The "Elephant in the Room" is becoming more and more difficult to hide. That elephant is "race." All Black Obama supporters should have no delusions about difficult it will be to get him elected. Here is an interesting observation from Jack Cafferty at CNN:
"Race is arguably the biggest issue in this election, and it's one that nobody's talking about.
The differences between Barack Obama and John McCain couldn't be more well-defined. Obama wants to change Washington. McCain is a part of Washington and a part of the Bush legacy. Yet the polls remain close. Doesn't make sense...unless it's race."
Time magazine's Michael Grunwald says race is the elephant in the room. He says Barack Obama needs to tread lightly as he fights back against the McCain-Palin campaign attacks.
He writes, "Over the past 18 months, Obama has been attacked as a naive novice, an empty suit, a tax-and-spend liberal, an arugula-grazing élitist and a corrupt ward heeler, but the only attacks that clearly stung him involved the Rev. Jeremiah Wright - attacks that portrayed him as an angry black man under the influence of an even angrier black man."
The angry black man, he goes on to say, doesn't have broad appeal in White America. And even though the makeup of our population is changing, whites are still the majority in this country. How ironic that the giant step forward of nominating an African American for president may ultimately keep us mired in the past.
The good news about this discusson is that it is being led by White observers -- confronting their own demon, racism. As this elephant is being revealed, Barack Obama has the potential to benefit from some whites who will vote for him to "prove that they are not racists."
What an interesting twist that would be.