Obama jumps into frying pans

Barack Obama must be stark, raving mad. First he talks about race to U.S. voters as if they were adults. Now he has grabbed the third rail and is talking with them about the injuries of being on the wrong end of class as if they were adults. This is not allowed



Clearly this guy learned some things in his stint as an organizer in Chicago. Notice, he doesn't promise his working class audience that he is going to fix it. He's irritating that way. One of the things he probably learned is the limits of an inspirational figure to effect real change. There's a lot in Dreams From My Father about the limitations of Harold Washington's mayoral rule in Chicago. He doesn't want to be caught in the bind of being unable to deliver.

Yesterday a friend sent me an Obama interview from the Advocate. The reporter pushes him to promise repeal of DOMA, the federal law that outlaws gay marriage. He won't promise that:

Do you think it's possible to get full repeal of DOMA?...

I don't know. But my commitment is to try to make sure that we are moving in the direction of full equality, and I think the federal government historically has led on civil rights -- I'd like to see us lead here too.

He's treating LGBT people as political adults who should understand the current limits of the possible -- and work to expand those limits. Can we deal?

Time will tell. Whatever Obama is, he's not boring.

***And whoever the advance person was who set up Obama's Indiana talk in the YouTube here, s/he did a great job of getting the right people behind the candidate.