Obama... Robert Kennedy's Hope

Barack Obama's nomination as the first African-American presidential candidate was foretold....

Tim Russert said on his Sunday political discussion show this morning that Robert Kennedy presciently and hopefully proposed during his 1968 campaign that it was conceivable that in 40 years in America we might have a "Negro president."

It's forty years later.... 2008.... and we have an African-American candidate for the presidency, and ironically it's also forty years since the assassination of this champion of equality, Robert Kennedy.

Hillary Clinton did her best to forestall this monumental accomplishment of an African-American questing for the Oval Office, hoping instead to make history herself as the first woman president. She failed partly because she failed to appreciate the Titanic proportions of this clash of destinies, unable to see past her own feelings of entitlement and inevitability.

This myopic predestinationism cost her Iowa, it cost her disorganization after Super Tuesday, it cost her for-granted black voters, .... and in the end, it cost her credibility as it fell to her dodging-sniper-fire truth-twisting, reminding voters of the excruciating "what 'is' is" Clinton White House years.

As Hillary disparagingly said of Obama's oratorical skills.... she gave a nice speech Saturday in finally acknowledging Obama as the choice of the Democratic party. She said all of the right things, in the right way. But we all know, this was just the latest Hillary makeover in order to get what she wants, undoubtedly the president-in-waiting second slot on the ticket.

But it's Obama's destiny that will shape the country now.... and the country will move past the Clintons and their it's-all-about-us theater. What Robert Kennedy hoped for is now the nation's best hope.