to be continued, I am sure

The blunt and outspoken Doris Lessing said over the weekend that she thinks that if Barack Obama is elected president, there is a high risk he will be assassinated. I am sure she is not the only one who have had that thought cross her mind.

There is an episode of This American Life where a father talks about teaching his young daughter about Jesus, including the fact that Jesus was killed for his beliefs. When the same young girl later has preschool off for MLK Day she learns about Dr. King. She impresses her father by being able to draw parallels between the two men's ideas. Then she asks him: Was Dr. King killed too?

I watched Bobby the other day, the movie about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy during the California primary in 1968. It's a good movie. The story is told from the perspective of the different people staying and working at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where Kennedy was shot. There is ample use of footage from 1960s speeches and rallies. You get to hear and see the real Kennedy, not an actor.

America does have a history of killing strong leaders. But the same thing happens in other countries too. There can't be a politician in the world today who isn't aware of the risks involved in running for, and holding, office.

I think it's dangerous if we mold our images of the present on our ideas about the past. I think that's a sure way of having history repeat itself.

Yesterday Ing and I had a short discussion based in a column by Joel Stein in The LA Times. Stein was making mild fun of the enthusiastic Obama followers. Ing thought it was funny, I thought he was being elitist. (And yeah maybe I just didn't have a sense of humor.)

One point that Stein made is that Obama is mainstream. That's true. Even John Edwards was a more progressive candidate. It seemed that it confused Stein that people are rallying around a mainstream guy.

Obama is no Dr. King. Ethel Kennedy has said that he reminds her of her husband Bobby. Caroline Kennedy says he can become a president 'like her father'. But that's rhetoric, and part of the game. He is not them.

If we look at Obama and try to see a black leader from the 60s we are both wrong, and doing him a disservice. Early on in the debates black leaders questioned if he was 'black enough'. I think the truth is that is not black at all, in the American sense. He is not a descendant of slaves, and he has not grown up in the US. He is biracial, with a multicultural background. But, he knows what it's like to be treated as a black man in the US because he lives here.

Richard Rodriguez has written about what it means to be brown. He says that within a few decades all of California will be brown. Look at it that way, and you see it clearly that Obama is not a leader from the past. I know I'll sound like one of those fanatic Obama followers now, but I really think that if he wants to, Barack Obama can become a leader for the future.

But, I agree with Rodriguez when he says that Obama needs to make himself known as mixed for that to happen. Rodriguez says he needs to do so to be able to reach Latinos. To me it's a broader issue. I am waiting for Obama to come out and talk about race beyond the black and white. So far he been skirting the issue of race entirely. But I hope it will happen. I hope caution and political strategy will not stand in the way for it.