Standerdizing final.

. The race factor's symbolic powerGlobe editorialBarack Obama's election as the first black (or, more accurately, biracial) president in the United States will not rescue black children from poverty, or sound the death knell for racism or inequality. Yet it is a profound and moving achievement. In the year he was born – 1960 – his parents' marriage would have been illegal in more than half the country. Everyone of middle age in the United States remembers, or should, the terrible violence that enforced those rigid social codes. “In many parts of the South, my father could have been strung up from a tree for merely looking at my mother the wrong way,” Mr. Obama wrote in his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father. His very existence, in other words, was legally forbidden in parts of the country where he is now the president-elect.It is tempting to say that his race or skin colour doesn't matter any more. The election, after all, was not really about race. It was about the best person for the job. And the symbolism – compelling though it may be – won't fight al-Qaeda, or bring home the troops from Iraq, or ease the financial crisis. Role models for black children, though helpful, are no substitute for creating the conditions that breed success in large numbers.And yet, as president he will be not only the chief executive but the head of state. He is the world's most powerful man. He is, in other words, no ordinary symbol. He will drive cultural change simply by being who he is.His presence should, for instance, galvanize black communities to become more engaged in the federal political process. More subtly, it may alter the culture of expectations within black communities. “We just assume that young people in our communities won't aspire to higher education and we are not surprised when they drop out,” he said in a 2004 speech, as he ran for the Senate. “We are not shocked that there are more African-American men in prison than there are in college. And when it comes to Washington, we just assume that the game is fixed for the powerful, for the special interests.” The essence of his campaign, he said, was to “no longer accept the unacceptable, to raise the bar, to set a new set of standards, to start thinking differently about what is possible in our communities and in our politics.”This son of a Kenyan father and a white mother also has no ordinary grasp on the politics of identity. There is nothing insular about him. He spent many of his formative years outside the U.S., allowing him to see it more clearly. Thus, in his speech distancing himself from some extreme comments of his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright: “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother, who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.” Black or white, to be flawed is human; but human beings are much more than the sum of their flaws. Here was a vision of acceptance and reconciliation.The United States at a difficult moment in its history voted in a black man as president because he was the best candidate. That's why people all over the world celebrated, and shed tears. Because race didn't matter, at last.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081105.werace06/BNStory/specialComment/home

Standardized Form:
1. Barack Obama's election as the first black president in the United States is a profound and moving achievement.
2. The election, after all, was not really about race. It was about the best person for the job.
3. Thus, Barack Obama wa the best person for the job.
4. Therefore, race does not matter anymore.