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Has everyone on Salon's staff been in a coma? Was that a dumber question than the one above? Of course Obama can win in America. Can a black candidate win in the southern state where the US Civil War was launched? Hell yes! Even suddenly-crazy Bill Clinton, who had to have seen some advantage in saying so, has expressed a belief that Hillary won't win there -- and that Obama will. Is Obama blacker than Bill clinton? Is Bill the one running for President? Is this all crazy shit we should have dispensed with years ago?
People are not voting for a black candidate; they are voting for Barack Obama. Despite the very real and legitimate points Mr. Fielding raises, not just any black candidate could win this thing. It is the candidate at hand who will carry the day, not his color. (Jesse Jackson couldn't do it!). The fact that it will be a black man also will be historical, but will not be the reason he succeeds.
By the same token, the reason Hillary doesn't win won't be on account of her gender; it will be because she represents business as we have known it for ages and where all that stale, conventional thinking has led us. That and the fact that she has not reined in her hubby, who was once her greatest asset and now is her greatest liability.
The time has come, and somebody had to be The One. His name happened to be Barack Obama.
