He gives her the answer

I remember what a burden it was to feel like I was representing the first generation of feminists in the workforce. And there were some glass ceilings to be broken then, but a generation later that is no longer the case. Women make choices and have all the opportunity in the world in America. Some Americans may feel left behind, but this country bends over backward to lend a hand up. Those who come to this country understand. Dawn Turner Trice in the Trib this morning:

It's Sunday and I'm just arriving in town for the Democratic National Convention. I flag a cab and my driver is brown like me with hazel, almost honey-colored eyes that remind me of my father's.

He's friendly and a chatterbox, but his English, as my father would say, is "make-do." Yassin Muzeyen is 43 years old and stresses that, although born in Ethiopia, he has been in this country for 12 years and is now, officially, an American. [snip]

It'll be interesting to see what Americans see peering through all the red, white and blue.

Before I leave my cab driver, I ask him what it means to be an American. He looks at me through the rearview mirror. "It means you're free," he says resolutely.

He gives her the answer, but she refuses to see it. Drop the hyphen, Dawn. It'll be liberating. And that was the promise of Obama, which he has squandered as well. Michelle has fanned the flames all along.

UPDATE: An opinion piece by Matt Bai, NY Times on the Democrats (and the Obamas) mistaken predilection for assuming racism is the reason for the tight race:

Second, Mr. Obama faces genuine obstacles that are more salient than skin color. By any historical measure, he has remarkably little governing experience and almost none in foreign policy. And he represents not only a racial milestone in American life, but also a stark generational shift. It’s hard to extricate these things from Obama’s blackness. (If older white voters recoiled at Mr. Obama when he exchanged a fist-bump with his wife, were they reacting to his youth or to his race?) There are legitimate reasons that some older white voters might reserve judgment on Mr. Obama without being closet racists.

This is why (Bill, Hillary) and Hillary voters are mad too, as they have been essentially accused of racism. At least one liberal woman columnist, Carol Marin, was incensed at Barack's "spiritual adviser" the Rev. Pfleger's "race-based flogging of Hillary" back in May. Of course, they are reaping the identity politics whirlwind. But the rest of the country may have a disgust of this self-absorbed bickering while the country is under threat and fighting off a recession, including some Democrats.

UPDATE: Illinois Hillary delegate called Uncle Tom by Barack's thuggish mentor, Illinois Senate President Emil Jones. Sun Times. HT Mick. Final quote from Hillary delegate Cobb:

Taking a final shot at Jones, Cobb said, "Calling me an 'Uncle Tom' is beyond the pale, especially considering where he is [close] with Mayor Daley and with [Gov.] Blagojevich, I am hardly the Uncle Tom here."

Nice picture of Illinois Democrat politics, but hardly a slur on the corrupt state, which they run--and Barack claims as his base.