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Home Front: Politix
New Pointless Poll on Race and Elections
2008-06-22
Front-page WaPo
As Sen. Barack Obama opens his campaign as the first African American on a major party presidential ticket, nearly half of all Americans say race relations in the country are in bad shape and three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice, leaving 7 of 10 to lie about it according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Overall, 51 percent call the current state of race relations 'excellent' or 'good,' ...
but our headline chose to focus on the negative, thankyewverymuch,
... about the same as said so five years ago. That is a relative thaw from more negative ratings in the 1990s, but the gap between whites and blacks on the issue is now the widest it has been in polls dating to early 1992.
Our socialist media and elites have succeeded admirably in that regard ...
More than six in 10 African Americans now rate race relations as 'not so good' or 'poor,' while 53 percent of whites hold more positive views. Opinions are also divided along racial lines, though less so, on whether blacks face discrimination. There is more similarity on feelings of personal racial prejudice: Thirty percent of whites and 34 percent of blacks admit such sentiments.

At the same time, there is an overwhelming public openness to the idea of electing an African American to the presidency. In a Post-ABC News poll last month, nearly nine in 10 whites said they would be comfortable with a black president. While fewer whites, about two-thirds, said they would be 'entirely comfortable' with it, that was more than double the percentage of all adults who said they would be so at ease with someone entering office for the first time at age 72, which McCain (R-Ariz.) would do should he prevail in November.

Even so, just over half of whites in the new poll called Obama a 'risky' choice for the White House, while two-thirds said McCain is a 'safe' pick. Forty-three percent of whites said Obama has sufficient experience to serve effectively as president, and about two in 10 worry he would overrepresent the interests of African Americans.
Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle!
Obama will be forced to confront these views as he seeks to broaden his appeal. He leads in the Post-ABC poll by six percentage points among all so-called adults, but among those who are most likely to vote, the contest is a tossup, with McCain at 48 percent and Obama at 47 percent.

His campaign advisers hope race may prove a benefit, that heightened enthusiasm among African Americans will make Obama competitive in GOP-leaning states with large black populations. But to win in November, Obama most likely will have to close what is now a 12-point deficit among whites. (Whites made up 77 percent of all voters in 2004; blacks were 11 percent, according to network exit polls.)

This is hardly the first time a Democratic candidate has faced such a challenge -- Al Gore lost white voters by 12 points in 2000, and John F. Kerry lost them by 17 points in 2004 -- but it is a significantly larger shortfall than Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton encountered in their winning campaigns.
Not to be negative here, but it seems it was sufficient to keep the last two socialists out of the White House.
Posted by:Bobby in Illinois

#2  ION CHINESE MIL FORUM > NEW US PRESIDENT SEEN AS UNLIKELY TO CHALLENGE CHINA.

Why not, e.g.as per Catholic Bishops + ABU SAYYAFF in the Phillippines???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-06-22 20:50  

#1  three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice,

3 in 10? wow, so there must be some whites included with the black liberation racists!
Posted by: Frank G   2008-06-22 12:15  

00:00