Day: September 22, 2009

President Barack Obama on Monday poked fun at claims that racism was behind fierce opposition to his ambitious political agenda, joking that “I was actually black before the election.”

It was the latest attempt by Obama to tone down the debate, after former US president Jimmy Carter commented that much of the conservative fury directed at Obama’s health care plans was motivated by racism.

Obama said on the “The Late Show” with David Letterman on CBS that the fact he was elected as America’s first African-American president at all was a more accurate indicator of wider race relations in the country.

“I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election.”

With the military and Republicans publicly pressuring him to send more troops to Afghanistan soon and his own administration now deeply divided about how to proceed there, the eight-year war against al Qaida and the Taliban has become an increasingly urgent policy and political dilemma for President Barack Obama.

He can escalate an unpopular and open-ended war and risk a backlash from his liberal base or refuse his commanders and risk being blamed for a military loss that could tar him and his party as weak on national security.