Barack Obama smiled when I asked him why white people always call him “unthreatening.” Does a black man have to be “unthreatening” to get elected president in 2008? I asked.

“Well, look, our racial politics are complicated in this country,” Obama said. “There are lots of wounds that are still healing.” I also asked the Democratic senator from Illinois if he were on some kind of crusade, some venture other than getting himself into the Oval Office.

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