Sometimes the political in political correctness is so deadening that it paralyzes free and uninhibited speech. Just ask Gov. Ed Rendell. On a visit to the Post-Gazette editorial board Feb. 6, Mr. Rendell was asked about the race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (whom he supports) for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In his typically candid way, he offered his now-notorious comments about Pennsylvania -- that there are conservative whites here not ready to vote for an African-American candidate, just as some did not rally to Lynn Swann when he ran for governor. Mr. Rendell did note, however, in the Illinois senator's case that this was "counterbalanced by Obama's ability to bring new voters into the electoral pool."

When this was reported in a news story last Sunday, readers apparently took it just as the editorial board did -- not as a shocking disclosure, but as an observation that was arguably true. It was only after Post-Gazette columnist Tony Norman mentioned it on Tuesday that the blogosphere exploded in indignation and the airwaves boiled with partisan misinterpretation.

The governor was a racist! He was injecting race into the debate as an agent of the Clinton campaign! Well, no. Anyone who knows Mr. Rendell knows he is not a racist -- the trajectory of his career proves it. Nor was he injecting race into the campaign. He was just answering a question. As for making political hay, it was a strange sort of hay that acknowledged Sen. Obama's ability to attract new voters.

Sometimes, as Dr. Freud supposedly said, a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes an observation is just an observation. But political correctness is always a curse when it seeks to put a straitjacket on anyone who would speak honestly. And race in America is a subject that needs straight, honest talk more than any other.