Leslie, you chose the one subject that defies polling and surveys — either racism or perceived racism in America. As a retired journalist and newspaper editor who fought racism, I learned that no one practicing it ever admitted it; the pretext is the thing. It lies beneath the surface. A feeling, like that described by you, that racism may be perceived where it is not intended is of the same color and hue. If you were slighted, insulted, not served, you wouldn’t think, as a fair blonde, it was racism, unless, of course, your were black. Right? Then it is impossible, intellectually, to know for certain. It is what the African-American feels has happened. The one thing about Barack Obama is that he appears at times to transcend race. Of course, the question: Is that transcendence from his white side or his black side?

It is to be hoped that my comment about the “white side or black side” will be seen for what it is: sarcasm!

I am supporting Obama & continue to do so. While he didn’t win my State’s primary (NJ), he still managed to get 48 (of 107 available) delegates by getting 44% of the vote. I first saw & heard Sen. Obama when he gave his speech at the Democratic Convention. Before he finished I made the comment to my partner that “I would love him to run for president”. I shudder at the idea he lacks experience. George W. Bush was only the governor of Texas before being elected to the Presidency. And the Gov. of Texas has less authority than virtually any Governor’s office in the US. Also, our founding fathers designed a new government & managed to preside over it quite well (some better than others), so I believe a deep respect for the US Constitution, love of the US & surrounding yourself with a good Cabinet & advisors are far more important than how many years you have in governing experience. I like Hillary very much & will vote for her if she is the nominee, but I fell the country is longing for something & someone different & to me, that is Sen. Obama.

As I read the preceding comments it seems as if half of you are riled up about your political concerns. I think most of us are and it’s a good thing. This post was talking about the affect that subtle racism will have on the presidential race. We all have prejudice of one form or another coming from our own personal experience and that informs our perceptions and anticipations of people and events in the future. When we actually experience in the present our immediate understanding is informed. If we twist experience to conform to preset developed biases then we are getting into the development of racism, sexism or the latest form of social/ institutional bias. Unfortunately with a presidential election we’re stuck with what we got before we really know what we are getting. I am encouraged by the talk of subtle racism as it may help to demystify prejudice itself. People are talking about it even if they can’t agree as to it’s actual presence or reality. I mean come on guys, you certainly can remember when they didn’t advertise tampons on TV and Dr. Ruth was laying them out in the aisles with the word penis. The first step will be won when people can openly talk about this without stuttering.

This evening I watched the Charlie Rose program and discovered the wowowow website. Wonderful! I was still excited even after hearing that the first opinion question as to the women who should be on Mount Rushmore included Senator Clinton. Unbelievable! In any event, I have decided to participate and hope the website has readers and particpants not only of the Democratic party line. As for Senator Obama who has wowed many Americans including me, at first, I think racism will have little to do with the fact if he is not nominiated or elected. He is not a descendant of the North American slave culture and, as a result, does not have that deep, ingrained experience that the American black person has in their very soul…something we white Americans do not understand and will never understand. White America will vote for a black person or not primarily because of what that person believes. If he believes he is a victim, he cannot be elected. If he believes he is “entitled”, he cannot be elected. Senator Obama expresses neither of those beliefs and I truly think he sees the world different than many Americans and if he sees a black and white world it is a view slightly different view than that seen by most black, white and any other color Americans. If not elected President in 2008, he might possibly win in 2012 if he is able to garner the Democratic nomination which will be very difficult…..you don’t get a second chance in the Democratic Party; otherwise Al Gore would be, and probably should be the 2008 candidate. Senator Obama is likely to lose simply because of his lack of experience. He truly is not yet ready to be President of the United States of America. I personally hope he gets a second chance. Lastly, I think if Senator Obama changed placed with Ms. Stahl at that Denny’s restaurant, he would not have noticed any offense either.

This campaign has been transformational for me. If anyone could have ever told me that I would not be supporting Senator Clinton, I would have never believed it. I loved the Clintons. I defended them, volunteered for their campaigns from the early days in 1991. Made phone calls. Canvassed. I was so thrilled when Hillary won her senate seat in 2000, and her overwhelming re-election. I never saw Obama as viable. I was so angry at congressional Democrats for their blatant weakness in the face of what I believed to be the worst administration and president in our lifetime that I just wanted Hillary, the first viable woman who could become president to go in and clean house. And then, I actually went to Senator Obama’s site. I started to watch him, and listen to him. Read his speeches, and work. In the beginning they said he wasn’t black enough. That was hysterically funny to me because my family heritage is not far off of that of Senator Obama’s family. I knew that regardless of how he related to his own ethnicity in his life, this country would only think of him as an African American or black man. Even though his mother was white. We are a superficial and strident society when it comes to labels. I fought hard not to believe that he would be viable. At first it was because I was afraid for him and his family. Later, even though I still feel some fear, it has become what most people of color know. It is the subtle and not so subtle forms of racism. We had just gone through all of the incidents of nooses hanging from trees and trucks and doorknobs at Columbia University. Then Iowa caucused. It blew me away. After New Hampshire, I thought it was a fluke, and became skeptical again. Then the ‘nastiness’ started. Not just with Bill Clinton’s remarks, but with white girlfriends who had always been so liberal and progressive. They were outraged when Harold Ford lost Tennessee after that racist ad campaign with the white woman calling Ford and seeming to be half naked. There were undertones of “Why did he half to run now. It’s our turn.” I even had a little confrontation with a friend who told me that I was voting for Obama because he was black. When I asked her how that explained all of the white candidates that I had voted for over the years, she changed the subject and started to riff on his middle name and how that would never fly. There was that moment on 60 Minutes where Senator Clinton left open the possibility that Senator Obama could be a Muslim. That was too cute by half. Finally, the nail, and glue that sealed the coffin was the Reverend Wright story. When that blew up, as a woman of color, I was offended, but I was particularly upset with my white Catholic friends and family members (yes, I am married to a white guy) when they couldn’t remember all of the trouble our own church had been in with the pedophile scandal. We all could have walked away from our church as well. The overwhelming majority of us did not. Will not. We also don’t know history. The reason why many people in the black community would believe some of the most controversial words are because certain aspects of history have been as embedded into the black mind as has many of the stories handed down through generations in many white families. We remember the Tuskegee syphilis horror. The real reason for the Ohio and Pennsylvania ‘blue collar-working class’ votes are all about race. Just as the terms “strict constructionist” and “far right” means non-whites need not apply, “blue collar” and “working class” have meaning. It deeply saddens me that Senator Clinton, her campaign and the former president have jumped in to this mud. They lived the “southern strategy.” Neither of them could have won any of their elections without the so called ‘black’ vote. And my white sisters discount the fact that women of color are women too! Who are they really talking about when they say the ‘female” vote? It’s almost as if we are a sub-category of a sub-category. I can’t believe that we fought for equality as women because we wanted an equal playing field for our daughters and young women to be able to thrive and achieve! Women of color were a part of that struggle as well. Now it seems as though we were just convenient allies. For these women to now turn around and say cheap and petty things in order to win this election like: “I am just going to have to vote for Senator McCain if Hillary isn’t the nominee,” speaks volumes. Just as Leslie couldn’t see the subtle racism at Denny’s, I don’t think most of Hillary’s older white female voters can see that. Why would you even say something like that? Does the Supreme Court mean nothing to you? Sorry to say this, but when white women express those feelings, it tells me that they either don’t understand that dynamic, or they realize all too well that they are on a higher rung of the food chain and while they might feel some of the blow-back from a McCain victory, women of color and poor people of color would suffer even more. Another 4-8 years of right wing policies might not kill the soccer moms, but it would be catastrophic for women of color! Finally…I know the Constitution has been treated like toilet tissue in the past 8 years, but the last time I checked, the criteria for becoming president is 35 years of age and being a natural born citizen of the United States. That’s it. It doesn’t mention caveats such as during war time and under foreign attack, you must elect people with military experience. Years in the senate or congress. If that were the case, most women would have a hard time becoming president. The president is the Commander and Chief of the military. Not of us. So the entire glorification of war credentials is amazing to me. For women to buy into that Mark Penn “ready on day one” narrative after all of the blood that has been shed is stunning. Hillary or Barack should be qualified because they have passed the constitutional test, and because they are both smart and accomplished in what they have done with their lives. Both of them. Is Obama perfect? Absolutely not. What he is to me is a chance for us to finally turn the page from all of the drama and bitterness that the Reagan, Bush and Clinton years have brought. I haven’t seen so much excitement from young people since…well, since the first Bill Clinton campaign. Even that campaign didn’t capture the imagination like Obama’s has. Obama’s campaign is the confluence of timing, technology and global awareness. To dismiss that because he is a bi-racial man is ridiculous. Yes, he is bi-racial. The media loves that African American label because the race story keeps the sub groups alive. I don’t want to shy away from the subject of race because it is long overdue. Our children have taken the ball and run with it. They couldn’t wait for us any longer because they have grown up in a global community. They file share music from artists of all genres. They hang out together. And those that don’t would, if they hadn’t been sequestered in polarizing communities that we forced them into either by white-flight or poverty. Surprisingly, Obama supporters would more readily vote for Hillary because we know how large the stakes are. We are tired of divisions. I am just so sorry, and frankly ashamed that my sisters in the struggle who support Hillary seemed to have hitched their deeply personal dreams of a first woman in the Whitehouse on Hillary. That’s all they see. It hurts to think that for all of the things people of color have contributed to this country, we are still only good for “Driving Miss Daisy” in the eyes of some. Working for, but not leading this nation. Even though we have historically been the most forgiving people in this nation in so many ways, and continue to be. That’s the gamble Hillary is willing to take on in a delegate fight. She and Bill know how forgiving black people have been. The Democrats have taken the black vote for granted, and they know it. I hope they aren’t betting it all on black this time, because if she gets the nomination, I fear that this time, that gamble won’t pay off. I had to wake up to why she is the wrong choice at this time; I hope that other Democrats will as well. Can Obama win? If we don’t ease the reigns of our own deep seeded fears, last chance dreams, and prejudice, No he can’t.

Not enough has been done to decriminalize the politicized word “liberal” since the bushwhackers comandeered it rendering it a vulgar epithet for the sub-moronic talk radio nazi’s like Rush Limbaugh. It will be shameful if Barack isn’t elected in a landslide (come on, Hillary, douse your ego and join him - it’s not about men vs. women, it’s about intelligence and integrity at the top) and if any part of that has to do with broadstroke verbal images including “effete,” “liberal,” or bowling. Can’t we all just grow up?

For conversation sake, let’s keep soley to the topic of the possiblity of our country being willing to elect an African American for president. Of course you must consider a persons character, past experience,decisions and position on current issues, when making your final decision.But for this conversation let’s stay focused on ,’can Obama prove everyone wrong’? For those who say there is not an issue being black in this country and that race is a dead issue, is lying to those around them and themselves. Everytime I am around family or friends who may think this way I ask them a very simple question, “If you had a choice to either be a white male or black male living in this country, which would you choose?” That normally makes them pause for thought. So, hopefully we have reached a moment in time where our country judges the man for what he does and not what he looks like. Agreeing that Obama may prove everyone wrong, now ask the question, “Would you rather be a black man or a woman” and you will see how far our country has not evolved. Both men and some women, are still more comfortable having a man, any man, in power than a woman. So, who has the tougher mountain to climb? Remember, leave your personal opinions about the individuals aside for a moment…Who still has the tougher path to take?

Two words - Ron Paul. He’s the only one that doesn’t give me the heebie-jeebies. In my opinion, everyone else in the race slithers in one way or anotherl.

My interjection of thoughts-to-be-considered is to ask readers to view the videos on http://runcynthiarun.org … first, in “Candidate Announcement,” a seven-minute video, she succinctly explains the values of the Green Party which attracted her to leave the Democrats. The third video, “American Blackout,” is a two-hour streaming movie of historical importance as she highlights politics in the U.S.A. from early years through the “Civil Rights Era” and finally giving an insider’s view of the behind-the-scenes manipulations within the Democratic Party that marginalized her in spite of her grassroots popularity. Some students of modern politics following this thread may be unfamiliar with this viewpoint, a window on our times as 21st-Century ideas replace the stale polarities of the 20th-Century labels. Many more will see a fresh truth challenging us to new aspirations on her website and with the Green Party of the United States.