Free Republic

-- snip --It goes like this. Because Obama transcends race, it is therefore assumed that he will transcend everything else -- divisions of region, class, party, generation and ideology. The premise here is true -- Obama does transcend race; he has not run as a candidate of minority grievance; his vision of America is unmistakably post-racial -- but the conclusion does not necessarily follow...

Barack Obama’s emphatic win in Iowa 10 days ago was widely portrayed as a historic moment in America’s political story. The fact that a black American could win in the overwhelmingly white state of Iowa was seen as a tipping point. But that may prove to be a premature – as well as historically glib – judgment of what took place. First, it has happened before. Jesse Jackson, who was a much more overtly African-American candidate in 1988 than Mr Obama is now, won 11 primary elections in his ultimately losing bid for the Democratic nomination, including the largely white...

STERLING, Va., Feb. 8, 2007 – Marissa Strock and Jake Kessler sat in adjacent wheelchairs while prosthetic specialists attached carbon-fiber feet to their titanium legs. Army Staff Sgt. Jake Kessler ties a figure-8 knot into his harness rope as he prepares to climb a 50-foot rock with the heels of his prosthetic feet Feb. 2 at Sport Rock Indoor Climbing Center in Sterling, Va. Photo by William D. Moss  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Strock, a 21-year-old Army private first class, and Kessler, a 36-year-old Army staff sergeant, are double-leg-amputee Iraq war veterans who forged a friendship at...