Last week, the press whipped itself into a frenzy of anticipation for Barack Obama's big speech at the Democratic Convention, only to have Obama once again turn out to be the National Letdown. That raises the question: What was that whole Obamamania thing about, anyway? Obama's sudden rise from part-time legislator/part-time lecturer to Presidential Timberhood was conventionally interpreted as the triumph of his supreme personal merit over discrimination's crushing weight. A less-popular suggestion was that in 21st-century America, identifying as black is good for your career. One way to ...