Our current economy is failing. Our efforts to fight terrorism overseas have faltered. Our environment is slowly deteriorating. Our debt is ballooning. Global fuel supplies are dwindling. We would think that the politicians of Washington D.C. and their election managers would see these crises as the most important issues facing our country—the issues we need to address and resolve. Most of us would expect the campaigners to give all of their attention to the issues that will define our generation, the problems that gravely need solutions. But they are not.

Ever since early March, the vast majority of our attention has fallen on one man and Barack Obama’s relationship with that one man. Questions such as “how will we solve the energy crisis?” have degenerated into “is Obama a racist?” And what was to be a campaign about the issues, as McCain, Obama, and Clinton all once pledged, has now degenerated into the same old politics, the same old smear tactics, the same old tricks with which Karl Rove once beleaguered our nation. The issue of Reverend Wright’s controversial past has suddenly led many Americans to believe that Barack Obama is a bigot, and not the man striving for unity that he has been for his entire life.

But why have such ridiculous assertions persisted, almost two months after the issue of Reverend Wright’s comments surfaced? Obama has publicly denounced the Reverend’s comments, claiming that although he doesn’t agree with Wright, he also does not want to simply alienate those he does not agree with. Obama made it very clear that he is not a racist, and his past has supported this claim. Even McCain openly distanced himself from the attacks on Obama, saying on Fox News, “But I do know Senator Obama. He does not share those [Rev. Wright’s] views.” We would hope that Democrats and Republicans alike would follow suit, and certainly would expect Democrats to support Obama. But one woman from Barack Obama’s very own party hasn’t done the same, and instead has bluntly claimed, “Wright would not have been my pastor.”

Hillary Clinton has joined Karl Rove in distracting our nation from the real problems that we need to face. Instead of showing that she can put aside politics to achieve solutions, Sen. Clinton has shown to us that she cares more for her own political gain than she does for solving the issues that she claims to champion. While claiming to be the solution to the evils of the Bush administration, Sen. Clinton has shown us that she’ll play the same political games that he did—Democrat style.

The sad fact is that Hillary’s games have worked for both her and the many who stand to gain from her tactics; she has persuaded millions of voters that Obama’s associations with Wright are egregious enough that Obama should not be president. Hillary has resurrected her campaign by keeping the Wright issue alive. And by fueling the Wright fire, she has succeeded in dividing our nation once again, while inanely associating one man’s views with another’s.

By the same token, should we chide President Clinton for appearing in a picture with Rev. Wright, or for inviting the controversial pastor to a prayer breakfast? Are we going to denounce McCain and Clinton for every controversial figure that has supported them, every person with whom they have interacted, and then associate their views with these figures?

It’s time to stop playing games and start talking about facts. We must stop debating the obvious—Obama is obviously not a racist—and start contemplating the complex. The upcoming presidency is just too important to do otherwise.