The Obama's are a Beautiful Family
It would take an odd character not to have gotten warm fuzzies from seeing the Obama family after Michelle Obama's speech last night at the Democrat convention. That's what that moment was designed to do.

In another show of objectivity, Chris Matthews, host of "Wiffleball" on the Obama Network, aka MSNBC, called it an "unscripted moment". Sure doofus, they didn't have those microphones prepped for the kids. Anyway. The children are beautiful and intelligent, just what one would expect from parents with the Obama's educational background.

This is the kind of moment that America needs. Finally, America got to see something other than the knuckle-dragging, grunting, bump-n-grind flea pickers that are normally trotted out on MTV, BET or in inane movies and tv shows. Last night, many Americans, had their first exposure to normal black people. They got to see the kind of Black family that I grew up seeing. A bit wealthier for sure, but just people. Normal people. A father who is married to the mother of his children. Children who speak English just as they are supposed to speak it.

This has been my one temptation to supporting an Obama presidency. But race should never be a true deciding factor when it comes to putting someone into the most powerful political office in the world. I say the same thing to the white racists out there who just couldn't see themselves voting for a black man. If you agree with Obama's policies then you should vote for him.

Would I support a white man who came forward with little more than chants of "Yes, We Can" and "Change"? Would I support a white man who advocated an increasing role of government in the lives of Americans? Would I support a white man who would put environmental extremism above economic considerations? Would I support a white man who used class warfare to demonize and attack those among us who have a better financial standing?

The obvious answer to these questions is an emphatic no. Barack Obama could be blacker than midnight in a cypress swamp but that wouldn't make his policies acceptable to me. If I supported him just because of his racial identity, I'd be no better than the bigots who wouldn't vote for him.

As for Michelle Obama's speech, I have just one observation to make. She spoke of the struggles that her family faced and the struggles that Barack's family faced. She talked about how her father worked hard and taught his children to do the the same. She talked about how Barack's mother struggled alone at times to make it. And that's the crux of her speech and the Obama campaign for me.

What does Michelle Obama think should happen now? Does she think that her husband will remove all of the struggles of life? Does she think that young black men now have FEWER opportunities than her father had??? Even in Chicago, perhaps especially in places like Chicago, the opportunities for black men in her father's time were severely limited. I highly recommend reading Claude Brown's "Manchild in the Promised Land" for a glimpse of what life was probably like for him.

My father would have loved to have the opportunities that I have today. It's a topic we discuss often. I'd be a fool to sit back and complain about what opportunities I don't have. I'd be a fool to expect the government to come in and do something for me when I have the chance to do for myself.

This is what I mean by the socialist leanings of the Obama's. Government cannot make life problem-free. Life is about struggling and overcoming. Life is about taking advantage of the opportunities at hand.

My message to black Americans, to all Americans, is that they must not see Obama in some messianic light. He is not Moses. He is a man, a politician. If you want the government to solve all of your problems, then you had better be prepared to lose control of your destiny.