term "obamateurs" for some of these overzealous nuts here. (And I am an Obama supporter, voted for him in the senate and plan on doing so in the fall, so don't get your panties all in a bundle, kiddies.)

Most people understand the concept "race" or "contest" to go something like this:

Contenders vie.

Someone takes a lead, we can see it's our favorite, great! How exciting!

Then that someone crosses the finish line and the referee calls it.

Now he has won! We celebrate!

Typically a winner doesn't have to rely on the opponent quitting or stepping down to allow him to win.

Neither does Obama. Obama's not freaking out, whining that Hillary should quit, why should he- he has the lead. It's a fine position to be in.

It's true he's taking some hits, taxing his endurance as the race continues, but if you're annoyed that the race is going on for so long when it should have been called a long time ago, then direct your anger at the referee(s) (superdelegates).

How can you honestly believe it's the duty of the person running the race, behind though they may be, to quit before the winner is chosen? What else in life works that way?

the media which is acting like this is a horse race when the odds have been with Obama for quite a while.

I don't see the contradiction between the odds being in Obama's favor and this being a race. he's in the lead, approaching the finish line, just like any winning horse near the end of a race. he's going to cross it any minute now. even if the other horse is way too far behind to have any chance of catching up, that doesn't negate that this IS a race which is just not quite finished yet.

also I think your poem showed serious talent. you should be a nashville songwriter with skills like this!

Sorry should have made myself more clear. I specifically meant the attitude the media has been following of "Who is going to win? We don't know! It could be anybody! Its a real nailbiter! The next primary COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING!" When the situation as it is now, has been the situation for quite some time.

I'm pretty sure the situation was not felt by most media pundits to be quite "the same as it is now" following the Pennsylvania primary. That was a case of the behind horse pulling ahead for a little bit. Immediately after these two most recent contests, most headlines called the nomination for Obama. I wish the superdelegates would do the same soon because the loony Obama fans are raising suspicion that they actually represent Obama with their hateful bile and causing the considerable number of voting democrats who back the loser to feel unable to support him in the fall. I see this everywhere online, the idea that Obama puts on an act that he's above the fighting and nastiness of politics while he has all these surrogates calling his opponent a racist, witch, monster, etc... These people therefore feel Obama is a hypocrite and a phony "clean fighter". I'm an Illinois resident so i have enough familliarity with him to know otherwise, but I really think these fans are doing some degree of harm to his image as a uniter.

caused her to lose the fight