Interesting take on the Reid/Obama issue:

slate.com

Code Black
Of course Obama talks differently to different groups. So do most politicians.

Harry Reid’s comment that Barack Obama could get elected because he was a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” may not have been artfully put. But subtract the poor choice of words—Negro sounds more fuddy-duddy than racist—and the statement, reported in the book Game Change, is fairly uncontroversial. Not only is it undeniable that Obama’s skin tone and way of speaking had something to do with his election. Reid was praising Obama for one of the oldest political skills there is: the ability to adjust one’s speech, and one’s mannerisms, to different audiences.