From the comments I read I don't get the impression most people have understood that Obama has already won. He is leading by 160 pledged delegates. Even if he were to loose Ohio or Texas, if the margin is similar to the one the polls indicates (a deadlock essentially), there is no way Clinton can cut into his lead. And it does not look different for Pennsylvannia. No amount of spin from the Clinton campaign can change that!

Charles, Edinburgh, Scotland

I agree that Obama victory in Texas can make a big difference, but not a decisive difference. He must win both Texas and Ohio. Right now, Obama is at the peak of his popularity. He owns fund-raising. He is the star of all endorsements. He has won eleven contests in a row. He has cut into Hillary's vote banks of Hispanics, women, seniors and blue collar workers. He has to close the deal now. If looses Texas or Ohio (or both), we are going to see a huge momentum for Hillary, no matter by how much she wins. It is all about expectations. If he doe not win now, the doubts will soar, and Hillary can clearly put him on the defensive.

Nathan, Newark, NJ, USA

A little more history would make the LBJ issue moot. The original legislation was proposed under a Republican administration (Eisenhower), and the Democrats fillibustered it (led by a still serving Democrat who was a member of the KKK), and did not get passed until Kennedy/Johnson. The new bill had NO way to make any real change, and another Republican (the most hated Nixon) added the requirment for measuring the progress through tracking and monitoring. None the less the Democrats like that history to be ignored as the get 92% of the african american vote.

Jim Thompson, Charlotte, NC

Carol Platt Liebau:

"He’s colorblind. When Barack became the first African-American President of The Harvard Law Review, it was big news. More radical black Review editors urged him not only to take controversial stands on a whole host of racial issues – they also pressured him to use his discretion to elevate black students to leadership positions within the organization. Barack declined to do so; though his choices were often left-wing (as, in fairness, was much of the Review’s membership), they weren’t race-conscious."

[http://tinyurl.com/yof8f8]

(That's from a self-described "proud conservative" who knew him at Harvard.)

Todd M, San Diego, CA

To Mike Frazier,

"Obama will be a disastrous president -- not because he's Black, but because that's all he is."

Wow. That's a really big, generalizing statement you make there. Do you mean that the only people supporting him are black? Because the data say differently; recently (such as in the Potomac primaries), Obama has won a majority across every demographic except for the elderly. Or do you mean that he has no allure other than being black? What about being a brilliant, Harvard-educated lawyer, professor of Constitutional Law and the University of Chicago, and a by all means successful and popular Illinois state Senator and U.S. Senator? I guess none of that really matters and he's "just black," though...

Sounds like if anyone is being racist, after reading your post, you fit the bill pretty well.

Justin Fleming, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

I second the comments that white Americans are the only ones who are expected to be non-racist in the U.S today. All other racial groups in the country are allowed to be as racist as they like, and no one condemns them. All other groups have virulent ethnocentric lobbying groups that push for favors and privileges at the expense of other people -- usually white Americans -- who are forbidden to complain about it, as that would be considered "racist." What we have in this country is an uneasy truce that depends largely on the willingness of white Americans to continue putting up with the "everybody gets to be racist except white folks" status quo. Barack Obama would not end that status quo, but perpetuate it. He's for continuing and in fact expanding the racial spoils industry. Let a black candidate advocate abolishing the racial spoils industry in this country and then I will take him/her seriously as someone who will "end racism" in the US.

MaryJ, San Francisco , US

The most amazing thing about Mr. Kirk's article is that he gives the "master politician" LBJ credit for "engineering" the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Isn't this exactly what Hillary Clinton said - that it took a president to get the Civil Rights Act passed into law?

Where is the outcry from Mr. Obama and his supporters? Or is there no outcry because the statement is being made by a black supporter of Mr. Obama.

Clearly shows which campaign played the "race card" and it wasn't the Clintons. Because if her comment was so bad, I doubt it would be repeated by Mr. Kirk who is getting up at 4 every morning to help elect Mr. Obama.

The Obama campaign played the "race card" in South Carolina after losing New Hampshire and momentum. Sounds vaguely familiar to the Bush campaign in 2000. Do whatever you have to to win South Carolina and regain the momentum in the campaingn. Highly ironic coming from a candidate and a campaign that decries politics as usual.

Paul, Henderson, Nevada

I think some people are missing the point here. Nobody is saying to vote on race. Nobody should vote FOR Obama just because he's black. But - just as importantly - nobody should vote AGAINST him because he is black. I think this is the underlying theme of Mr Kirk's article, that America has finally moved on as a country from the point at which a man or woman could never be elected to national office because of race, and an Obama presidential victory would confirm that fact. The outdated barrier to the highest office in the land will have been officially broken. And then, the next time a minority candidate is standing, race will simply not even be an issue.

Poppy, London, UK

It's odd that so many people comment that the ascendency of Obama means that America is past race, when his ascendency is based on race. Not only are African-American Democrats voting for him at a rate of 90% -- which indicates that their support has nothing to do with policy -- but the argument that people should vote for him to prove that America will elect a Black president is a specific appeal to his race.

Fred Allen's counter-intuitive suggestion, that racism is dead in America, is uninformed. Mr. Allen should spend some time in the South. Racism is dead or dying in White America. In Black America, children are nursed on it. It is said that Black people in America are against prejudice and segregation, but that's incorrect. What they're against is prejudice against Blacks and segregation by Whites. When they are the bigots and segregators, they have no problem with it, whatsoever.

Obama will be a disastrous president -- not because he's Black, but because that's all he is.

Mike Frazier, Fayetteville, AR

To Ezhi Opfu, an American president can not do that. I do not believe that the leader of one country can achieve that for the people of other countries. They have to achieve that for themselves. I'm not Black, I am Abenaki, a Native American person, but I wanted to share something with you, from a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King:

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Jenny, Grand Rapids, MI, US

Obama may win the Democratic primary in Texas next Tuesday, but there is no way he will carry Texas in the general election in November. He proclaims the politics of hope and change with a religious fervor, and is very eloquent and articulate. Obama is an old style populist promoting a socialist agenda, which is nothing new. Of course to know this you would have to have some knowledge of history, and most people today think the world began the day they were born. The best I can tell his foreign policy will be for all of us to stand in a circle and hold hands and sing Give Peace a Chance.

For the last forty years I have been told that the youth vote was going to be an important factor in every presidential election. The fact of the matter is that the under thirty crowd never votes in large numbers.

Kent C, Nocona, TX., USA

Obama!

I've NEVER seen an American primary election that is so energized; that has so many people talking, that has aroused so much passion.

Everywhere he goes, he's speaking to 10 to 20 thousand people.

More than 15 million people have watched the Obama "Yes We Can" video.

More than a million people have contributed to his campaign.

It's quite amazing !

Kevin Larmee, Chicago, Il, U.S.A.

Hope for what? Liberals fail to clarify what they are hoping for because the vast majority of voters in the US do not agree with a strong left-leaning vision for our country. And for those outside the US I can think of only one thing these liberals want for the US - weakness. While the US gives many billions of dollars in aid to many foriegn countries & drives the national defense programs of many others. A strong market economy based in low taxes and free trade provides the funds needed to support international defense and aid initiatives. Yet liberal policies will undermine both. Domestically, liberal policies will increase taxes, reduce services for citizens and produce a more pallatable but weakened international presence. Internationally, US withdrawal from conflict and less support for European defense will mark a more liberal US government. In time foreign aid will decrease due to budget restrictions which are always a result of tax increases. This is your hope?

Ken, Fresno, CA

Obama reminds me of Chaves
If you say just about anything well enough you can fool enough people just long enough. I think his entourage kooky.

hhkeller, New York,

Mr. Kirk,

I supported your candidacy for the chairmanship of the DNC after the 2004 election, unfortunately Howard Dean was selected and it's been all downhill ever since. I do hope you and others who favor returning the party to one that serves the true grassroots, and not one that serves corrupt elites.

I do believe that the wider democratic party would stand with you in support of this. What is needed is a leader to stand and take the reins.

I am so appreciative of your writing this article in the London Times, as I was offended by the piece written by Trevor Phillips the other day. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences here.

Jenny, Grand Rapids, MI, US

The problem is not race, but that Obama is an extreme leftist. While a conservative black could easily win the presidency with the proper experience, the majority of the voters will not feel inclined to support a candidate they do not agree with on policy.

Jonathan, NYC, USA

I'm excited by Obama. I see geniune sincerity in him. I never voted before, this november will be my chance. I will be voting for Obama.

Kelly Pierce, Kansas City, KS, USA

Here's a counterintuitive (but true) observation: race does not matter in American electoral politics any more; it serves numerous interests, though, to pretend it is central. The South votes Republican these days on ideological grounds--abortion, taxes, trade policy, guns, etc.--and a black conservative candidate could take Texas without breaking a sweat. Ron Kirk lost to Cornyn because of Cornyn's ideas, and Obama will lose to McCain in Texas because of McCain's ideas. Obama is a charming mediocrity, who will pick up a number of Southern white votes on charisma alone; but no pro-choice, anti-NAFTA candidate whose tax plan would raise top marginal rates to 58% is going to win in the South, no matter how many demagogues will accuse southerners of racism for not voting for him.

Fred Allen, Austin, TX

The author wants us to believe that we can expiate racism by casting a vote on racial grounds. As the incredible irony of that argument indicates, it cannot possilby have the result Mr. Kirk desires. The curse of racism is largely dead in America. The greatest champions of racism today are those on the left who want us to believe that all Americans suffer from the original sin of racism, irrespective of the modern reality. This is identity politics at its worst.

I have no doubt that we will have both a black and a woman in our highest national office in the future. But it will likely not be Mr. Obama. That has absolutely nothing to do with race and everything to do with the substance of the man and how he would be expected to govern. Obama is far to the left of America and his foreign policy views are redolent of - and every bit as dangerous as - those of Neville Chamberlin.

GW, TN, USA

Mr. Ron Kirk,
Black people all over the world are highly excited about producing a Black President of the USA. Fair enough, but my concern is what exactly African Americans and the Black race in general will benefit from president Obama. I think we are getting our priorities wrong again!
Will president Obama automatically change the fact that there is no civilised and successful society of Black people anywhere on this planet?
I have great respect for Barrack Obama, but my concern is not just that he appears to lack any sound vision for the survival of the Black race, but mainly that enlightened Black people have not articulated any sound vision or any ideological framework for the development of Black Africa and the Caribbean. I fear that only self-righteous white men and women who want to make history may benefit from this overnight craze about Black presidency. I believe we need at least one Malaysia or Singapore out of Black Africa more than we need a Black president in USA.

Ezhi Opfu, London, UK

So the only argument for Obama is race, as he threatens all black superdelegates to vote for him or else. Wonder how this removes the specter of racism. Ron Kirk's view simply ingrains it. By November, Obama would have irreversibly lost the Latino and Asian votes across the US, as other minorities do not take lightly to candidates running blatantly on race (although you are not allowed to call him on it). With Obama, Dems will be giving up on a WH that was in their grasp for a very long time.

shaun, San Francisco, USA

Read THE MAN by IRVING WALLACE - a fictional account of the first Black President of the USA which was published in 1964. It was made into a film in 1972.

In it Irving Wallace quotes this by President Lincoln's black adviser Frederick Douglas :

"In a composite Nation like ours, made up of almost every variety of human family, there should be, as before the Law, no rich or poor, no high or low, no black or white, but one country, one citizenship, equal rights and a common destiny for all.

A Government that cannot or does not protect the humblest citizen in his right to life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness, should be reformed or overthrown, without delay."

I have a copy of THE MAN and what a great read it is. Forgotten sadly by our modern media over time, but hopefully it will be remembered again - especially if Obama wins !!!!

Ian Payne, WALSALL,

It is fascinating, shocking, and yet uplifting if Lyndon Johnson signed into law the "Civil Rights Act" while at the same time predicting how enormously politically damaging it would be.

At such horrible cost, yet it was well worth it.

This prediction fits perfectly with exit poll results indicating that, in every primary thus far, Obama is overwhelmingly supported by the young - and not just in percentages but also in vastly increased turnout - and Clinton by the elderly.

But it is so hard to believe that we could really be at a tipping point, that there may yet be hope...

Douglas, Montreal, Canada