Obama can't talk about race even if he wants to

This has absolutely nothing to do with his mixed racial upbringing, or his straddle of many worlds. It has everything to do with politics.

If Obama spoke out on race he'd confirm the deep suspicions of the right that he's a closet racial panderer, a la Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. He'd also get creamed as a Democrat who tilts to minorities. Democratic presidents and candidates Clinton, Gore, and Kerry in four presidential elections avoided that tag like the plague. It was deemed a political kiss of death. Obama followed the same script to the letter during the presidential campaign. He talked race only when he was shoved to the wall and forced to denounce his former pastor Jeremiah Wright. That was the price to save his campaign.