Which Races?

And here's another huge problem with 4th edition: too many PC races, some of which are insane.  Dragonborn and Eladrin are pretty big here.  They should be in the Monster Manuals if anything.  Same with the Tiefling.  Being a race in a PHB is kind of a status declaration: that those in the front of the book are more prominent in the world they have created than those that can be found in the Monster Manuals.

To fix this, let's begin with the basics:

Human
Elf
Dwarf
Halfling
Gnome
Half-Orc

Excepting the gnome, these are the races we've all grown up with, and, for better or worse, Tolkien is still affecting our perceptions of how fantasy characters should be.  So, let me look and see which additional races I would include, and why.

Ok, I admit, there's only one race I'd like to add, just to give the party an option of having a really out-there addition to the party: the shardmind.  I like this race because of its role in that big Gate thing that kept the Cthuloid monsters away from Earth, and when they gained sentience post its destruction, they still try to kill off as many creatures from the Far Realm as possible.  This is amazing for character motivation, and they're prime material to be a spellcasting class.  Beyond that, any additional character races should be in the back of the MMs.