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The two baseball Robinson example is about as good as it gets. Jackie Robinson made baseball history in 1947 by breaking the color barrier. Actually, Wendell Walker beat him to it some 70 years earlier, but that's another story. White players, executives, fans and management all cooperated in making a difficult process a lot less difficult than it could have been.

Jackie repaid them not only by behaving like a gentleman, but by performing like the Hall of Fame player which he became. Nobody had to fire him.

Frank Robinson made baseball history by becoming the first black big league baseball manager. He certainly deserved it. He was also a gentleman and had a Hall of Fame playing career. But he really made baseball history when he got fired less than two years later because the Cleveland Indians ownership held him to the same standards as a white manger: The team wasn't performing and you can't fire the whole team.

Frank Robinson picked himself up and went on to manage four other teams at the major league level. So far as we can tell, not one of them hired him because of his color, but because of his skill.

Obama, on the other hand, never had a hall of fame career. He couldn't even win his first election to the minor leagues (Illinois state senate) without first disqualifying his opponent. He did the same in winning his U.S. Senate seat. He would have done the same thing in winning the presidency had he not gotten a congenial opponent who basically handed it to him. It is only natural that when you build your career by getting things handed to you rather than actually earning them, you'll be in for a major shock when the handouts stop. That's the lesson to be learned here.