Commentary: Obama’s Presidency Won’t Be the End-All-Be-All for Black America, But It Will Begin the U-Turn

By: Deborah Mathis, BlackAmericaWeb.com

I have been a Barack Obama booster since the day he stepped onto the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Boston four summers ago and turned the crowd in that auditorium into a rapturous horde.

I felt a swell of pride on January 3, 2005 -- Day One of the 109th Congress -- when there were 45 new members between the houses, but all the buzz was about the lanky charmer from Illinois on the Senate side.

Once he told Tim Russert that, yes, he was mulling a run for the U.S. presidency, I wrote as fast and furiously as I could to encourage him: Run; run now.

And throughout the long and difficult primary season, I prayed that he would survive the challenges and win.

But, for all of my faith in Obama’s superior talents and what I believe to be a good heart in concert with a great mind, never once have I believed that he would be the be-all-and-end-all for what ails black America particularly or the larger society in general. He could conceivably be the most important president we’ve ever had. But he is not, and cannot be, the messiah.

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