Barack Obama has taken a shameful turn

Senator Barack Obama's campaign was based on the fact that we need a new politics, that he was the candidate that would unify America and that he was not the black candidate but rather a candidate who happened to be black.

His refusal to impute racial prejudice to his opponents was one of his strongest selling points, signalling that he would not play the weak game of victimization and resentment that has so long defined Jesse Jackson and his ilk. He would be different, the post-racial candidate.

But yesterday he contradicted that central premise; he suggested, not once but three times, that his opponents would try to scare voters because he was black. He said "they" after talking about John McCain and did not specify who "they" was, thereby indicting Republicans in general.

Senator Obama used to be defined by his optimism and hopefulness about America and the future. It is hard to picture that candidate when looking at the Senator today. He has become increasingly grim, angry, resentful, and petty. It is beneath a candidate running for president of the United States to play the race card and it is doubly so for a candidate who made being post-racial such a central tenet of his campaign. His tone used to be that the Republican Party wasn't his opponent, but rather that cynicism was.

How far we are from that time. There is nothing more angry, nothing more cynical, than to suggest that Republicans in general would try to scare voters because Obama is black. That is simply victimization and it is, as John McCain's campaign said, shameful. If Senator Obama meant that fringe groups would try to play the race card, he could have said so and no one would dispute that. He did not. He said "they" about John McCain and did not specify.

Senator Obama risks the idea that beneath the placid and polite politician lies an angry and resentful man. This contradicts everything most Americans now think about Senator Obama. This is simply an inexplicable turn for him, and it is hard to see how he could explain his statements yesterday. Though I oppose Senator Obama, when he was campaigning in January and February he truly was the hopeful and optimistic candidate. It is sad to see him devolve from that to an increasingly dour and resentful man. Every week he does more damage to his campaign and while that is good for us, it is certainly sad to see. He seems to have completely lost all perspective, and control of his ego.

I believe that Senator Obama will lose. Perhaps by then he will have regained some semblance of dignity and honor, both of which he has abandoned to a very large degree in his quest to be the most powerful man on earth. What good does it do a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul.