- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
Wow. Two completely superfluous "news" articles about Obama on the same day: Dudes and Black Dudes! What gives?
Note to Gary: as a longtime Obama supporter (not a newbie), Obama's race was certainly not a factor in my support, but his race does inform his story and provides him - and the rest of us - a welcome opportunity to enjoy an American tale that does not involve prep schools, great wealth, longstanding Washington connections, and every other advantage bestowed to the privileged. His tough beginnings are the center of his concepts of hope, and I believe that many of his supporters who have also relied on hope to achieve against the odds very readily identify with him.
What many of his detractors don't realize (maybe because they've never had to rely on it) is that hope is action. He has worked against improbable odds to rise up through a system that has never before rewarded someone with quite the same tale with nothing more than a good mind, a lot of motivation and focus, and a surfeit of hope.
More power to him.
