In an article about Obama’s statement Tuesday on the killing of Michael Brown and the violence and looting in Missouri that followed, The Los Angeles Times’ Cathleen Decker said that despite the president’s weakened public standing, by virtue of his office and his biracial heritage, Obama’s still America’s best chance at bringing racial healing.

Decker was reacting to a statement released by the White House Tuesday in which Obama called Brown’s death “heartbreaking” and expressed sympathy for his family and community, but also urged the community to respond "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds":

“I know the events of the past few days have prompted strong passions, but as details unfold, I urge everyone in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the country, to remember this young man through reflection and understanding. We should comfort each other and talk with one another in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds. Along with our prayers, that’s what Michael and his family, and our broader American community, deserve.”

Decker argued that, just as in the case of Trayvon Martin, Obama by virtue of his role as president and “his birth” is still the best positioned for reconciling black and white America:

By virtue of his role as president, Obama represents all Americans, including Zimmerman and the unidentified cop in Missouri who fired the most recent fatal shot. By virtue of his birth, he is keenly aware of the punishments often visited on African American boys and men. Even with his public standing weakened by six tumultuous years in office, he remains the American best positioned to explain each side to the other, to try to seed understanding among those still listening.

Decker notes that Obama’s statement on Brown has a more measured tone than that of his emotional response to Trayvon Martin, when he deliberately made it personal, saying, “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.” Decker suggests that while such personalization is a positive thing for helping America, the president’s less emotional response to Brown might be in part due to Eric Holder’s announcement that the Justice Department is investigating Brown’s shooting, as well as the president's desire to not stoke the fire that has already gotten out of control in Missouri.

Despite the optimism about Obama's ability to bring racial healing, however, Decker admits that under Obama's leadership the country seems "not that much further along" on the issue:

Not much distance had been trod in the two years between the deaths of the two young men, and the country seemed not that much further along in what Obama described in his elaboration last year as “this long, difficult journey.”

Of course critics of the president would point to his consistently divisive rhetoric and the reflex of his administration (particularly Eric Holder) and the Democrats to play the race card as only making the racial divide in the country worse.