Hm. I noted yesterday that Obama’s response to the Wright business provided, among other things, a chance for Obama to take on the stereotype, to divorce himself from the Sharpton-Jesse Jackson almost charicature. Others are noting the same thing:

Right now, at this very moment, we have an African-American candidate for president who commands overwhelming support within the black community, who has just explicitly and firmly denounced the radical and hateful nonsense that is all too often accepted and repeated without question within that selfsame black community. That’s a very good thing. Wright will undoubtedly dismiss Obama’s comments as, in Al Sharpton’s words, “grandstanding in front of white people,” but the truth is that Obama is speaking to black people, too — he’s speaking to everyone — and he is sending a very clear message: enough with the bulls**t. Haven’t conservatives been waiting for a black leader to do that for, like, forever?

Absolutely - but as Sullivan notes, it suggests that the right really isn’t interested in getting past the race card after all:

It reveals, I think, the deeper truth: the Republican right only wants a black Republican to do this. They are not as interested in getting beyond the racial question, in changing the hopes and dreams of black America, as they are in exploiting it for partisan advantage. Their response to the first major black candidate for president tackling the old racial politics? “We don’t believe him.” …

There’s no black Democrat who could ever pass muster. Because they’re Democrats.

But as I said before, I think this does play among rank and file conservatives, or some anyway, who dislike Sharpton intensely - but who could support a presidential candidate who happens to be black rather than the black presidential candidate.

That, I think, is the far right’s greatest fear; for the truth is that the racial politics of old benefitted them greatly; they can’t let it slip away. And regardless of how sincere Obama might be - they won’t.