When the racist, hateful rantings of Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years came to light recently, it became apparent that Obama was much more about Race than he wants us to believe. He has campaigned as the post-racial candidate - the candidate who has gotten past race, who is not affected by it. The candidate who says we need to move past race. Obsessing on race doesn't bring down gas prices, and it doesn't put people who can't pay their mortgages back into their homes - he might say. To hear it from Obama, race is just not the issue in this campaign. However, he attends a black nationalist church (and pretends he didn't know what it was all about), and it is becoming more and more apparent that race IS the issue with his campaign.

I say this with great sadness, but I don't think America is ready for a black president. But not for the reasons you may think. Yes, we are more than ready to support a qualified black candidate, the problem is we're not ready to criticize him. And until we can become comfortable criticizing a black candidate the same way we would criticize a white one, then we're simply not ready for a black president. Can you imagine a president who could not be criticized? Can you imagine four years of nothing but cries of racism every time someone dares criticize the president?

After hearing Obama's pastor, it dawned on me that this supposed post-racial candidate was going to be all about race. And that he was going to use race against his opponents every chance he got. It was only inevitable when you consider he thinks racism is so rampant in America that America deserved 9/11 (as his beloved pastor said).

But of course he cannot be seen to bring race into the campaign. If it ever appears that he himself is trying to invoke the race card, his house of cards will come tumbling down so fast it'll make your head spin. However, it is quite possible to make it look like others are bringing race into the campaign. This happened yesterday at a campaign event in Indiana when a supporter in the crowd rose to ask Obama if he thought by calling him "elitist", Hillary had come dangerously close to calling Obama "uppity" - a traditional slur against blacks - as the supporter pointed out.

Obama quickly said no, he didn't think she meant anything racial by calling him elitist. But the point had been made. The racial genie had once again been released by the Obama campaign. It is apparent that whites are scared to death of criticizing him because no matter what you say it will somehow be twisted into a racial slur. If calling someone "elitist" is made into a racial slur, then calling them anything will be made into a racial slur. And remember, he was called elitist after he said poor, rural white people are just bitter that the government hasn't helped them more and therefore they "cling to guns and religion". If you can't call someone elitist for saying that without being called a racist, then you will not be able to criticize anything they do without being labeled a racist.

Until we can criticize a black candidate with the same enthusiasm and vigor with which we criticize white candidates, we are truly not ready for a black president. Sorry but I don't think I can stomach four years of racial polarization. Four years of hearing the charge racist thrown out against each and every person who has a policy disagreement with the president.