Obama Is A Master At Dealing With Ignorance

CLEVELAND - President-elect Barack Obama has famously made history by becoming the first African-American elected to the U.S. presidency. He's also maybe the first public figure to deal with unrivaled ignorance so flawlessly.

He never appears to get angry in public.

During the course of his election campaign, he was constantly up against opponents and voters alike that made ignorant or disparaging remarks about him. From Hillary Clinton to John McCain, his rivals tried endlessly to destroy his character by linking him to several unsavory individuals, most notably Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright and 1960's radical William Ayers.

Though Obama acquainted with those people, it was the malicious way that his rivals tried to make his affiliation with them sinister and the most important aspect of the campaign. McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin made frequent use of the "guilty by association tactic" which in turn, influenced voters into believing Obama was a horrible candidate and person.

That was low.

There was also the matter of him being incorrectly labeled a Muslim. There was even an insanely stupid and ignorant woman in Minnesota that called him an Arab. The ignorance even went as far as to utter his ironic middle name of Hussein and "accidentally" call him "Barack Osama" in an attempt to stir up ill feelings and hatred towards him.

Wow.

In the closing days of the campaign, Obama spoke often of the constant attacks on him by both McCain and Palin. He always exhibited a remarkable cool and unparalleled temperament that fueled his relentless focus. Those are the key reasons he won the presidency.

In recent weeks, he has been criticized for many of his choices for his cabinet and national security team. Just this past weekend, Obama mentioned to Tom Brokaw that the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. Many people have accused him of hedging on his promises of "change" that he made during his campaign. Not only that, but some folks are going so far as to regret him being our next president.

Unreal.

I think the thing that really gets me is, in the past week, Obama's eligibility to be president has come into question due to his birthplace and father's Kenyan ethnicity. Some people were actually trying to get his electoral victory rescinded. He had to provide a copy of his 1961 birth certificate to prove that he in fact was born in Hawaii and thus, a U.S.-born citizen qualified to run for president.

Barack Obama has handled every annoying instance of ignorance with an otherworldly calm and focus that inspires the heck out of me. Shame on you ignorant people all across the country.

And kudos to you Mr. Obama for always being the bigger person.