To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (46945 ) 1/27/2008 9:32:17 AM From: epicure Respond to I think people are smart enough (I hope they are) to realize Obama is no Jesse Jackson, just as Hillary is no Strom Thurmond.say they will, but then they won't, and the democrats will lose." You can say all the mean things you want to about Hillary, I don't really care, but I do think she, and Bill, care about democratic politics. They aren't flaming liberals (like myself), but they like most of the same things I do. That's not an act. So if her campaign talks about race, it's on those terms, and not on the terms of some real racist like Strom. That's my thinking, anyway. I can understand why they think he's "like Jesse". But I hope he isn't. I hope America is ready to elect a black man (or a mixed race man, if you prefer), and I hope that man will be Obama. What a milestone that will be for us. Some folks say it won't be, but it will be. My students, even my Hispanic students, and especially my black students, feel this in a tremendously personal way- and why shouldn't they? 200+ years of white male presidents. Why shouldn't a person of color feel marginalized? As a woman I know I feel marginalized, but at least the presidents were married to people like me. The only people of color in the White House for a long time were the servants.
