By LA Parker

OK, America, we have had our fun with idealistic dreams of a black man being president of these United States.Now we can return to the status quo that presidential candidate John Edwards voices his heartfelt disdain for before people actually begin believing this pipe dream.Barack Obama supporters packed the Trenton Marriott on Tuesday night before Queen Hillary Clinton unleashed a New Hampshire primary victory that put the political world, and our society, back into perspective.Obama may well be an agent of CHANGE (Come Help A Negro Get Elected), but America is not ready for a black man with a middle name of Hussein being leader of the most powerful nation in the world. A nation that, just two decades ago, struggled with the notion of putting a black man in as an National Football League quarterback, should not claim it’s prepared for a black signal-caller for the country.The relative proximity of Obama to Osama (bin Laden) and Hussein, as in Saddam, registers as political liability in a nation that remains traumatized by September 11 events, when terrorists employed hijacked airliners as projectiles into World Trade Center buildings, the Pentagon and one other plane that ditched in a Pennsylvania field.Political pundits attempted to understand how Obama lost an estimated double-digit lead in New Hampshire, although the answer is simple: A significant number of voters obviously were not forthcoming when asked whom they would support.In less politically correct terms, they lied.With the Obama hysteria in full force after a stirring Iowa caucus win, an understanding exists here why people would say they had hitched their support to the Illinois senator’s star. However, what people do in the privacy of their isolated voting booth often is an antithesis of what they espoused in the white hot light of a television camera or an inquiring pollster.Truth becomes an objectivity lost somewhere between one’s heart and mind during an exchange of information when we give the questioner answers they want to hear.While white voters might hedge their real thoughts, fearing the perception regarding their own persona might not be politically correct if they voice their support for anyone other than Obama, blacks face their own scrutiny.Those blacks who may believe Clinton or Edwards may be a better choice than Obama probably hold tight to those ideas instead of falling victim to “you ain’t black unless you vote for the black candidate” ridicule.If you listen to political prognostications, Obama will do well in South Carolina because half of the electorate is black. The assumption is that blacks will, should or must vote for the black brother, which is a blatantly racist conclusion.Let me understand this: Whites will vote for the better qualified candidate, but blacks in South Carolina, at least, will uplift Obama because of his race.Our march toward civil rights garnered numerous advantages, including one called freedom of choice.If one more person blathers that the Obama victory in Iowa represents some great leap forward for America and restores faith in these United States and a wonderful ascent of white people, the hope here is that Mother Nature directs a meteor to strike downtown Des Moines.One look at urban and rural areas that teem with violence, drugs, unemployment, murder, gun proliferation, inadequate health care, derelict education systems, poverty and prisons filled up with more black men than on college campuses, display real issues of this presidential race.Any suggestion that blacks have somehow arrived because Obama runs for president misrepresents the real black experience.L.A. Parker is a Trentonian award-winning columnist and reporter. His column appears on Thursday and Saturday. Reach him at laparker@Trentonian.com.