Politics / Barack Obama Red Herrings Abound on Campaign Trail Amid talk of elitism, privilege, it's not all black and white By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff Posted Apr 25, 2008 3:38 PM CDT Copied Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, hugs then Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File) Maybe Geraldine Ferraro and BET founder Bob Johnson are right about Barack Obama’s success, Colson Whitehead sarcastically posits in the New York Times. "The Guy Who’s Where He Is Only Because He’s Black" runs down his busy schedule and puzzles over the fact that "the higher up you go in an organization, the less you see of me." If “a fistful of upgrades to first class” weren’t enough, Whitehead jests, “I have a nice bed. It is a California king. It is stuffed with gold doubloons, the treasure I have accumulated by gathering the bonuses and raises that would have gone to Those Who Would’ve Gotten It Except for That Black Guy.” (More Barack Obama stories.) Report an error