The magician was tied into a straight jacket, wrapped in chains that were padlocked together and lowered head first into a tank of water.  The curtain was raised around the tank and the assistants walked in circles around the hidden water tank waving their arms and smiling for the audience.  After a couple of minutes, just as the audience was getting nervous, the curtain dropped and the tank was empty.  The audience gasped, and from the back of the theater the magician came walking down the aisle toward the stage.  As more people saw him the applause grew, until he climbed back onto the stage and the crowed roared with approval.

When it comes to magic, half of the trick is performed by the assistant.  It's all about misdirection.  The pretty girl dances around, waves her arms and keep the audience's attention focused on her so they can't see that there's nothing magic about the magician.  After getting out of the tank he drops through a trap door, runs under the stage and around to the back of the theater for his dramatic entrance.

This is the same thing the Obama campaign is doing with the race card.  They bring it up periodically and rightfully catch some flack for it.  But the mission is accomplished nonetheless..  The seed planted, liberal guilt kicks in and minds starts to wander - am I voting for Obama because he's black?  Am I not voting for him because he's black?  Should his race even matter?  And just like that, the audience is distracted and no one pays attention to trick.

The real truth is that race doesn't matter in this election.  What matters is the substance under the skin - and here is where Obama's act begins to fall apart.  The thing that is going to do the most damage to the country is quite possibly his economic policy.  The dollar is weak, but getting stronger.  The housing market is showing signs of life.  We've taken a hit over gas prices this year, but seasonal demand and the easing of tensions in Iran have begun to bring prices down.  If Obama wins, he will raise taxes across the board first by increasing the capital gains tax from 15 to 28% (possiblly cratering the stock market in the process) and then by letting the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010.  This second one is especially devious, because he's made all this noise about raising taxes on the people making over $150,000 and NOT raising taxes on the working class.  By letting the tax cuts expire, he can say that HE didn't raise taxes, Bush did by not fighting to make the cuts permanent.  He is also talking the language of protectionism, retreating from NAFTA and raising tarriffs.  These are the exact kinds of things that got us into and then deepened the depression in 1930 and beyond.  The depression wasn't caused by the market crash in 1929, rather the crash was caused by talk of trade protection.  President Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley tarriff bill in 1930 and sealed the economy's fate.  Steve Forbes refers to Obama as Herbert Hoover Obama for just these reasons (Forbes Magazine, June 30, 2008, P20).  Rather than getting the country out of the depression, the same types of actions by Roosevelt (raising taxes on an already depressed labor force) prolonged the time it took for the economy to recover. 

So keep in mind the magician's trick - don't watch the assistant, watch him.  You'll see that very quickly the luster wears off the golden child.  The GOP theme for the DNC will prove true - A mile high, but an inch deep.