Posted by Jed Lewison on Wed Nov 5, 2008 at 6:41 PM Pacific

The Content Of Their Character

The magnitude of the history America made by electing Barack Obama as our next president far outweighs the words one can use to describe it, or at least the words I am capable of writing.

Without doubt, Barack Obama's race makes his election one of the most profound chapters in our nation's history. But Obama was not elected because of his race; he was elected because he understood the change America needs better than any of his rivals, and that goes beyond race or ethnicity.

The thing that set him apart at the start of the campaign was the content of his character. It was his opposition to the war in Iraq. It was his temperament. It was what he proposed to do as President.

You hear a lot of talk about the pride African-Americans take in his election, and there's nothing wrong with that. But sometimes that talk morphs into the suggestion that blacks only supported Obama because of his race, and that is just absurd.

Cohen and Obama

Let us remember when this election is in the history books that it wasn't just that majorities of white voters in states like Iowa and Wisconsin and Oregon supported Barack Obama for President, but it was also black voters in Tennessee who overwhelmingly stood up for Stephen Cohen, a white Jewish congressman who was challenged by Nikki Tinker, a black woman who ran a Jew-baiting primary campaign against him.

Tinker thought that black voters wouldn't support a white Jewish candidate, but they did. She ended up winning only 19% of the vote.

The elections of Barack Obama and Stephen Cohen (who supported each other in their primaries) may not mean that we have overcome. But they do show that we can. And eventually we will.

The Content Of Their Character

The magnitude of the history America made by electing Barack Obama as our next president far outweighs the words one can use to describe it, or at least the words I am capable of writing.

Without doubt, Barack Obama's race makes his election one of the most profound chapters in our nation's history. But Obama was not elected because of his race; he was elected because he understood the change America needs better than any of his rivals, and that goes beyond race or ethnicity.

The thing that set him apart at the start of the campaign was the content of his character. It was his opposition to the war in Iraq. It was his temperament. It was what he proposed to do as President.

You hear a lot of talk about the pride African-Americans take in his election, and there's nothing wrong with that. But sometimes that talk morphs into the suggestion that blacks only supported Obama because of his race, and that is just absurd.

Cohen and Obama

Let us remember when this election is in the history books that it wasn't just that majorities of white voters in states like Iowa and Wisconsin and Oregon supported Barack Obama for President, but it was also black voters in Tennessee who overwhelmingly stood up for Stephen Cohen, a white Jewish congressman who was challenged by Nikki Tinker, a black woman who ran a Jew-baiting primary campaign against him.

Tinker thought that black voters wouldn't support a white Jewish candidate, but they did. She ended up winning only 19% of the vote.

The elections of Barack Obama and Stephen Cohen (who supported each other in their primaries) may not mean that we have overcome. But they do show that we can. And eventually we will.