The presidential primary season is finally over.  Whew.  It was exhausting and tiresome and redundant.  Obama vs. Clinton.  Clinton vs. Obama.  Oy.  Now the country turns its attention to the general election in November, a heavyweight battle mainly between Barack Obama and John McCain.  The economy.  The environment.  The “war.”  In the coming weeks and months, there is sure to be a slew of articles and programs outlining and detailing these crucial issues as the campaign ramps up and voters try to decide the next person who runs the country.

Keeping this in mind, I’m shocked at CNN.com, and not in the good way.  With issues like skyrocketing gas and oil prices and a weakening dollar, the news channel chooses to run an article that questions whether Barack Obama is black or biracial.  It’s a short piece that describes the “trouble” Obama and others have in identifying their racial identity.  OK, in fairness, it is remarkable that a minority man is running for president; it’s about freakin’ time.  But the shocking part of the article, to me, is the very last paragraph, in which Michaela Angela Davis (who?) says that “it’s a step in the right direction that we are even having this discussion at all.” 

Really?  Seriously?? 

To the contrary, Ms. Davis, a step in the right direction would be NOT having this discussion at all.  Progress would be focusing on the real governmental issues, not continually dwelling on race or gender or sexual preference or religion.  Those things shouldn’t matter when it comes to electing our next president, or anyone for that matter.  So Obama is part black, part white.  So what?  Hillary Clinton is a woman.  So what?  The only reason those qualifiers matter is that never before in the history of this country has a non-white man ever been elected to the Oval Office.  It’s important and I get that.  But it’s a tired non-issue; let’s please move on.  We should be past the point where gender, race, religion, and sexual preference in the political world are remarkable attributes.  The way I see it, progress already has been made simply for the fact that Obama and Clinton (both minorities in the political world) ran such a tightly contested primary.  And now that those primaries are over, let’s concentrate on what really matters.

You want progress?  How about NOT talking about Obama’s racial identity for once.  Now THAT is a fresh idea.