What Obama can't do

For many, many reasons, I am excited about the prospect of an Obama presidency. But I want us to be really clear about what our expectations are. There is certainly this sentiment that an Obama presidency represents a "get out white guilt free" card. I guess. Frankly, I think white guilt is overrated. Where are all these white people who can't get through the day without thinking about their ancestral culpability in the Middle Passage? I'm not even saying that would be helpful, so much as I'm saying I'm not sure how potent a force it is. More likely "white guilt" is one of these phrases pundits throw out to give the country more credit than it deserves. At virtually no point in the long black freedom struggle have masses of white people, propelled by their guilt, flocked to the sides of blacks. That doesn't mean anything about whites, as much as it's a statement about human beings. I don't see masses of blacks flocking to support gay marriage either, despite the historical parallels.

OK folks I'm rambling again. Here's my point: There are certain things that Obama can't cure. One of them comes to us courtesy of Daily Kos blogger D-T, who is laboring under the misapprehension that lots of people actually read this blog. Be that as it may, the kid raise some good points about a disturbing death penalty case in Georgia. Isn't it fascinating how the death penalty is basically no longer a presidential issue? Anyway, the case involves a Curtis Osborne who committed a brutal murder, but ended up on death row because his defense attorney--not the prosecutor--was racist. Wait, did I say racist? I meant he harbored some racial resentment against people who were darker than him. Word up. Dude actually said of his own defendant, "the little nigger deserves the death penalty." Well, he is going to get it, evidently. Curtis Osborne is set to be executed tonight.