By Jim Belshaw
Of the Journal
In Friday's column, I had intended on engaging state treasurer James Lewis in a conversation about Barack Obama, Lewis being an African-American with considerable experience in running for public office.
Counting general elections and primaries, he's run 10 campaigns. He's held four elective offices. He knows of what he speaks.
The conversation began with a question raised by Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson: "Is it foolish to think a nation stained by centuries of slavery and racism is prepared to elect a black president?"
I'd wondered about it myself, not so much from a political angle (I'm not hauling any water for Obama), but from a historical one.
I wondered if we changed enough in my lifetime to see an African-American elected president, regardless of party.
The conversation turned in Lewis' direction before we got going on Obama. So on Friday, we talked about his experience in electoral politics.
Today we're back to Obama, and beginning with another question raised by Robinson in the Post.
He wrote: "There are many in the African-American establishment who consider (Oprah) Winfrey's exhortation (to vote Martin Luther King's dream into reality) a bit of starry-eyed nonsense. There are senior black Democrats who can barely hide their exasperation at Obama's success, which they see as a mortal threat to a Democratic victory in November."
"Two things," Lewis said. "First, the African-American community is not monolithic. The other thing is a loyalty (to Hillary) because Bill Clinton had so many African-Americans in his administration. Hillary is his spouse, and I think some of that loyalty is transmitted to her."
Lewis, who has traveled extensively in primary states on behalf of Gov. Bill Richardson's presidential candidacy, takes a broader view of the Obama phenomenon.
"Ten years ago, it would have been unheard of for a Barack Obama to be running a successful campaign (for the presidency)," he said. "Today, you have Obama, a woman (Hillary Clinton) and a Hispanic (Bill Richardson), all of them in the top rung being considered for president."
A recent Census shows one-third of America's population to be people of color. Lewis sees it as more reason to get away from identity politics.
"That number will continue to grow," he said. "It's why we really need to get away from looking at race. I heard many times about my own elections that I couldn't do it because I had only a 2 percent base (the African-American population in New Mexico)."
Lewis believes that if Obama can resonate his message with the public on national security, the economy, energy and other issues, that people will look beyond his race.
As for questions about Obama's candidacy in African-American communities, Lewis again takes a view that transcends a single candidate.
"It you look back in history at the people who marched for the right to vote, you see a lot of sacrifice and a lot of folks who gave of themselves in the African-American community," he said. "Today, there's a lot of complacency, a lot of apathy. I tell folks now that I don't care whose campaign you get involved in, but get involved."
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