Paul Berman in Barack Obama: "The fact that he's black counts for a lot."

Michael Totten links to an interview with Paul Berman, who confesses to BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome). The main topic of the interview is the curious relationship that Western “intellectuals” have with Islam.

But there was a revealing moment when the subject of Obama came up. It appears that Berman is the kind of “intellectual” that voted for Obama. It is also revealing, unintentionally I’m sure, of the kind of racism that got Obama elected; the white liberals who voted for him because he’s black. Not for his policies: HopeN’Change is not a policy. Healing the planet and lowering the seas is not a policy but a fantasy.

They voted for him to prove something to the themselves and to the world, that a man with a dark skin can be president. In Berman’s words, he was elected to “…signif[y] … to a lot of people around the world that America really is the democratic place it claims to be.”

Paul Berman: ...Bush did seem to inspire an irrational response in many people, and I sympathize with the people who responded that way. I'd like to think that I overcame my irrational response to Bush, or at least I can identify it and laugh at it, but it did exist. ...

...

Paul Berman: ...   Obama is a complex symbol, more than any of our previous presidents. The fact that he's black counts for a lot. It signifies, I think, to a lot of people around the world that America really is the democratic place it claims to be. Every last person around the world who knows the slightest thing about politics knows that the worst thing about America has always been its racism against blacks.

MJT [Totten]: Right.

Paul Berman:. So the fact that America has elected a black president and the fact that the black president is attractive and appealing communicates a message, in Reagan-like fashion, in a way that's not even conveyed necessarily through words. Reagan was said to be a master of the photo op, but Obama is a walking photo op. If he just stands there, he's a photo op. It's as if he has beautified the American flag.

Things that make you go "Hmmm."