An Honest Question--Is the US Willing to Accept a Black President?

Is Obama making a courageous test of the moral fiber of the country by running, or is he pig-headedly ignoring the "fact" that a Black person is still not electable for the nation's highest office? Can he bring the Democratic Party to Victory or is he ensuring its defeat. This is the provocative question posed by Eugene Robinson's commentary Disappointment Doesn’t Have to Be Normal.

IMO the choice would indeed seem different if Obama were not such a middle-of-the road candidate.Following excertps from Robinson's post, I have provided a link to an interview John Lewis on the history of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King's vision which he shares.

Is it foolish to think that a nation stained by centuries of slavery and racism is prepared to elect a black president? Rarely phrased so bluntly, that’s the central question posed by Barack Obama’s candidacy—especially for many African-American voters, whose doubts are informed by having seen many an oasis turn out to be a mirage.

Oprah Winfrey, as is her wont, cut to the heart of the matter. Campaigning on Obama’s behalf this weekend, she echoed the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in offering permission to believe.

“Dr. King dreamed the dream,” Winfrey told a predominately black crowd of 29,000 in Columbia, S.C. “But we don’t have to just dream the dream anymore. We get to vote that dream into reality.”

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I’d be lying if I didn’t acknowledge that the whole idea of America electing a black president still seems improbable to me. But no longer impossible.

Here is the link with what Rep. Lewis has to say, including his commitment not to vote for any bill that funds the war in Iraq.