Letting Bygones Be Bygones

One of Barack Obama's new ads in Pennsylvania features various individuals vouching for him as an understanding and compassionate individual of depth who loves children. In other words, it is at first glance a standard, positive commercial generally used to introduce a candidate to the electorate to define himself/herself before the opponent has a chance to define the candidate.

Only in this case, not coincidentally, the ad features three women, an Asian, a black, and a white. That would be Obama's sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, his wife Michelle, and his maternal grandmother Madelyn Dunham. His grandmother? Would that be the same grandmother whom the Illinois senator characterized on March 20, 2008 on WIP radio in Philadelphia thusly (transcript from the Camel's Nose website)?


But she is a uh, typical white person who, uh, you know uh if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know, you know, there’s a reaction that’s been bred inta, uh, our experiences that, that don’t go away and that sometimes come out in, in the wrong way and, and that’s just the nature of race in our society.

Yes, that would be the same grandmother. Not was a typical white person of that time, but is a typical white person or, as Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News noted on his blog, "especially as he spoke of his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, in the present tense."

Now, I can understand anyone, even an extraordinarily gifted individual and politician as Senator Obama, making a mistake, or at least a strategic error. But then to use that individual to vouch for him? Nevertheless, in the spirit of being positive (admittedly characteristic of the Obama campaign), I won't suggest that is reprehensible, but rather positive. It demonstrates a remarkable openmindedness- knowing someone all one's life, eventually (apparently) recognizing her as a bigot, then being bighearted enough to accept her kind words of support.