Supposedly the dirty little secret about race, at least pertaining to the evil Caucasium who run everything, is that all whites except liberals recognize and are determined to keep their privileges of paleness Whites who are liberals also recognize this privilege, are also unwilling to let it go, but feel guilty about it. Making odd irrational gestures from time to time, like listening to rap, wearing Malcolm X t-shirts, or voting for Barack Obama, makes the latter group feel better about themselves. I say bologna. The real, real secret for most of us in both groups, regardless of whether we think any goodies attach to our shading or lack of it, is that we don’t care. Not, don’t care as in Let Them Eat Cake, but don’t care as in, “Thank you, we understand your concern but do not rank it as urgent”. It does not show up in the data with the economy, the “war”, health care, education, crime or anything else in the list of Major Issues when reported on. Maybe race is a big issue to non-whites. Maybe, if Rev. Wright if to be counted, it is THE issue for some non-whites. Fine. But for most whites it is not an issue. We don’t think it is really relevant to anything now and even if it were, we have more important things—to us-- to worry about. Race is like the mohair industry—packing valid concerns, if you are a goatherd, or a mohair-related worker, but not of much interest if you are neither. So, when anyone says that we need a national dialogue about race—one only that can only be lead by a non-white race-member, presumably—the proper response is, “No, we don’t”. Maybe you do. I don’t. Kind of like when you are 12 and you tell your father, “We have a problem with my allowance”. Dad, if properly forged himself, should answer, “No, you have a problem with your allowance. I think it is fine. The fact that you are unhappy with your allowance is of some relevance to me, as I don’t want you unhappy, but WE have a problem with the mortgage payment. So don’t bug me.”

Of course I am not being insensitive, or racist or any such things. But this is 2008, not 1958, and the problems non-whites face are no longer any more paralyzing than those faced by overweight people, short people, attractiveness-challenged people, people who ain’t from around here, fundie Christians or folks with bad teeth. So long as people are not the same, they will not be treated the same. But that does not mean that the unfair treatment certain groups get in some circumstances rates as a social justice issue that should make the whole of society channel limited political resources into subjective problems perceived by a few. The expense, in that case, is real attention to objective problems we all face. How is that for a message of unity?

Hmmm….So maybe there are, below the horizon still, yet flashing visibly, some lightning bolts of Doubt regarding the Obami-Wan Kenobi-ness of the Force of Change Master. Maybe, just maybe some think, he is in actuality just a euphonious politician from Chicago-via-Djakarta. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se. Many politicians have grown up in Indonesia then towered over the world stage—Suharto and Sukarno, for example. And lots have sounded nice. But Obama is supposed to be different and special—in the good ways—and a bringer of change. Not a bringer of the same old same old liberal elitist hackology plus good oratorical skills. Oh, and a “diverse” and “multi-cultural” background, which the Left tallies as if it were a positive qualification for leadership all its own. (Though why people are supposed to want as a leader of their culture someone whose identification with it is tangential at best is an unexamined assumption of the Inclusionistas. We are after all talking about a president for the United States, not a secretary general for the United Nations. But, on the Left is a group that undoubtedly is offended that not just most but ALL popes are Catholic and think this shows a despicable lack of tolerance and diversity.)

But, no, the revelation that BO is nothing but a politician is not the epiphany in this strange story. The real revelation is that he NOT a politician. Not a good or competent one, anyway. The mistakes he has made—from long-time associations with racists and terrorists to his most recent debate displays of economic and foreign affairs illiteracy-- are the types of mistakes a rank amateur makes, not a seasoned professional. And when confronted with these anchors round his feet and boots in his mouth, the politically unsavvy BO is dumbstruck. You can see the gears slowing down between his well-oiled mouth and the highly specialized brain containing a program that takes a Webster’s Scholastic word-file and creates random sentences around “hope” and “change”. Wisps of smoke rise from his elephantine ears. He has no idea how to respond to this thing called criticism. He has never been closely examined, not once. The very fact that he should be called on as any other politico is called on daily is alien to him. He’s a self-avowed prize fighter—an imminent champion—who has never actually been hit. He thinks it hurts, and it is unfair. He doesn’t know the rules, hasn’t bothered to learn them, and when instructed refuses to learn. It is not hard for any advisor to say, “Don’t say stupid things that are going to get you in trouble with people who took civics in tenth grade and know better, and don’t hang around fringe figures that are going to damage your credibility with everyone to the right of Gus Hall. Regardless of what you really think you know or know you think.” It is hard, tho, to get an overconfident and inexperienced child-star to listen to the adults around him. The very fact that he doesn’t get it—doesn’t see why Rev. Wright is a problem regardless of context, or why supping with terrorists and criminals is bad thing—this provides all the proof there could be that he is not qualified to make decisions about much of anything, let alone running a country. Maybe Rev. Wright’s invocation for God to damn America and his pleas for BO’s election were very closely linked.