Sunday, September 21, 2008

In Which I Grow Tired of Polls...

...especially ones that employ euphemisms for racism. "Deep-seated racial misgivings?"

C'mon, now!

Anyway, is anyone surprised that "Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama?"

And here's some logic for you:
Not all whites are prejudiced. Indeed, more whites say good things about blacks than say bad things, the poll shows. And many whites who see blacks in a negative light are still willing or even eager to vote for Obama.
That last sentence is priceless--I'd like to ask the AP-Yahoo! people if they've ever heard of the "one of the good ones" reasoning. White people who "see blacks in a negative light" can vote for Obama, in part, because they conceive of him as an exception to the rest of us "negatively lit" ones.

Shockingly, the poll found "[l]ots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too," but they astutely dismiss those prejudices as the reason Republicans don't vote for Obama:
Most Republicans wouldn't vote for any Democrat for president — white, black or brown.
Missing the big picture pollsters!

Mayhap some Republicans would never vote for any Democrat because they represent a party in which Obama could be chosen as the presidential candidate? I mean the Republican party is one of the last bastions of... well, did you see their convention?

3 comments:

Kimberly said...

I read this last night and found it almost amusing to read the analysis.


Beyond the polls, it becomes maddening to hear pundits ask "Why can't Obama close the deal? He should be ahead by 15 points given how low Bush's approval ratings are." Or "Why can't Obama move working class whites or older white women", blah, blah, blah.

They KNOW the answer to this. But refuse to touch it.

elle said...

Girl, I know. It can't possibly be race cuz we're post-racial.

Anonymous said...

I know I'm being Captain Obvious here, but it's scary that they didn't even mention the possibility that some people are Republicans because there are so few African-Americans in the party. Can't point out their delicate natures, I guess.

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