Shelby Steele's "Bound Man"

Today I'd like to make a quick plug for a phenomenal book and author.

Shelby Steele is a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution. He has written several books on the issue of civil rights and race relations. Yet, unlike our familiar friends Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton, this African American writer has a fresh take on the issues.

His newest work, A Bound Man: Why We are Excited about Obama and Why He Can't Win, is an intriguing book worth the Saturday afternoon it will take you to read it. It is not a partisan attack on the Obama campaign, but rather an analysis of Sen. Barrack Obama's place in the continuing development of racial equality in America.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Steele's argument and level-headed review of our current state is a much needed commentary in response to "race baiting" which has characterized much of the DNC's efforts this year.

Steele is author of two other books, The Content of Our Character and White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era, both worth your consideration.