Barack Obama: Search for identity - LA Times

[liberal N proud]

Barack Obama: Search for identity
Half black and half white, he fights the undertow of race.
By Thomas Curwen
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 28, 2008

Four years ago, Barack Obama introduced himself to America by painting a picture of a country that was united, somehow, in spite of itself.

The pundits, he said in the keynote address to the Democratic convention, like to "slice and dice" the country: red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats.

"But I've got news for them too: We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states, and yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states."

His task that night was to ready the crowd for the presidential nominee, John F. Kerry, but in the end his words were most memorable for an argument that challenged the partisan divide and was built on the foundation of his own unique story. Since then, it's become a familiar element of his speeches. His father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas.

But it's more complicated than that.


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/campaign08/newsletter/la-na-obama28-2008aug28,0,5030193.story