Obama "Tanned" a racist comment?

So the Italian PM the other day was discussing new leadership here in the USA and over in Russia yesterday, and came out with a joke that is at least certainly causing quite a stir over there. He commented that "I told him [Medvedev] that he [Obama] has everything you need to reach an agreement. He's young, handsome and even tan".

Now lets bare in mind something here, the man telling the joke here is someone who is always tan him self, and has spent thousands on plastic surgery trying to look much younger than his 72 years of age (it worked). So the question is, was this a racist joke? Honestly I don't think so, frankly I think it was just a joke, and more over a actually a complement. More over, personally I think that particularly given the historic nature of what happened, and what it means for race relations not just here in America, but also world wide.... Perhaps we all just need to lighten up some? Stop being so sensitive? I'm not saying our all of our race relation issues were solved yesterday, but maybe if yesterday brought us a long way down the road towards totally normalized race relations, perhaps what will take us the rest of the way is us just treating each other as total equals. By not being so overly sensitive, by being willing and able to laugh at each other and our selves.

So to anyone here in this nation that might be upset, and to my fellow secondary countrymen (dual citizenship with Italy here) all I have to say is. Lighten up and smile some!