Rainbow, indeed. He's mutli-racial, he's bi-racial, he's post-racial, he's retro-racial. He's the Black Power candidate and the Honolulu candidate. He's everywhere, he's nowhere, he's you, he's me, he's the change that he and we have been seeking. Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

            Shantih shantih shantih

Yes, and don't overlook another point of Obama's amazing upbringing -   his early teen years, in a small town in Galilee where he learned carpentry, wine making, and  excelled in aquatic sports, such as water polo and walking.  For futher elaboration on Palestine and its imjpact on Obama's ideas about money changers, prostitutes, and the unclean, see St. Matthew's beautiful essays describing the background he and Obama shared in Nazareth.

Can TNR gush any more?  Hillary the Shrew.  Obama the Adamic  Hang Ten Aloha Kenyan Kansan  Indonesian Rainbow Warrior.

ha, nice one, dubya.

TNR - you guys are getting closer and closer to self-parody status.

Time for someone to force his or her way into CW's TNR archives and retrieve that TNR file showing Obama on the cover of Tiger Beat.

tep - the March 12 issue of TNR rivaled Tiger Beat:   "Why You Love Him"  "Meet His People"

Actually, tep, this particular theory of Obama makes a lot of sense. Why does Obama not bug the hell out of most non-Baby Boomers, even though he is, demographically, a member of the Baby Boom? Largely because he did not live on the Mainland during the height of the Boomer youth rebellion (and the larger early Boomer conservative backlash of the same years). Thanks to this quirk of geography, the culture of Obama's youth was much closer to the culture of the post-Boomer 1970s and the 1980s in the rest of America than to the 1960s and early 1970s on the Mainland. Facile as my summation is here, this line of analysis actually stands up pretty well when you get into it.

Thanks to his Hawaiian upbringing, culturally Obama would be our first post-Boomer president. Which right there on its own ought to be reason enough to prefer him to the exceedingly Boomeri Hillary.

I'm so sick of hypocrites (David Brooks today) expecting Hillary to step aside well before the race is over, and blaming her for "narcissistically" tearing apart the party. Is this what we say to No. 2 seeded hoops teams? Or to silver-medal hopefuls in the Olympics? I know. Let's just crown the AP poll leader before the BCS championship, shall we? You know, if Obama stepped aside, the party ALSO could be unified immediately.  His perseverance in a race that neither he nor Hillary can win outright is just as much a case of political narcissism. The Democratic Party is divided. That's what this primary season is all about. Putting a band aid over this division is the kind of political manipulation voters in the free world don't appreciate. We need to run out the clock and see who is ahead at the finish line. And if that democratic process works to McCain's advantage, so be it.

Which Obama am I getting when I vote for him-- Hawaiian Obama or Southside Chi-town Obama?

tep - Both versions of Obama.  Also, TNR has Chris Orr (and the anti-Marty) to balance out their love of Obama.

"Which Obama am I getting when I vote for him-- Hawaiian Obama or Southside Chi-town Obama?"

Stop asking stupid questions and missing the point.  I mean, this is Obama we're talking about here!

shantih. shantih. and again shantih

tep - it's the Mystery of the Trinity.  Three Persons - Hawaiin, Indonisian, and Chicago in One Obama.