Barack's Coattails Cover A Bridge

At yesterday's Triborough Bridge renaming ceremony, the long shadow of President-elect Barack Obama covered nearly every speaker.

Hardly anyone resisted the urge to mention Robert F. Kennedy's eerily prescient remark made to Voice of America in 1968:

Things are moving so fast in race relations. A Negro could be President in 40 years. There is no question about it. In the next 40 years, a Negro can achieve the same position that my brother has.

Governor Patterson first mentioned it. And Kerry Kennedy echoed it.

Yet it didn't have the same effect on everyone. Former Mayor David Dinkins, the City's first black Mayor, could be seen wandering Astoria Park's parking lot, having fled as the pageantry was winding down.