I thought it beautiful and inspiring that he was open to, eager for, friendships from all sides, that even though he cared passionately about political questions, politics was not all, cannot be all, that people can be liked for their essence, for their humor and good nature and intelligence, for their attitude toward life itself.

“Now you have narco drug lords who are helping to finance the Taliban, so we’ve got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops that we are not just air raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there,” Obama said.

Campaign spokesman Reid Cherlin said Obama was not endorsing the current Bush policy, which consists solely of air raids and bombing of civilians.

Maybe Mr. Cherlin takes the credit for that opinion on current Bush policy. Or maybe it’s the author’s opinion; it’s hard to tell. Regardless, I’m sure there are a lot of brave U.S. servicemen and women with boots on Afghani soil who would beg to differ, like Major Dan at AfghaniDan or B at Going Down Range.

And one more thing: Why is he always making a big deal about being a black man?

“Look, I am already doing battle with the old guard. I can tell you they didn’t see me coming. They are just saying, ‘Who is this guy, Barack Obama, 46-year-old, black guy? We didn’t plan on him,’’’ Obama said.

Please don’t label me a racist for asking. After all, his mother is white; not that that matters, nor does it matter to me that he’s black. I suppose I understand that someone who’s of mixed race would choose to identify with one race over the other(s). (I have to say “suppose” because that’s not the case for me, so I can’t honestly say I understand.) My wife is from India; at some point, our children might choose to identify with one race over the other. So be it.

Speaking at the Black Journalists Convention in Las Vegas last Saturday, Obama addressed the question over whether America is ready for a black president:

But then Pitts asked that last question: What gives Obama hope that America is ready for a black president? The room fell eerily silent . . . .

Obama’s blackness has come up plenty of times before. He’s often asked whether he’s “black enough” by the African American community and his stock response – the one he deftly delivered during the CNN-YouTube Democratic Presidential debate – has been to joke that folks never ask that question when he’s trying to catch a cab in New York.

But that was hardly his answer Friday afternoon.

Instead – for the first time in more detail that I’ve ever seen – Obama took the opportunity to get at what he considers the heart of the matter, actually demanding that black journalists themselves are to blame for missing the point. Skin color, his record in public service, the issues – none of this suggests he’s not ‘black enough’ and yet questions over his blackness persist, he put to the crowd of black journalists.

It’s “puzzling,” he said. Why is this?

But the question was rhetorical. Professor Obama then stepped onto the stage, answering his own question, and suggesting that perhaps the real issue is a basic mistrust in black America of a black candidate.

“What it really does is really lay bare, I think, that we’re still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong,” he said, adding it’s the same sort of suspicion many blacks face when they attend a predominately white Ivy League institution.

And that’s when he issued this provocative challenge: Instead of asking Obama if he’s black enough, black journalists should dig deeper, and ask why there exists this mistrust in black America of a black man like Obama running for office?

Bottom line: Obama nailed it. The question of his blackness has always been a ridiculous one. And maybe now he won’t have to answer it again.

Agreed. It is a ridiculous question. And yet, on Monday in Nashua, he brought it up, as if being a black Senator in a room full of the “old guard” (who, by the way, represent many different races, but, well, that’s beside the point) is somehow important to him being elected president.

Obama calls himself a “hope monger” (or, at least, he agrees with those who call him that).

I just hope he doesn’t get elected president. But not because he’s black.

I watched parts of it early Sunday on C-SPAN. I heard a lot that I like, and I think the Republicans have some strong candidates. Mitt Romney, when asked what was one of his most regrettable mistake, cited his support for abortion rights in Massachusetts when he was personally opposed to abortion. Mike Huckabee spoke strongly in support of the fair tax.

Best statement? Tom Tancredo, on his most regrettable mistake: “I have no doubt of what the greatest mistake in my life has been, and that is that it took me probably thirty years before I realized that Jesus Christ is my personal savior.”

Amen.

My prayers and concerns are with him and his family.