Barack Obama's Civic Center Adventure; Thoughts On The Obamessiah And Race

Drunkablog waded in to the teeming masses clamoring for the Obamessiah, and has an extensive photo roundup (and snark, of course). El Marco was there as well.

And in case you think that "Obamessiah" is nothing more than derisive rhetorical flourish, just take a look at what one Denver Post columnist believes:

You mark my words, political historians will refer to the period we are living in now as "before Obama" and the period going forward as "after Obama."

Praise Obama!

Not voting for Obama? Yep, you're racist:

. . . Americans are not always what they appear to be. They may say one thing and think another, hold deep-seated prejudices they themselves don't quite understand — or they could surprise themselves and rise above race entirely.

Undecideds don't fare much better:

Those who study the brain say part of the problem may lie there, deep in the cerebral cortex, in a place called the amygdala.

"What's happening right now is that a lot of people have been sitting on the fence and feeling some kind of gut-level unease with Obama," said Drew Westen, a psychologist and author of "The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation."

Brain scans show activity in the amygdala correlates with such emotions as anxiety and fear.

"Studies have shown that a majority of white people, including those who are consciously opposed to discrimination, show activation of the amygdala when presented with a subliminal image of a black man," Westen said.

The gut-level unease, he said, could manifest itself with statements about Obama like "I'm not sure I can trust him" or "Maybe he doesn't love our country."

Over in Denver's northeast neighborhood, Cynthia Gallegos spent a lot of time registering voters and noticed the reactions.

"I never had a person of color say they would not vote for an individual because of his color," she said. "There was more caution from whites, saying that this political process doesn't work. Middle-aged and older white men who'd come to the door were just closed off to politics and political conversation."

And I thought the unease was just a product of Obama's socialist policies.

Nevermind. "Socialist" is just GOP code-speak for "black."