To make up for the utter stupidity of that last (read: all) post, here is an article that addresses an issue I have been thinking about for some time. It basically questions if Obama’s current lead in polls is partially due to respondent reactivity towards his race and whether his actual support might be significantly lower. In other words, how many people are only saying they will be voting for him in order to appear progressive or pc, while really they’re gonna go for the white dude? Democrats are worried and they (we) should be. The article states that the so called “Bradley effect” can effect polling numbers by as much as six point, precisely the amount Obama is ahead. I don’t really know enough on the subject to venture a guess as to how significant this ‘effect’ might be, but I can feel pretty confident in saying it isn’t zero. When Obama first became the Democratic nominee, I thought, “really, is America ready for a black president?” I don’t mean that in a Jim Crow kind of way, but more of a has our country really come far enough that we can judge a candidate without any regard towards his race? I’m not one of those as Stephen Colbert would say, ‘I don’t see color’ type of people; I acknowledge that there are inherent differences between people of different races and that in some instances, it needs to be taken into consideration. However, running for president should not be one of those instances. In an utopic situation, race should be a complete non-issue in regards toward running for president. Ideally, the president knows he or she is representing a heterogenic population, therefore, citizens should be able to safely assume that the president will do what is best for the collective good, without special consideration toward his or her own race. Of course things don’t work like that, and I, in my ever so pessismistic view of the world, still believe that there is a great deal of racism everywhere, only now made more dangerous because of its subversive nature in our pc facaded world. I guess I’m glad that I’m not the only one who believes Obama’s numbers might be a tinge or a lot inflated.
Hopefully, come November, America will prove me wrong. There is nothing wrong with not wanting to vote for Obama because of his stand on issues (I supported Clinton for the primaries and that doesn’t make me a racist as far as I know). Even if someone stated they won’t vote for Obama solely because he is black, I can at least respect their honesty. The people that really make me sad are those who claim they will vote for him, but actually don’t for whatever reason. That level of hypocrisy is not only immature, but counterproductive. If McCain knew he had more support, he might approach his campaign a different way. Likewise, Obama’s people wouldn’t have to spend their efforts worrying about something like this just because of his skin color. I don’t like racists obviously, but I at least respect honest racists for having the cajones stand up for their beliefs. It’s those people who know what they think is wrong, so they pretend like they don’t feel that way that really bother me. Hopefully, all this is just the media fishing for stories since the election is looking more and more like a landslide.
