You totally missed it.  This is not about the celebration.  I clearly stated that I understand and welcome it.  This is about how the media and liberals are holding him up as a BLACK President.  Last I checked, the oath did not say :And I will uphold the duties of the office as a BLACK MAN".  Indeed, we are now to assume that the vast majority of America does not have a president because we are not black.  And that is wrong.  It is wrong to say "you cannot criticize him because he is black..." or that "We must make allowances for his faux pas' because he is black".  Or even better - That is the greatest speech given by a black man.

All are racist and trash King's ideals.  King would have celebrated November 4, but would have hated January 20th.

Why should I?  Why dont you ask your liberal friends why Obama has to be treated differently?  WHy his every utterance now has to be written in the New New Testament?  Why any criticism of OUR president is seen as racist?  And again you miss it.  I am not surprised.  You see things only in black and white.  And that is the betrayal of King's ideals.

And never will be as long as you make it an issue.  Yes, we are going to have some KKK bigots out there, but why are YOU catering to them?  WHy not cater to the 53% that voted for him (minus the racists who did)?  Or the 46% who did not vote for him, but not because he was black? (again a small percentage).

It is the Liberals and Media that seem to think we must look at him for the color of his skin, and not the content of his character.  Some will, but November 4 proved that your way of thinking is definitely in the minority, and the biggest self interest block perpetuating it, are the liberals and Media (the bigots are a small part of it, but then any excuse to perpetuate it seems to be fine with Liberals and the Media).

And the WHOLE point you miss is that it happened 2 months ago, not today or yesterday. 

And here ladies and gents, we see the validation of the point again.  Calling someone black is not a perjorative, nor is calling someone a racist - if they are one.  You are not a "Burn a cross on the lawn" racist, but an institutional racist.  You have to perpetuate racism to maintain your sense of purpose and power base.  Whether you burn a cross on a lawn, or do it for other reasons, the end result is the same.

The discussion is not nasty.  ANy more than telling the emperor he has no clothes is nasty.  To this comment, the only "nastiness" has been in the feelings that have been hurt when a mirror was held up to individuals.

Why do you see this as a blog on a black man?  There is a serious disconnect with some in reading this.  This blog is not about Obama (only tangentally) or the celebration (except again tangentally), but about the racism that surrounds this celebration.  And it is palpable.  Obama is my president regardless of what liberals and the Media want me or you to beleive, and in that he is one of 44 (or 42 as I clarified).  And in that his accomplishments will not be that of a BLACK president, but of A President.  And that is how he should be viewed, judged and evaluated.

But to be constantly bombarded with the mind numbing assault of having to view him differently is racist.  Period.

And if that is your belief, you will never get past it.  America did, in November.  But if you are going to see color first, then you are betraying King's ideals, which this is about.

See?  ANother liberal either cant read, understand or is intentionally trying to change the subject. I do wonder why you bother.  Now if you would like to reread the article (and the post) and see where ANYONE said that Obama was betraying anything, be my guest.  Otherwise, why do you bother?

Who said it did?

Of course you will! Because you are a racist.  You only see the color of a man's skin, not the content of his character.  SO you are going to Trust an OJ Simpson, before you trust any white man.

Why?  So you could trash all of us the way you did Heston, and the other marchers?  Or perhaps so you could yell that we are not black enough.  Or that only those in the spotlight did anything - like Jackson and Sharpton?  I dont see a need to feed your racism.  You would not believe anything that would not fit into your racist mold, so why bother?  Racism is not logical, it is emotional, and so appeals to logic and facts do not work.

MM had an article on the worst racist comments he has heard about our new President.  And I see where they are coming from.  The racists that call themselves liberals.  But of course in the new PC world, you cannot possibly be racist since you are part of the noblesse oblige.  At least in your own mind.

I was right about that too.  Obama's election has brought the closet racists out in droves!  And they are as ugly as the overt racists.

In what way have people emphasised race? I'm sorry I simply don't agree. What I was impressed with was that the campaign actually became one that was based on who was the best for the job and NOT that he was black. You yourself have said that people voted with their wallets.

However, I do think it would be ridiculous to expect no one to make something of a deal of him being the first black President to be inaugurated. From here on in I don't think it will be entioned at all really. But the fact that America has finally reached such a mature stage that it can vote for a man based on his ability to run for the economy, even if he is black is noteworthy. I am impressed with how far you have come as a nation in such a short time. As the President said in his speeech, only 60 years ago his own father might not have been served in a restaurant, and now here he is the elected President. That is important because it shows you are turning a new page and finally accepting the Dream.

That said I also think tht JU conservatives are very good at ignoring the bits that MLK believed in that they don't find convenient for their ideology. But that is another issue for another day.

I dont' care whether you voted for him or not.  I didn't ask you if you did.  Some people just seem to deny that race does play an integral role in our country.  President Obama and many of us are trying to get beyond that point, and this is why so many Generation Y and X's and even some of the generations before, are estatic!

I don't need to get over myself in stating a point or opinion.  It is either going to be a discussion or one of insults and that's when I walk away and leave you talking to yourself.  The fac is the media does what has been done time and again.  It is what most of America has learned to do, and what some are learing to step away from.  It is why so many of us are joyful and amazed, that our new President happens to be a bi-racial and that other half of him is Black, where's the racism in that?  What's there to be ashamed of about that fact?  Dr King would have nothing but respect and good things to say!

You seem to forget who created this racial devide?  You seem to forget that just one drop of black blood means you're black period.  How can we forget when it is so rampantly made known everywhere you look.  The only people who will refer to themselves as biracial are the people themselves who are biracial. They usually get qualified as one or the other dependent on how whilte or black, or chinese or latin they look!

This is where the racism is that Doc Guy is talking about.  The constant harping on the fact that he is a "black man" or a "black president".  Just because it is what has always been done doesn't make it right and doesn't make it any less racist.  Just because they are referring to him as a "black man" in a positive light doesn't make it less racist.  Racism is not always negative, it can be both positive and negative.

It seems that race is always going to be an issue. My problem with it falls somewhere in the middle. I grew up in a place without any blacks. My early experiences were watching Sanford and Son every Friday night (I really miss Redd Foxx). My family came to the US  long after the Civil War, so they never owned any slaves. I wasn't really exposed to racism until I joined the military were it was promptly used against me (being a farm boy and all). It was really a black against white period of time. To be fair I did see whites that were just as bad, but I have to say not nearly as many so blatantly racially biased as the black examples I encountered. I was fortunate enough to see those days disappear almost completely. I'd like to think I had a small part in that, as I evaluated everyone on their own merits (and have at times been called a racist for it).

Now here's the dilemma. I'm white and proud of it. I've never participated in any activity to keep any person down, due to race, creed, color or religion. I can empathize with blacks when they talk about slavery (and Jews about the holocaust, and Christians thrown to the lions), but the only people I actually feel sorry for are the people still living that were subjected to inequality. But I don't feel responsible for their past situation in the least bit. There isn't a race on earth that hasn't been slaves at one time in history (and it's still happens in some places, where is the outcry?). So it is offensive to me when someone suggests that because I'm white "I owe" them because their grandfather was mistreated. Some here might have what is known as "white guilt", well great for you. I'm tired of being perceived to have it all because of the color of my skin. Hate to disappoint but nobody gave me a damn thing. That's why I'm a conservative, because I strongly believe you need to make your own way in life.

As far as Obama goes, can't say I like many of the policies he has put forth (those details seem to be  sketchy and changing). That doesn't mean I don't like the man, I don't know him. That said, I'll start him at my personal 50% approval rating. He can go up or down from there. But I'll tell you if he brings those terrorists at Gitmo into the US civilian justice system his rating is going to plummet in my book. I know some people think he's so wonderful, but what has he done to deserve the over abundance of admiration? IMO that's just as bad as hating him for no good reason. As for hope, I look to myself and loved ones to make that, no leader, past or present, gives me that feeling. If some folks need to adore someone, or look to someone else that in all reality doesn't know they exist, to give them a warm fuzzy, good luck, but you'll never really find what your looking for. Want to test my idea? If you can get within handshake distance of Obama, ask him for $10 cab fair and see how much hope and change you get, before the Secret Service escorts you away. If your family would treat you the same, you have bigger issues to worry about.

I'm confused. If Obama's election and inaguration means we are doing better then why do you guys keep referring to most peopels view as racist?

If that is so true, why is it so historically important that he is the first Black President? How do we move beyond racism and the idea that a person is judged by his skin first while making history as the first Black President? I am glad our country is making progress, but why is it that important? Would it be this important if a Latino became President? Why is no one cheering that he is a Minority? I'll never understand this double standard of "we need to get past this but lets not forget".

But the media in particular has gone far beyond simply acknowledging that Obama is black.  Yesterday it was uttered over and over again that Obama is a "Black Man" and he is now a "Black President" rather than Obama is a "Man" who happens to be black or that he is "The President of the United States" who happens to be black.  They were emphasising the race issue above all else.  They made it seem like it wasn't Obama's policies or his campaign rhetoric that got him the office, it was his race.  That is blatant racism and for us to truly fulfill Dr. King's dreams we need to leave race out of it and just let Obama be the President that he is.

Doc Guy didn't do that at all.  He merely applied the definition to "Institutional Racism" to what the media was doing all day yesterday when they kept referring to Obama as a "Black Man" insinuating that he got to the Presidency more because of his skin color than because of his campaigns message.

The NPR piece that was cited in an earlier comment did just that, it labeled all those who didn't vote for Obama as racists and to be honest since they were doing that they were equally calling all those who voted for him racists as well because if the only reason to vote against the man was his race than that must have also been the only reason to vote for him.

No. Actually you can ONLY realise the dream if you DO NOT realise the significance of this day.

The significant day would be the inauguration of the first President whose skin colour is not even part of the news because nobody cares. Maybe that already happened. But if it did, the achievement was undone this year.