“Unity is the great need of the hour”

Barack Obama looks through the prison bars of former South African President Nelson Mandela’s cell on Robben island in Cape Town, South Africa August 20, 2006. REUTERS/Howard Burditt

“If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King’s vision of a beloved community,” he [Barack Obama] said to applause.

Obama suggested he’s allowed divisions to creep into his campaign in recent days. “Last week, it crept into the campaign for president, with charges and countercharges that served to obscure the issues instead of illuminating the critical choices we face as a nation. None of our hands are clean,” he said.

Senator Barack Obama laid a wreath at the tomb of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King after speaking at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times)

Articles of note:

Sen. Obama’s Call for Unity are Not What They Seem by Dennis Prager (Question from Prager to Senator OBama: Why are your left-wing positions any less divisive than President Bush’s right-wing positions? And if you are so committed to uniting Americans, why did you vote against declaring English our national, i.e., our unifying, language? Without compelling answers, Sen. Obama’s calls for American unity are no more than calls to unite around his politics and him.” )

The Perils of Identity Politics by Christopher Hitchens (Best line: “People who think with their epidermis or their genitalia or their clan are the problem to begin with.”)

Money quote:

“What are we trying to “get over” here? We are trying to get over the hideous legacy of slavery and segregation. But Mr. Obama is not a part of this legacy. His father was a citizen of Kenya, an independent African country, and his mother was a “white” American. He is as distant from the real “plantation” as I am. How — unless one thinks obsessively about color while affecting not to do so — does this make him “black”?”

Actually, Hitchen’s entire piece is a money quote. Read it. And pass it around.

Voters Should Reject Identity Politics by Ken Connor

Blog posts of note:
Of Gender and Race at Pondering Penguin

“when you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I’m talking about.”

Race profiteer, and ‘04 Presidential hopeless, REVEREND (*snicker*) Al Sharpton, lent his credibility to her defense:

However, the host of the event where Clinton made her remarks Monday, activist Al Sharpton, disagreed with the criticism.

“I absolutely defend her saying it because I said it through the ‘04 elections,” he said.

Oh, well if Al Sharpton defended her racist statement, because he’s said similar racist statements in ‘04, then by God! We should give her a break.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) waves to voters supporters at a campaign stop at the Sioux City Arts Center in Sioux City, Iowa, January 1,2008. REUTERS/Brian Snyder