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Paul Beatty: How Obama is like Jackie Robinson, (early) Al Pacino, and the Fonz, or: Why Geraldine Ferraro is so wrong.

[Paul Beatty is a novelist and poet. His books include The White Boy Shuffle and Tuff.]

... Obama's star power is partly a testament to the miasma of incompetency rising from the nation's capitol. In some respects Obama is to Bush and post-9/11 America as Adenauer was to Hitler and post-war Germany, and Tony Dungy was to Sam Wyche and the hapless '95 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He's change. He's new. He's completely unidentifiable with the blunders, war crimes, and bad play-calling of the previous administration. It was no accident Adenauer was a Nazi dissident, and it's no accident Obama and Dungy are African-American. In white male bastions that aren't subject to affirmative action bylaws--such as head football coach, late night talk show host, and President of the United States--blacks, women, and other marginalized folks often are considered for the job only when things seemingly can't get any worse.

Yes, I know that after his resounding victory in the Iowa caucus, pundits decided that Barack's win proved that race was of political inconsequence, but I bet that they thought the same thing the day after O.J. Simpson was arrested. You mean to tell me that if Gore had won the 2000 election and Iraq had never been invaded, that Barack would be the Democratic frontrunner? What would have been his campaign slogan? Sameness in '08! Status Quo--Vote for the Bro!

Just the other day Geraldine Ferraro was quoted as saying, "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position, and if he was a woman [of any color] he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

Never mind the fact that I agree with the folks at Bossip.com, that if Obama were white, the Democratic nomination would be over--and that if Hillary were black, she'd be Star Jones, and that if she were a black male, she'd be mayor of Detroit--it's obvious that Obama's candidacy isn't solely a matter of timing. His political narrative is not the fictional happenstance that placed Douglass Dilman into the Oval Office in Irving Wallace's The Man and cast Chris Rock into the Blockbuster bargain bin in Head of State. Barack has more going for him than good timing, the proper complexion, and the appearance of marital fidelity. He's got cool, and cool is the ultimate transcendent.

It's a jazz man equipoise that has served him well. When the Clintons accused Obama of being a proponent of Ronald Reagan's ideas and of falsifying his anti-war stance, it was his coolness under fire that allowed his being quoted out of context to become an opportunity for him to recontextualize his ideology and leadership style. It's a cool that permits him to laugh off the slight of a debate moderator asking about Bill Clinton's being the first black president.

"I would have to investigate more Bill's dancing abilities ... before I accurately judge whether he was in fact a brother," Obama responded....
Read entire article at New Republic