Tomorrow Barack Obama's (aka Smooth Barack) newest book 'The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming The American Dream' drops in bookstores around the country and you'll no doubt be seeing him all over the place as his publishing company drops the hammer on a high profile media blitz. Again we'll be hearing folks weigh in on whether Smooth Barack will be this country's first southside President as well as a continuing drumbeat from Democrats to get him to consider a run in 2008. With his star power glowing brighter than ever it would seem that the concept of a southside homey sitting in the oval office (a concept put forth in Irving Wallace's excellent novel, The Man, back in 1964. A story brought to the screen in 1972 starring my boy James Earl Jones) is ripe but is America ready? It only takes a quick scratch to get down to America's seedy racial underside but it's important to note that with Smooth Barack it ain't all about the southside...
When I say 'seedy racial underside' I mean if you watch TV or read a paper for the most part you'll get the impression that folks are getting more tolerant with racial differences - you've got commercials with mixed race couples, sit-coms and dramas with feel good, mixed race ensemble casts (like Grey's Anatomy and 24, which already featured a southside U.S. President and will again this season) but I think all that is just window dressing on a country that still has dysfunctional racial tension at its core. 
Case in point, I wrote a post a little while back on Chicago Police Commander John Burge who presided over, participated in and encouraged many jail house beatings of minorities to get confessions. Not a day later I had a commenter claiming to be a family friend of Burge asking me if I was a gay ni##er. Don't bother looking for it, y'all. I erased that hate as soon as I saw it but it's true. Recently Oprah mentioned that when she did a show that questioned the justification for the Iraq war she received the most hate mail ever including a warm greeting that referred to her as a ni##er bit#h. Get my point?So any southsider who takes it upon himself to even consider a run, let alone potentially win and have to mingle with citizens from all corners of the country must do so with his eyes wide open and be secure with the notion that any day could literally be his last.
Now that's also a whack a$ reason not to run and I'm sure that if and when Smooth Barack throws his hat in the ring he and his family will be at peace with the decision.Given that though, if you take a peek into Smooth's life up to this point, there are huge demographics to which he can relate to. The article 'The Path to Power' by Jacob Weisberg in the Sept/Oct issue of Men's Vogue pointed to the following Smooth Barack life facts:
Royalties from his first book, 'Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance', allowed him to pay back the last of his student loans - 11 years after graduating from law school - Smooths's no trust fund baby, y'all and he knows about managing his paper (regular folk demographic)
Southside father (southside demographic), northside mother (sensible northside demographic) who can trace her ancestory back to Jefferson Davis - President of the Confederacy (confederate flag loving northside demographic - is that even possible??)
Has two half sisters - one Auma (father's side - Kenyan), one Maya (mother's side - half Asian) (shorty demographic, mixed family demographic, eastside demographic)
While working through his feelings of racial displacement growing up, biddy-bop Smooth Barack was a drinker, smoker (still is occasionally), and drug user (pot and cocaine) (substance abuse demographic which ol Ty believes is the *largest* demographic in the country. Only problem is that it doesn't tend to vote because it sleeps through election day...)
I'd have to say I'd like SB's chances - especially given the same old, warmed over political candidates you see rolled out time after time. Smooth is not your average bear, y'all (check out that article and see what I'm talking about). I'm expecting to hear him roar sometime soon.
Peace@Least,
Tyrone
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