Did Obama Win Because He Was 'Whiter Than Whites'?

Perhaps the most interesting analysis of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama's widely heralded rise to the pinnacle of American politics was offered by H.L.D Mahindapala in the November 9, 2008, edition of the Sunday Observer, "Sri Lanka's English newspaper with the largest circulation."

"So how did he make it to the top?" he asks in an article headlined "Obama - the model for minorities in majority communities," adding:

The answer is not going to be palatable to many. He won not because he was black but because he was whiter than the whites. Each step of the way he moved away from his black and radical past, from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his mentor and pastor for decades who married him and baptised his children, to the fire-breathing Farrakhan claiming a separate state for the blacks. He was ensconced comfortably in the white man's religion. He spoke their language better than most Americans - at least better than the President-extinct, George Bush. He espoused America values. Like the white leaders he ended his speeches with "God Bless America" (not "God damn America", as proclaimed by his pastor Rev. Wright). Here he was invoking the God of the white Americans and not the God of Muslims, Hindus or any other theistic cult.

While I don't agree that Mr. Obama won "because he was whiter than the whites" --He's half-white himself--I do highly recommend Mr. Mahindapala's analysis. It is provocative, well-written and deserving of attention.

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