What a curious and misleading headline on the front page of The New York Times: "Obama, in Brief Investing Foray In '05, Took Same Path as Donors."
The only reason to put on the front page of the paper of record a story about a politician's stock holdings is if there were even a hint of impropriety. The coy headline slings mud in bold letters and then, only in the fine print of the article, explains that not only was nothing improper done, in fact as soon as there was even the hint of a possible conflict the junior Senator from Illinois divested himself of the holdings.
This is a far different story than that of Senator Bill Frist whose blind trust ended up not being blind at all.
Did the Times editors really feel that this story belonged on page one while, say, "At Least 109 Shiite Pilgrims Killed Across Iraq as Holiday Nears," was banished to page A10?
I've argued in these pages that it is not always about race when it comes to Obama and I am more reluctant than most to play the race card. Whenever my inner racism detector goes off (what should we call it "Ra(cism)dar") I make sure I take a deep breath and I remember Woody Allen in Annie Hall who convinced himself that the network executives were saying to him, "Jew eat," instead of, "D'you eat?"
Still, when it comes to black elected officials and even the hint of corruption charges I get extremely techy. Ever since Birth of a Nation slandered the many brave and brilliant black men who were elected to Congress during Reconstruction America has harbored the ugly stereotype of the corrupt black elected official. He is as an even more ancient, more shopworn character than the no-nonsense black judge, the all-knowing old black man, or the asexual black best friend. Congressman William Jefferson, caught with $90,000 wrapped in tin foil in his freezer, for example, seemed straight out of central casting. Obama knows this and, according to the very article that coyly dances around defaming him, went out of his way to avoid being tarred with that brush.
And so it begins. Look out for ads from his opponents with some corporate fat cat with hundred dollar bills bulging out of his pockets blowing a kiss into the camera and cooing, "Harold - I mean Barack - call me."