Obama and Race

Yesterday, NPR's Scott Simon accused Barack Obama of playing the race card. Obama had warned in a speech that his opposition would make an issue of his race. "Foul!" cried Simon, "McCain hasn't said a single thing about Obama's blackness!" But an article in the NYT about the multi-million dollar swift-boating of John Kerry makes it clear that the candidate, himself, never needs to do that kind of dirty work. There are always people like T. Boone Pickens ready to do it for him.

I, for one, am relieved to see Barack Obama taking an aggressive approach to defining and defending himself before the Republicans do.