Ed McCoy's hysterical outburst about Kay Osbourne's analysis (Saturday, January 17) of what president-elect Obama's presidency means is illogical and without merit.

There is nothing in the Osbourne article to suggest that Obama is the second coming of Christ as McCoy would have us believe. What the article says is that Barack Obama's presidency will have enormous psychological and other impli-cations for people of both races.

The verbal rock stone that McCoy has hurled at Osbourne for daring to say that at dawn Wednesday morning, people of both races will have to rearrange their interactions is understandable though unearned.

McCoy would have us believe that no power shift will come about with President Obama's presidency. This is illogical poppycock that the facts dispute. First of all, Osbourne is right that the biggest immediate power shift is that for the first time in history a black man can now press the little nuclear button and make all of us face our maker instantaneously. That is raw power that was unthinkable for a black man to have just a year ago.

McCoy's passionate conclusion that the democratic machine is the real power behind Obama and that is why he beat Hillary Clinton is also without basis. It is illogical nonsense for it has nothing to do with reality.

McCoy's argument that because Obama is biracial this disqualifies him to represent either black people or white people is 'so-so foolishness' and again has nothing to do with what Osbourne actually wrote as her article did not say that racism will go away once the Obamas move into the White House. She wrote that there are people who will struggle with racism and with racial stereotypes and assumptions indefinitely.

I am, etc.,

BARRY EDWARDS

Fort Lauderdale

Florida