Not so much a prophecy

One of the newer, though not so new, stories floating around Barack Obama's campaign stems from the somewhat ridiculous backhanded compliment given to him by David Erhenstein from The Los Angeles Times who labels him 'The Magic Negro" in a recent column. The crux of theory being that Obama is an African-American candidate who is some prophetic figure with the ability to unite the races largely by being non-threatening to whites, and that it's his race which is driving the attraction from many white middle-class folks.

While I don't dispute the fact that race may play in a role in the decision-making of some, I'm more inclined to agree with Matthew Yglesias who argues a variety of other factors, namely Obama's opposition to the War in Iraq, have fueled this surge of interest in his candidacy.

I'd also suggest that Obama's presentation of a faith which embraces rather than shuns progressive politics is very appealing to numerous folks. My uncle and my father, both good moderate Republicans who embraced President Bush in 2000 because of 'compassionate conservatism' but feel somewhat used by the GOP leadership, are quite high on Obama based in large part because of this.