This is the headline in Monday's FT over an op-ed column by Clive Crook. Written from afar, but not that far (after all, he is a Brit), he has gotten the substance of what is happening in the United States. There is some sense in the article that Britain also has a stake in the outcome. But it is more like a fraternal missive.
"The US is tired and discouraged these days. The country is right to seek a little inspiration, a lifting of the spirit, a sense of renewal. Mrs. Clinton is the perfect antithesis of those things. She is commanding in debate; she knows her facts. But she is dreary and angry at the same time, which is no easy feat. She personifies partisan division. And, through her husband and her nostalgia for the 1990s, she is tied to the past. She is indeed the paradigm of business as usual, with the taint of dynastic succession thrown in. The Democrats would be wrong to make her their candidate, in my view, even in a field of unexceptional candidates--but this is not a field of unexceptional candidates.
"Make no mistake. Mr. Obama is once-in-a-generation possibility. Admittedly, in many ways, he is too good to be true..."
Crook goes on to give Obama some very good advice...and then follows with observations on the issue of his blackness. "What makes Mr. Obama remarkable is that his message of hope, resonating so powerfully with black America, is cast to every American, regardless of colous, to Democrats and Republicans alike. This is surpassingly important: a man of outstanding intellect and magnetic personality, he is running on a one-nation platform as though he merely happens to be black."
As Ronald Reagan used to say, "God bless America." And may we recognize our blessings when they come, as they have in Barack Obama.