Dana, Adam, and Brentin discuss race, gender, and the election:
Goldstein: Adam, you mentioned biraciality earlier. Indeed, until Obama joked about being "a mutt" at his first press conference, that element of his identity had been pretty much invisible as his victory was celebrated. In his concession speech, John McCain framed Obama's win as meaningful mostly for African Americans. What's next for our understanding or public discussion of biraciality?
Serwer: Obama made a conscious choice many biracial people make, to identify as black, and he made it a long time ago. So he comes from a particular cultural context. But the fact is that his biraciality existed during the campaign essentially as a way to comfort white voters who might otherwise be wary of him. Cerebrally, however, I think Obama being biracial gave him an insight into how white fears work and how to circumvent them.
Obama is our first black president. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I can remember being drawn to him initially precisely because back in 2004, he was walking that line in a way he simply couldn't during the election.
Paul Waldman says goodbye to all that:
Since last week, I have stopped short and shaken my head in amazement every time I have heard the words "President-elect Obama." But it is equally extraordinary to consider that in just a few weeks, George W. Bush will no longer be our president. Let me repeat that: In just a few weeks, George W. Bush will no longer be our president. So though our long national ordeal isn't quite over, it's never too early to say goodbye.
Goodbye, we can say at last, to the most powerful man in the world being such a ridiculous buffoon, incapable of stringing together two coherent sentences. Goodbye to cringing with dread every time our president steps onto the world stage, sure he'll say or do something to embarrass us all. Goodbye to being represented by a man who embodies everything our enemies want the people of the world to believe about America -- that we are ignorant, cruel, and only care about foreign countries when we decide to stomp on them. Goodbye to his giggle, and his shoulder shake, and his nicknames. Goodbye to a president who talks to us like we're a nation of fourth-graders.
And Robert Kuttner explores how John McCain may be Obama's greatest ally:
President Obama has long spoken of the need to bridge partisan divides. I will bet that in this national economic emergency, one of his chief Republican Senate partners will be John McCain.
In McCain's gracious and genuinely moving concession speech, we finally got a glimpse of the leader that McCain has been at periods throughout his career: a man who indeed often broke with his own party when he felt it was the right thing to do; a man of decency who often reached across the aisle and counted many senate Democrats like Joe Biden as his friends; and a man who could have won the election had he run that sort of campaign.
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--The Editors
