Race must not overshadow politics

In the conservative paper The Daily Telegraph Toby Harnden asks if public opinion has turned against US President Barack Obama and his skin colour only ten months after his election: "The short answer is no. Mr Obama is becoming a much less popular figure than he was when he entered office, partly because of the usual laws of political gravity, but also because of the unrealistic expectations he encouraged ... . To dismiss race as a factor in either last November's election or current political debate would be foolish. It was, of course, ludicrous to expect that the US would become a post-racial country overnight. History - and racial tension - did not stop with the election of Mr Obama. … More seriously, Mr Obama is the leader of a Democratic party that is now coming dangerously close to proclaiming that any fervent opposition to him must spring from a racist impulse. ... The president ... is in danger, however, of allowing race to be the principal political weapon used by Democrats against Republicans."

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