While I certainly agree with Forum Editor Matthew Von Pinnon (column, Feb. 10) on the issue of having primaries to get more people involved in politics, especially for the many of us who consider ourselves independent, I still cannot understand how he, like many others, constantly refer to Sen. Barack Obama as a "black man" contending for the White House. Everybody, including Obama, seems to conveniently ignore the fact that he (Obama) has a white mother.
When the news media proudly announces, "And Sen. Obama received a large majority of white votes in a predominantly white state" (see Iowa, New Hampshire, etc.). Gee, did you ever think that some of these people were voting for his "white half"?
This is a good example of how race, or at least our old presumptions on race, really muddy a political campaign. I'm not a fan of either Hillary Clinton or Obama, but we really do need to get by this gender thing and hyphenated thing and start looking at any presidential candidates as simply "an American candidate."
