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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 1, 2024

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His campaign portrayed him as black to blacks, non-white to other minorities, and post-racial to whites.

His actual views are a bit harder to pin down...

His mother raised him with stories about what a great African leader his father was. Obama was probably initially planning to go into the state department. He seems to have been recruited before he went to Columbia U and his assigned roommate just happened to be the son of a prominent politician from Pakistan (or some other Muslim country, I'm not 100% sure).

While at Columbia he seems to have had a change of heart.

He decided he wanted to be a black leader in the US, and moved to Chicago after graduating. So from 85-97 you can find some more identity focussed quotes from him because he was trying to get accepted by Chicago voters for an eventual run.

Michelle used to baby sit for Jesse Jackson, so getting an in with the Chicago political machine was part of her appeal.

He seems to have realized that he sold much better to white liberals than Chicago blacks. They wanted someone with stronger links to the community. Becoming president was more realistic than becoming mayor of Chicago.