By Adrian Murray
The estimated two million Americans who crowded the Mall in Washington D.C. to witness the s
wearing in of the nations first black president on January 20 2008 must have felt a twinge of doubt after listening to the new presidents otherwise forgettable inaugural address.
If there is a residue of hope left among Obamas dwindling ranks of supporters it is a hope fueled by delusion & self-denial.
...I am absolutely certain that generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs for the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last best hope on Earth.Not so much. Long gone are those heady days of the summer of 2008: the adoring crowds the swooning fainting fans the hypnotic chants of Yes we can. Yet they retained that singular quality Obama had skillfully instilled in them during the long campaign: the aspiration of hope. By any measure the Obama presidency has been an unmitigated disaster not just for the American people but for the entire world. Well be dealing with the wreckage for many years to come. While it may be sensibly argued that there never was any rise in the oceans to slow down there can be no question that good jobs for the jobless have not magically appeared the wars rage on the planet is no better off than it was three years ago our nation is less secure and ourBarack Obama June 8 2008.
image has been shattered.
Hyperbole has its price.
The tragedy of Barack Obama is not so much the catastrophic results of his effort to transform America into something undefined - although we would be wise not to underestimate the damage he has thus far inflicted. We have had disastrous presidencies before - James Earl Carter comes quickly to mind - but have always summoned the wherewithal to rebound and recover.
We will do so again.
No the tragedy of Barack Obama is the perhaps permanent schism he has created between the races in America. From the beginnings of his campaign for the presidency Obama and his surrogates have played the race card at every opportunity saying very early on that his opponents would say Hes young and inexperienced and hes got a funny name......and did I mention hes black.
Whether it be the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Gates the dismissal of charges against the New Black Panthers or simple opposition to government mandated health care Obama has never hesitated to inject the issue of race into the debate.
The election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States was heralded as the moment when America had finally come to terms with her racial past and entered into a new era of racial harmony. A new century awaited.
White America did indeed demonstrate an unprecedented degree of racial blindness in electing Barack Obama setting aside any consideration that he was woefully unqualified to be the leader of the free world. Indeed it has been argued by some that voting for Obama 
was a kind of catharsis an erasure of the grievous national sins of slavery and racism.
While merely anecdotal if such was the case it shows an alarming navet among the American electorate. The issue of race is too ingrained in American society to be expunged with a single vote.
Because of Obamas cynical use of race the divide between whites and blacks in America has never been wider. There can be little doubt that an administration with such a dismal record of accomplishment will play all fifty two race cards in its deck in its 2012 campaign.
White America will be portrayed as denying black America a second term for the first black president. Relations between the races will be set back generations.
Obama surely knows this but what else does he have?
The wreckage he has made of the economy and Americas standing in the world leave him little else to run on. Should he deservedly be shown the door in November 2012 the tragedy of Barack Obama will be the missed opportunity to heal the nations racial wounds instead of cynically and purposely making them worse.
The triumph of America will be that despite the unprecedented assault on our national institutions our culture and our way of life we will emerge from this disaster even stronger.
The giant is awake.
Adrian J. Murray is president of Painless Performance Products in Fort Worth Texas and past President of the Fort Worth 9-12 Project.
