The media, the politicians, & the lazy-ass university crowd seem to want race to be a major issue in the current election campaign. I've got bills to pay, kids to take care of & a job to go too.... all issues infinitely more important to me than a "conversation on race relations in the United States". But if that's what THEY want to talk about, let talk about it.

Regardless of what is said, Barrack Obama would not even be considered as a viable presidential candidate unless his skin color was dark. He's doesn't fit the accepted definition of that contrivance "African-American"; his mother is Caucasian and his biological father (not to be confused with the guys who raised him) is Kenyan.

What national level policy credentials does Obama bring to the table? Two years in the senate & a year on the campaign trail? An effete, leftist education. 20 years of intimate association with a duplicitous, racist bigot. Taking tea with a unrepentant, terrorist bomber. Membership in the Bar Association. Big, floppy ears, nicely whitened teeth, and an ability to use lots and lots of words to say precisely nothing. WHAT Credentials !!! Yes, darkened skin is what it is all about for Obama.

The GOP, on the other hand.... THEY do not want a Black candidate. No, no, no !!! They had a candidate who is African-American, supremely well educated, has years of experience in both academia and national governance AND an appeal to their core issues and massive base constituency - Alan Keyes. How about these for credentials (compare them to Obama's and those of the schizophrenic, John McCain):

Ph.D in Government from Harvard

Speaks French and has studied Spanish, Russian & ancient Greek

Interim President of Alabama A&M University

11 years experience in the U.S. State Department

Served in the U.S. Foreign Service & sat on Reagan's National Security Council

Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council

and on and on and on...

Why did the GOP shut Keyes out of contention for the party nomination? Why did they refuse to let him participate in most of their televised debates? Why is he shut down, while the intellectually scattered, John McCain, who appeals only to the party-power structure is put forth as 'the best we can do in a desperate situation'?

On the surface, IT SURE SEEMS RACIST. Go a bit deeper, and I think you'll find that the GOP power structure is afraid of Keyes' intelligence ~ they are afraid that they won't be able to manage him like they can the cognitively fractured McCain or the floppy-eared, intellectually vapid Barack Hussein Obozo.