I am not a high-priced, nationally-recognized political guru like Mark Penn, James Carville, or David Axelrod.

I am a mere mortal not blessed with modest intelligence wrapped in the seductive candy-coating of white male privilege.

I do, however, know this: Obama needs to dunk on camera . . . often!

No, I don't mean dunking donuts in a good cup of "joe" at the corner diner in Smalltown, Pennsylvania just before it's time for the hard-scrabbled blue collar folk to clock in at the local factory whose votes Obama covets on April 22nd and beyond.

I mean: Take that rock to the hole, Black man!

Assuredly, his various advisors don't want to draw too much attention to him being Black and all -- particularly since the Pastor Wright debacle. But if there's one kind of Black guy almost all White working class guys like, it's ballers.

In fact, if you looked on the walls of 10,000 random rec rooms of White working class homes in exurbia and rural America, I'd bet you'd find nearly as many Black sports heroes on their walls than you would see White swimsuit models.

More importantly, you'd find more Black ballers posterizing White boys than White boys holding black bowling balls.

I get it: working class White guys bowl.

Guess what? Obama's no working class White guy.

He can spend the rest of his campaign through the Democratic Convention working on his form. But no matter how much he improves his bowling game, it will still be bowling.

And say what you like about what White working classfolk are in to. The simple fact remains that White guys do not live vicariously through professional bowlers -- be they White or Black (assuming there were Black professional bowlers).

Quiet as it's kept, many millions of White guys dream of being Black basketball players. And whatever draw bowling may have on that demographic, it will never surpass the beauty and catharsis of basketball. And it is this game that will indelibly mark Obama's viability and unique vitality in this race for president.

Simply put, Obama's got game and needs to show it. Racial stereotypes be damned!

I remember that scene on the tarmac back in the spring of 2004 when John Kerry and John Edwards tossed around the pigskin between campaign stops. It was Camelot 2.0. It was a thing of beauty, perhaps shallow beauty. But I knew that for many Americans -- men in particular, I think -- it was a reassuring thing to see otherwise rich Beltway politicos do what so many guys are programmed from pre-pubescence to learn: how to throw a good spiral. I'm not saying this highly gendered programming is right. I'm stating that it is what it is. And if Obama's true to himself, he'd be gripping a basketball -- not clumsily flinging a bowling ball.

Wind-surfing? Not so much.

Yes, basketball is a highly racialized sport. Yes, seeing Obama dunk on some unsuspecting Secret Service agent may make some subset of the White male electorate a bit self-conscious. But for the majority of American voting-age men, seeing Obama handle his business on the court will not in the least bit alienate him from his faux image as the first (Black) post-racial presidential candidate. In fact, it will racialize him in a way that insulates him the most from the vicissitudes of modern American racism. It will make Obama that Black guy who's the best positioned for White America to love: that charismatic, non-threatening Black athlete (who just happens to be smart).

Forget Obama the constitutional law professor. Forget Obama the civil rights attorney or community organizer. Forget the Ivy-educated Halfrican whose long-time pastor too many Whitefolk believe hates America.

Just let him clutch that rock, and all else will fade away when he drains it from the top of the key.

NOTE TO AXELROD: Let Obama shoot every chance he gets -- and in front of as many cameras that can fit into whatever high school gymnasium he visits in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Indiana and Kentucky.

Leave the bowling to Billary and McCain.

Why? Because Obama's athleticism on the court will be a slam dunk for him in at the polls. It ain't rocket science. But that doesn't make it any less true.

So, Barack: Lace up and "do you," bruh!