Unfortunately, it's still difficult for some people to understand how a person, particularly a white person, could support a black person for president.
The simple history of the movement to draft Obama puts to rest these concocted theories rather quickly. Barack has a natural appeal to young people who played a very key role in his decision to run. He's young himself, idealistic in many ways and reminds many people of all ages of John F. Kennedy. He has very similar charismatic appeal.
Another important segment that drove the draft Obama movement were the opponents of the Iraq War. Do a great extent this group overlapped with Barack's young supporters, many of whom have friends or family in Iraq.
Barack has anti-war creds going back to 2002.
The whole idea that Barack's support despite his supposed lack of experience backs up the "white guilt" theory goes against historical analysis.
The last two presidents were elected without any Washington experience at all.
George W. Bush served only one term as governor of Texas before his election as president. In comparison, Barack will have had 12 years in high elective office, two terms in the Illinois State Senate and one in the U.S. Senate, if elected.
Barack is a superb writer and speaker and this no doubt has drawn many into his circle. He has natural appeal to people of all races.
This appeal has been demonstrated recently by his growing support among African Americans, who certainly don't suffer from white guilt. Some polls show him leading Hillary Clinton among this population group drastically reversing Clinton's previous "slam-dunk" backing among blacks.
Many commentators have noted that Barack has a particularly set of skills and experience that are particularly relevant to our time. His international background, multi-cultural upbringing in Hawai'i, and his intimate understanding of Muslim culture are among the unique qualities he brings to the table.
His appeal to progressives is also natural given his background as a street-level community organizer.
We live in a polarized world where the old clash between Muslim and Christian has been revived. Barack effectively straddles those two conflicting worlds. We live in a country that is increasingly biracial or in some cases as in Hawai'i, multiracial. And the environment is becoming more multicultural all the time.
Who can deny Barack's multicultural appeal?
There is something compelling about Obama's life-story. It's not Horatio Algier. He did not grow up dirt poor or pull himself up out of the gutter.
But his youth straddled the globe. He dealt with questions at a young age that are highly relevant to the situation America finds itself in today. He was raised by parents of both Muslim and Christian background, though non-religious. His search for identity that led him from the beaches of Hawai'i to the streets of Chicago is fascinating and attracts people toward him.
Now we should note that there is also this confusion about Barack as a "Safe Negro."
Of course, no one votes for anybody just because they are "safe" so we have to see this aspect in conjunction with the ideas of "white guilt" and the "Magic Negro."
Barack is not the confrontational, fiery black reverend type made familiar by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. However, that's the only way we can really consider him "safe."
Opposed to this view is the picture of Barack Hussein Obama (rhymes with Osama), the supposed "hidden Muslim" ready to turn America into a Talibanic state upon taking office. Or the Barack Obama who attends an "Afrocentric" church. The Barack Obama who joined anti-war protests went it was not a popular thing for Democrats to do.
However, all the efforts to paint Obama as an "unsafe" candidate have had little effect on his ratings. Some thought when the senator stood up in the Imus controversy it would hurt his support because he was stirring up the racial pot. But they were wrong. There is little evidence to support the suggestion that Barack cannot talk about race, or overtly oppose racism.
Barack does not have a confrontational style, indeed his style is considered unusual for Democrats in general. But again, his unique approach of looking at the problem from all angles is something that separates Barack from the pack.
When we take off the race-tinted glasses, we find that there are many, many reasons to support Barack Obama as a person as a candidate regardless of race.
I think the real question that is perplexing the "Old Guard" is why even with these qualities are people supporting him in spite of his race. In the old way of thinking, race should be the primary, overriding factor, and old-way thinkers can't quite figure out what's going on.
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