Barack Obama anulls his candidacy for president after demonstrating too profound a knowledge of his country’s history.

Barry Obama just gave his “major speech on race,” which turned out to be a richly nuanced social history of the United States. He charted the development of American attitudes toward race since the end of slavery, including attempts to repair the damage done (affirmative action, welfare) and the backlash created by those feeble attempts. His speech put whites, blacks, Latinos, everybody, all on an even keel. It was thoroughly moving and inspirational.

It was like at the end of the second season of the West Wing when President Bartlett has to admit to the press he’s been hiding his MS. Under fire, Bartlett uses the truth, he uses candor, to turn the situation on its head and launch his re-election bid and everything ends gloriously. That hopeful narrative suggests that it’s our politicians who are the vacuous ones and if one came along with some integrity, well, that would be a different world.

Today, more than ever, it’s clear that Barry is the real deal. He’s the candidate those of us with a bit of progressive fire in our guts hope for. And now he’s almost certainly going to lose.

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