This is simply pathetic on Obama's part.

He's pre-empting racial tactics by Republicans by criticizing them for using racial tactics... before they even use them. If, as Senator Obama says, race should not be an issue in this campaign, as it absolutely SHOULD NOT be, then why is he, without prompt, bringing it up in the media? This is straight from the play book of Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton. This is victimization before he's even a victim. It's very calculated and politically motivated, and it is VERY cynical.

This as well as his constant use of collectivist themes ("The rich suck," "We need UNITY, but under my plans, and the rest of you can screw off," "Individual salvation depends on collective salvation," etc.) render him a very poorly-suited vessel for bringing about a post-racial politics. Someone who says something "Republicans can't run on their record," in doing so inferring that every Republican out there supports every policy of the Bush Administration and is complicit in the consequences of them, is someone who is clearly a big supporter of using group identity to define people and clearly not interested in the value of people as individuals. Only destroying the very idea of collectivism and embracing the idea that we are all unique individuals with the same inalienable rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness can defeat racism. A part of this process means voting for Bob Barr instead of Senator Barack Obama.