Look, in the middle of this economic crisis and financial meltdown, you have to wonder: why is this election close? The answer is: race. All those negative answers to questions about whether Barack Obama has enough experience, or can be commander-in-chief or...whatever you want to choose, boil down to certain people won't vote for a black person for president. Simple as that.

   What does that mean within labor? Fact is, a certain percentage of the people who fall into the above category are union members--and union members from battleground states.

   Which is why I offer the following. At the Democratic Convention, I happened to mosy in on a breakfast meeting of the Ohio delegation. Everyone knows what Ohio means in the election--it doomed John Kerry in 2004. Unknown to me, the featured speaker that morning was Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. For those not in the know, Trumka was the president of the United Mine Workers for a long time until he was elected to the Federation's post in 1989--part of the Sweeney team election that ousted the then-old guard lead by Lane Kirkland (actually, for a short time, Tom Donahue, who had been Kirkland's secretary-treasurer assumed the post mid-term when Kirkland stepped down but Donahue was seen as simply the extension of the Kirkland Administration...hmmm...echos of the current politica l debate?).

   Anyway, I had my video guy shoot this video. You have to be impressed with Trumka's willingness to take on race head on--and I believe that must be done throughout the country. You can't avoid it and it is foolish to not talk about it openly. So, take a look, comment and pass it on: