Somewhere in the higher-than-usual percentage of undecided voters in the late stages of an almost two-year campaign are those who can’t or won’t vote for an African-American candidate.
The good news for Barack Obama is that, as his lead in the national polls grows toward double digits, it may, as gamblers say, “cover the spread.”
Michelle Obama recently dismissed the Bradley Effect by pointing to the primary vote that gave her husband the nomination, but that overlooks the late surge by Hillary Clinton among white voters in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, where Rep. John Murtha, in his usual blunt way, recently pointed out that race matters.