'Electability' as a code word for race in '08

No one should be surprised that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's controversial media blitz reignited a racial firestorm.

At a time when sound bites and YouTube define political reality, Wright's emergence from the shadows he cast on Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy gave the front-runner's detractors what they needed most: ammunition before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

And they are firing their fusillade without thinking of either the short- or long-term damage to their own candidacies or to race relations in America. Talk about circular firing squads!

It's time to -- how should I mildly put it? -- move on or agree to have an honest conversation about race relations in America today.

To Obama's opponents and those carrying the dirty water, it's all about winning, not governing or leading a diverse, multiethnic and multicultural society.

Our strength has always come from our ability to unite as one people, one indivisible nation. Especially in hard economic times and when our nation is at war, let's not fake it: It's time we all give credence to our country's motto: e pluribus unum -- out of many, one.

With a wink and a nod, Obama's detractors and political opponents use code words such as "electability" to drive home the most divisive of messages: Obama's 20-year association with what some in the media world label as a "radical" pastor is now new fodder to make him a "drag on the Democratic ticket" or an easy target for the Republicans.

Pick your weapons

carefully.

This comes on the heels of the right and newly emerging "liberal" hate machines in on the chorus that Obama is a modern-day version of McGovern, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry -- an elitist out-of-touch liberal -- code translation: gutless and Godless -- out of the mainstream and clearly not ready to become our nation's commander-in-chief.

Obama's burden was placed on him the day he first entered to pray at the United Trinity Church of Christ. And any explanation for why he stayed for so long will not end the shameful exploitation of race in this presidential campaign or in American politics.

Race remains the most explosive, corrosive and exploitive subject in American life. Just once, can we have a healthy dialogue and conversation?

With such an honest dialogue, America will more quickly reach a future in which our children will not be burdened by carrying the sorrow and tears of so many who have been stained, burned, humiliated, lynched, murdered, alienated, frustrated, angered and saddled with racism.

Never mind the political cost to Obama or the fortunes to the Democratic Party, which has lost countless elections because we can't seem to address race honestly when the issue stands before us.

This is bigger than Obama now. It's about our children's future and us.

What this should be about is reaching out to everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, color, age, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

Even in the midst of an economic recession, an endless war and much to worry about here at home, we Americans have a lot for which to be thankful. Former President Ronald Reagan was so right; we are an optimistic people. We have each other to lean on in tough times. (Thank you, America, for your generosity to my home state of Louisiana during and after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.) We indeed have each other.

We also have our faith and our shared history. I just wish those running for president would help lead us into the future and not take us back to a painful past without the healing grace of understanding that a meaningful dialogue about race would provide.

Until that moment comes, I believe Obama did the right thing in distancing himself even further from Wright, his incendiary words and his self-righteous arrogance.

When news broke that Wright would break his silence, I thought the moment of truth would finally break free from shackling downpour of lies. I was wrong. Wright's description of the black church left me speechless.

His nonexistent monolithic black church was not any black church I had ever attended and was certainly not the churches of my mother, who was baptized Baptist but later converted to Catholicism.

For some, what Wright did in speaking up only confirmed what Obama's detractors had told the vast majority of Americans.

But what Obama did should confirm to the millions of people who voted for him that their faith was not displaced: Obama is a decent man, a man of principle who understands that speaking out on race is the right thing to do even though it may result in their having to wait at least another four years for the new politics they so eagerly yearn for.

This election is about us, the American people. It's up to us to confirm which leader is the one we need the most: Obama, Clinton or McCain.

I have said repeatedly that neither race nor gender nor age should be the basis upon which we elect our presidents, nor should it be the reason we don't elect them.

Do I really have to add pastors to that admonition? For heaven's sake, I hope not.

Political commentator Donna Brazile is a former campaign manager for Al Gore.