
I’ll not likely be around to vote for the second African American President, or the first Hispanic American president, or Asian American president, but when elected, he or she will owe a lot to Barack Obama.
Obama was expected to make regressives gnash their teeth. They are. He was expected to become a target for all closet racists. He is.
But he was not expected to frustrate blacks because he didn’t have a specifically black agenda, or liberals because he didn’t make enough noises about their pet projects.
Instead he’s been a stalwart steady captain, brilliant at international affairs, a leader with a clear sense of direction instead of a weather vane pointing wherever vox populi winds blow. He sets a high bar for all future presidents, and banishes fears that a future African American, or Hispanic American, or Asian American, or Jewish American, or Muslin American, or Martian American would ipso facto not be up to the job.
Besides all that, he’s given us Michele, and Malia, and Sasha, and Bo. How lucky can we get?