sense: Obama *should* know what he's up against ...

this shit

Somehow this seems a grimly appropriate end to the Bush era, for the last eight years in the US have seen a glorification of kneejerk bigotry against the other, of the whole "oh, he looks a bit foreign - he must be suspicious" mindset.  What in any progressive society would have been a worldview to be ashamed of seemed, at times, to be almost the sole guiding principle of the state.  But if the US can make a profound and genuine move away from this sort of attitude over the next four years - in other words, if it can return to its founding principles and to the single biggest reason why it has for so long been so attractive to so many - things could yet fundamentally change for the better for all of us.