I agree. Most of America is becoming color blind. Utah is an exception. The one Utah Democrat in Washington, Jim Matheson, underscores that sentiment. He stayed away from the historic convention because he is a racist.

If a Mormon was nominated by Democrats, he would have been at the convention, probably as a speaker. But a black man? No.

Matheson's shunning of the Democratic convention underscores his love of the mostly white Republican party. His voting record in Congress shows how much he loves Bush and Cheney.

By avoiding association with Obama, a black man, Matheson puts the spotlight on his racism.

Simply, he is unrecognized by the Democratic party. He fools no one. He is a Republican and a bigot.

Doesn't Lee Benson see the huge contradiction here? A man who is completely unqualified to be president is chosen by his party because he is black, and that allows the rest of America to feel good that we are so color blind?

Innuendo is all you have, Smiley.

Matheson has his life to live, his race to run. While I don't necessarily agree with his politics, there is nothing in his record to indicate that Matheson is motivated by racial issues.

Your efforts to paint him as a racist or racially motivated is wrong, as is you efforts to, by extension, paint Utah as a racist state. If you want to suggest someone is a racist, then provide a real example.

Its time to move on; time to judge men by the content of his heart.

Christy - "Completely unqualified to be president"??

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

Obama was chosen because, as evidenced last night, people believe that he can make your and my lives better, and give our children what our parents wanted for us - a better future.
Christy, your contention that the choice was a guilt driven tokenism tells me that we are not so color - blind after all.

Exactly my point, Steve. We are not so color-blind after all. It was stupid of Lee Benson to say that we are. And, regarding the constitution--it tells us who is eligible to be president. Millions are. But "qualified" is something else entirely.

There has been much discussion lately about past presidents' qualifications - I'll not add to that here; I think the metric for next administration will be more the people that comprise the leadership positions.
Earlier in my life a felt a part of something bigger than a political party, an awareness, that reinforced a belief of common cause - last night that awareness was revisited.
Age has given me a better perspective of experience, but I honor your viewpoint.

I'm no fan of Matheson and would love to see him replaced, but SpySmiley | 6:56 a.m. is just plain up in the night to say that Matheson's absence from the convention has anything to do with racism.

If I recall, Matheson has not attended ANY DNC conventions since being elected to congress and automatically being conferred super-delegate status. I expect that is driven by a desire to maintain some distance from the more radically leftist elements of his chosen party so as to more easily claim to be a moderate or centrist here in Utah. But racism?? I'd need to see some serious evidence before accepting Matheson is THAT kind of bigot.

An otherwise decent article is marred by Benson invoking and perpetuating 2nd grade public education history to make a point.

The Confederate States did not start a war just to preserve slavery. Nor did the Union wage the war to end slavery UNTIL ending slavery became a good way to keep England out of the war and keep weary northerners involved in the war.

While slavery highlighted the significant cultural differences between ante-bellum North and South, and was certainly an undercurrent throughout the war, the war started over what the South viewed as unjust tariffs and trade policies and over their right to voluntarily withdraw from the union they had voluntarily entered.

While I would love to conclude, as Mr. Benson has, that, "America is going seriously colorblind."

Sadly, like several other commentators here, I am of the opinion that much of the fascination with Sen. Obama is precisely BECAUSE of his "color" (a term I find ridiculous since EVERYONE is simply a different shade of the same color) as opposed to what Dr. King dreamed of, his character. Of which the vast majority of people know almost nothing as a result of his glaring lack of presidential-scale accomplishment.

Consequently, I can't imagine any other reasons for his popularity than his obvious charisma and, most important to the subject of the article, the appeal of “being part of history” by electing someone who is, “finally”, not one of those old “white” guys.

I couldn’t understand the appeal of Pres. Bush but, given the alternative, figured out how he became president. Apart from his status of war hero, I don’t really have a good idea how/why John McCain is the Republican candidate. But as for Barack Obama, the biggest reason for his ascendance seems obvious.

Joe. You ask for an example of racism in Utah. Here's a personal one, and very true. My wife is not white. I am. Several years ago we call a number for a house rental.

Sure, the woman said, come over and we'll show it to you. You can get in right away.

Several hours later, we arrived at the house. And the woman and a man were there to greet us. The woman looked at my wife and then looked at the man, then said, "We're sorry. We rented the place a few hours ago."

That was some time ago. My wife to this day can point out numerous examples of racism in this state.

Don't kid yourselves. Utah remains a very racist state. And I know those people of color who can speak out would tell similar stories.