The same obama who referred to his own grandmother as a "typical white person" to the sounds of crickets in the media.
The problem was not that Lott wished Strom Thurmond a happy birthday. The problem was that he also said that if we had elected ST back when he was running as a pro segregation Dixiecrat we would not have had all the racial problems that we had subsequently.
Not only was his logic probably wrong, but to put a positive spin on segregationism in this time period was the height of stupidity, unless he wanted to become a target for every black, liberal, and non/anti segregationist in the country. At any rate he succeeded.
On the subject of racial problems, it is quite amazing to see that murder statistics in major cities have dropped over 10%, and in some areas in and near Washington, DC dropped from 25% to 35%. Hope that trend continues.