Public Eye

IT doesn't much matter whether you're going to vote for him or not. The nomination this week of an African American as a major party presidential candidate marks an indelible moment in American history. Forty-five years to the day from the Washington rally during which Martin Luther King dreamed a dream in a phrase and changed the world through the passion of its delivery, the dream came true.

It's not likely and it sure ain't easy, but in the richest and most powerful nation on Earth, Barack Obama, a person of color with a poor and immigrant background, can have a serious shot at the highest office in the land.

That's pretty cool, and that's enough of that for now: We'll see how those chances play out over the next two months. No matter what, for the political junkies among us, it's going to be the trip as much as the destination. After all, the now essentially forgotten -- to our kids' generation, at least -- Geraldine Ferraro made history in 1984 as the first woman with a chance at the vice presidency. Didn't work out so well.
An objective Vegas bettor would put his bucks down on the rich white guy. . . .

Feeble-brained as I am, I had failed to realize until the other day the real reason the Obama staffers (mostly the ill-tempered and inexperienced Bill Richardson staffers, actually) so wanted me given the boot from that recent fund-raising breakfast at which the New Mexico governor spoke: It was a blogger who wasn't supposed to be at a San Francisco gathering who broke the Obama quote: "And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment ..."

Just because huge chunks of that sentiment are true doesn't mean that it's the kind of thing a campaign deems ready for prime time.

The problem with the Richardson staffers who took me to the woodshed was that, once they had uncovered the spy with the notebook, they betrayed their cause by failing to count 10.

Had Richardson said anything remotely off-message? He had not. Was a local editor going to have anything to report but charming stories from the campaign trail? He would not. If they had thought that through and restrained their natural control-freak urges, they would have seen that one size does not fit all when it comes to slapping around the press. They could have faked some smiles and waved me goodbye and had nothing but happy talk in the next day's paper. These young staffers are smart -- but they're not quite smart enough.

Driving with a friend who is an Obama supporter and listening to the radio live from the DNC in Denver Wednesday night, with very much even the NPR reporters and analysts playing the contrarian role that is our duty, he moaned, "Why is the press always so negative?"

It's in our nature. It comes with not wanting to be spun. The best politicians and their staffers know that, know that once they've hooked us, there's a time to reel in, and a time to let the fish run.