The other part of the poll is how rational are the views on blacks held by whites. As by daughter points out, she does not have any blacks in her AP/IB classes in high school even though the school is 10% black. Asian students will openly express their comptent for the lazy behavior of blacks yet white kids all learn to mouth the politically correct line that everything is due to anti-black racism.

I'm black. And, I'm a racist. And a sexist. And an ageist. And a chauvinist (too many smart Asians and East Asians, here in Sillyvalley). And a uglyist. And a non-Equestrianist (English-style, only, please). And (related) a Ride-mountain-bike-on-riding-trailsist. In short, I'm one stupid, prejudiced, SOB, and as such should not be trusted to make important decisions, like who to vote for.

To me, the most interesting thing about this “study” is the window turns they had to make to try and get people to be honest about their feelings. I mean, people seem to be perfectly willing, even proud, to own up to other irrational beliefs. What makes believing that skin-color has some magical property that affects people's personalities and proclivities worse than believing that the positions of huge balls of matter, millions, billions, trillions, of miles away can somehow do the same, and even predict the future? Like that guy said, in the Star Trek episode

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/By_Any_Other_Na...

“Strange creatures, these humans.”

Hahaha… the convention dates were set while Obama was still considered a long shot. As far as the columns…. those (and similar columns) have been used for thousands of years…. If the DNC wasn't going to use columns as the backdrop, what would have used? The decor out of a Hooters restaurant?

Look, for years politics have been driven by sexism, racism, etc. Funny how no one complained about it until an African American (or a woman) had a chance of actually becoming the prez.

All day I've been tossing around in my mind what I could say about this topic. And the more I thought about it the more complex it got in my mind. I suppose it's only human to seek and/or to be drawn to simple solutions to complex issues. But by the same token, as logical beings, most of us know better than to put much faith in instinctive, knee-jerk reactions.

In that regard I hereby proclaim that unless Obama screws up in some unconscionable way, at this point the likelihood is very high that I will vote for him to become our next president. And thanks to Greendream's link, perhaps now more than ever it's clear to me that my decision has nothing to do with skin color. Apparently I'm a honkey for Obama.

I agree with you on that. In fact this morning I was wondering if McCain/Palin were to lose if Palin would stand a chance of being nominated by the GOP for prez. some day. Part of my thoughts include what she would have to do to gain the knowledge and experience to become a solid candidate for prez….

Maybe she'll join the the Alaska Independent Party and they'll nominate her in a few years. After learning about all this stuff about Alaska, including the amount of money they take from the rest of the US and Palin's increasing the tax on energy companies to give to her fellow Alaskans (and those costs are passed on to the rest of us), I'd be willing to vote for Palin for prez some day, as long as she promised to push Alaska's succession through….

This middle-age white liberal just hopes she lives to see it. To tell you the truth, even tho I was a HC supporter, I got teary-eyed when he was nominated last month.
One thing is for certain- we will be seeing a lot more diversity in WH races from here on out.

GreenDreams is right. It seems to be a human condition which probably won't go away unless we're attacked by aliens from outer space.

So, we may want to paint racism as “ignorance” or worse, as several commenters here have implied. And, Sil, we want to think of sexism as ignorant or evil too. But, sadly, we all carry these patterns. I can virtually guarantee that Sil will “fail” the gender bias test and that T-Steel will “fail” the skin color test.

African Americans show anti-black bias (as do whites) and women show anti-woman bias (as do men). Go ahead. See for yourself.

Now, how it will affect the election is uncertain. Many of us will overcome our automatic ingrained bias and vote rationally. Some won't.

Also, Obama's campaign knows this. That's why they're working extra hard to get young and minority voters out to the polls to overcome the white bigot vote.

Another important point is to appeal to white working class voters on economic issues. With the chaos of late white working class voters are more willing to listen to Obama than if times were smoother.

And THAT's why the Wall Street crisis helps Obama. It reminds working class whites than economic issues matter more than culture war crap.

I just couldn't help myself… LOL!

To quote another poster here: “You both seem terribly depressed when the polls are down, then chipper and happy when [your guy] is ahead. This emotional rollercoaster can’t be good for [you]“.

Picking and choosing only the polls and internals that agree with you position while at the same time denigrating others for doing the same seems disingenuous… to say the least.

It seems we're all looking forward to the 4th of November… and to “our sides” victory. It will be interesting. :-0

Nate Silver.

No I disagree… first of all sweeping problems under the rug has never made those problems go away. That reminds me of Romney's response when Obama admitted to using drugs…. Romney said he didn't think Obama should ever admit to such a thing. Personally I think if you're going to combat a problem then you should stand up and speak about it. If there is a personal story behind it which shows that you understand it and can connect to the person who wants to do drugs, then you become more effective. Back to the point of the post, so we need to talk about race.

Second of all is the charge that Joe is fueling this… what, exactly is being fueled by discussing this issue? If the post were about McCain calling Michelle Obama something racist (and it depends on the tone of the post) then that would probably just add fuel to a fire. But this is discussing an issue that could cost Obama the election. Not addressing it WILL cost Obama the election.

So I think it is important to get out there and talk to people about their racist beliefs. But given how deep-seated racism is, it is important to be very careful with the approach. Such a conversation might be how you think other people are racist and some of their views. A person who is struggling with their racist views may not be comfortable talking about their views (depends on the relationship you have with them) so an abstract conversation might be the best approach. Of course this approach won't work for everyone but that's not the point. The point is to discuss racism and educate people. That's the only way racism can be defeated. Don't expect those people to suddenly see the light at the end of the conversation- they won't. But they should be given something to think about. it's a slow process but if they eventually develop a more positive attitude towards their fellow citizens then that's what's important.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/108040/Candidate-Sup...

This could be more a statement of comfort than race.

Yes, I certainly understand how and why whites think like this. But what's ironic is that the description applies more to both McCain/Palin than to Obama…..

Obama is anything but lazy (he possesses the mental discipline necessary to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard. Whereas Palin didn't do well in the five colleges she went to to cobble together a degree in journalism (even getting a D in macroeconomics….) and McCain choose to party at the Naval Academy, graduating at number 894 in his class of 899.

As far as violence…. hahaha…. that's particularly ironic…. In McCain we have a trained soldier who shoots first and ask questions later… a man who wants to bomb Iran and who seems to think military action can solve more problems than diplomacy (Obama favors resolving issues through diplomacy before invading and bombing them). And of course there's moose-hunting Palin who even supports hunting down wolves from helicopters, even if it means chasing them so long until they die from exhaustion.

“Responsible for their own troubles…” I think McCain and Palin both win this over Obama… McCain has been involved in scandals such as the Keating Five and Palin has been involved in scandals such as abusing her power. Obama has been involved in scandals, but not the same types of scandals… there's Rezko (whose wife bought a lot next to the house Obama wanted, and that purchase by Rezko's wife cleared the way for Obama's purchase), there's the pastor scandal…. though both Palin and McCain both have similar pastor scandals…., etc. From what I can see Obama has never abused his power or used his office for personal financial gain.

So this hypocrisy in the American public needs to be addressed. Granted racism is deep-seated and many voters won't listen to reason….