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Abstract
President Obama’s winning of the presidential election in 2008 was greeted with great pomp and circumstance. He became the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to hold the job. The previous 43 Presidents were all of Anglo- Saxon descent and never faced the challenge of coping with racism. Some of the challenges he faces from his detractors are ideological and quite in order for a president of either party to face. But many of the other challenges and criticisms are rooted in racism. Personal attacks and smears go way back to George Washington. But if you compare the attacks on FDR and Bill Clinton, the two recent Democratic Presidents remembered for the criticisms they endured, it has been much, much worse for Obama. The Obama Hate Machine, funded by the Koch brothers, and Senator Mitch McConnell, the head of Senate Republicans vowing that his number one priority was making sure that President Obama would be a one-term President, are a case in point. This article examines the strategies used by Obama to circumvent racism and turn his presidency to a success. Expedient in this article means appropriate and suitable to the circumstances, and does not connote improper or immoral as expounded in some dictionary definitions.