There are things that need to be said, and there are things that don't need to be said.  I guess the issues of race and gender are so overt in the 2008 race that, perhaps, they're better left unsaid.

Today, on cnn.com, a headline that paraphrased Barack Obama as making education and poverty bigger issues than race, and proved what had been brewing in my mind for a few days now. 

Everyone knows that Obama is black; everyone, that is, who is not blind.  And not everyone is okay with that.

If Barack Obama was prominently playing the race card, it is likely that he could reciprocate Jesse Jackson's flop in his run for the presidency.  Jackson, who was also hurt by his apparent, and inexplicable degradation of Jewish people, is famous primarily as an African American activist.  Those who believe in African American equality may support him, but, as the loudest of all those screaming for their rights, those who do not support the cause will use him as a scapegoat.

Barack Obama will not reap any benefits from flaunting his race.  Those who (like me) think it is time for a black president, and believe it to be an embarrassment that we have not had one already, will rally behind him (supposing he maintains stellar viewpoints and seems halfway reasonable).  We know he is black.  But those who are against a black president, aka troglodytes, will view him more moderately than if he was taking to the streets, reciting the absurdly Aesopian Jesse Jackson rhymes, like "It's not about black and white, it's about wrong and right." 

But then again, that's all its really about, right?  Wrong and right?  I believe it is, and that is precisely the reason that the black and white part should be minimalized as much as possible.