Hot off the virtual presses:

"Religion and race are still powerful forces in rural America, and whether Obama can gain ground in traditional rural safe havens for Republicans could hinge on whether voters focus more on economic issues or cultural values when they go to the polls. Likability is also likely to be a strong factor.

"Republican Barbara Dettloff, 72, a retired bartender from Racine, Ohio, an Appalachian river town with about 750 people, voted for Bush in 2004 and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in this year's Republican primary. She's voting for Obama in November because 'I think he's nice and I think he's sincere in what he says.'

"But, she added, 'I'm probably the only person in this town that does.'

"Indeed, many of her friends have told her they're either not voting for Obama or are staying home. 'They just won't vote for him because he's black,' Dettloff said."

There it is.  Barbara Dettloff has matter-of-factly acknowledged what we'd better admit and discuss:  Some people won't vote for Obama because he's black.

I'd love to think that it's about the issues and the values about the candidates, but whether hidden or overt, when some voters look at the candidates and see that one is white and the other one is black, and that's all that matters to them.

I've been reading commentary and posts recommending— and sometimes urging—that the discussion about Obama be his positions, talents, and values and not his race.  That's great, if voting for a black candidate isn't an issue for you.

But race is an issue for millions of Americans, for whatever reason.  And I contend that ignoring the race issue is dangerous, because assuming color blindness allows people who are color "sighted" to act on racial feelings without judgment.  If no one calls them on their prejudice, hatred, preconceptions, traditions, ignorance, or any of the other self-justifications people use for not voting for a black person, it's as bad as giving those justifications—no matter how specious or reprehensible—tacit approval.

The race issue has to be discussed openly.  Every self-justification masks racism, and only racism.  Justifications need to be laid open, dissected, and then shown for what they are—indefensible.

I can already hear the argument that doing this would make a campaign of hope turn ugly.  I will state unequivocally here and now:  It already is ugly.

Even if an open discussion about why "they just won't vote for him because he's black" doesn't result in one vote changed, I want all those people whose racism has heretofore been unchallenged to know that they've been outed. 

Talking about racism against Obama isn't what's ugly; the racists are.