This season of hope and change has brought with it many lies and deceitful players. They seek to confuse by mixing truth with spin or craft sentences with vacuous meanings. As fate would have it the intentions of one is not in question. Enter the man representing the Nation of Islam, Lewis Farrakhan.

Farrakhan addressed an estimated crowd of 20,000 people at the annual Saviours’ Day celebration. Careful not to explicitly endorsed Barack Obama, Farrakhan did spend most of the nearly two-hour speech praising the Illinois senator.

On the flip side Obama’s campaign spokesman Bill Burton said, “Senator Obama has been clear in his objections to Minister Farrakhan’s past pronouncements and ‘has not solicited’ the minister’s support.”

From this, it would be easy to conclude that Obama has no need of Farrakhan. It’s also just as easy to claim Farrakhan approves of Obama, but won’t go so far as to endorse him. At least this is their relationship for public consumption.

The problem is that we are talking politics and the one thing we must understand about politics is that nothing is ever as it seems. Remember that it’s not likely anyone would spend two hours praising a candidate and then not endorse him. There must be a reason why.

At this stage, Obama realizes that he can’t afford to be associated with the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan is also aware of this and for him to say, “The Nation of Islam endorses Barack Obama for President” would only damage Obama’s chances. However, we must remember that a candidate can find support or endorsement in many ways.

During his speech, Farrakhan compared Obama to the religion’s founder, Fard Muhammad. “A black man with a white mother became a savior to us,” he told the crowd of mostly followers. “A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall.”

“This young man is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better,” he said. “This young man is capturing audiences of black and brown and red and yellow. If you look at Barack Obama’s audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed.”

Like Obama, Farrakhan’s has also expressed hope and change throughout is career. Is the Obama and Farrakhan definition of change the same? How can we discount the fact that Farrakhan gives no reason of substance for Obama to be president other than the color of his skin? In case you have any doubt, this is not a qualification.

With Farrakhan’s non-endorsement endorsement, could it be something is afoot? When it comes to politics anything is possible. Again, we must ask the question, “Who is the real Obama?”

UPDATE: Farrakhan has decided to personally endorse Obama since his appearance at the Saviors’ Day Celebration. This suggests that Farrakhan may believe that his personal endorsement is not as damaging as the Nation of Islams endorsement. It may even mean that he is doing it more for himself than Obama. I wouldn’t think Obama will be happy either way. It should certainly bring about some interesting reactions from the Obama camp in the days to come.