redblueamerica.com

How utterly disappointing to read about this in Politico this morning:

There is a percentage of the American electorate who will simply not vote for a black person no matter what his qualities or qualifications.

How big is that percentage? An AP-Yahoo poll conducted April 2-14 found that “about 8 percent of whites would be uncomfortable voting for a black for president.”

I don’t know if 8 percent sounds high or low to you, but I was amazed that 8 percent of respondents were willing to admit this to a pollster. And I figure that the true figure is much higher.

The same poll, by the way, found that 15 percent of voters think Obama is a Muslim. He is, in fact, a Christian. But thinking a person is a Muslim probably does not encourage you to vote for him in America today.

Understand: If this poll is correct -- and all the usual caveats apply about wording, etc. -- then this has nothing to do with Barack Obama's position on the war, or lapel pins or William Ayers. It's just that Barack Obama is a black man.

Given the narrowness of the last two presidential elections, those 8 percent of white voters could well prove decisive. Democracy is a wonderful thing, but it's still massively frustrating to be held back by the worst instincts of the electorate.

A final thought, though: Hillary Clinton and her campaign would be wise to stay as far away as possible from using this information in making the electability argument to voters and Democratic superdelegates. The only thing more loathesome than racism is exploiting racism for electoral gain.

A final thought: Roger Simon in the Politico piece concludes thusly:

The Associated Press noted that McCain drew a crowd Monday of about 100 people that “was mostly white, although, as the campaign noted, Selma’s population is 70 percent black.” “I am aware the African-American vote has been very small in favor of the Republican Party; I am aware of the challenges, and I am aware of the fact that there will be many people who will not vote for me,” McCain said. “But I’m going to be the president of all the people.” Which was an intriguing point: Sure, there are voters who will not vote for Obama under any circumstances, but McCain was saying there are also voters who will not vote for him under any circumstances. But which group, if either one, will hold the balance of power in November?

There's a huge difference. Black voters started voting overwhelmingly for Democrats not out of anti-white racism -- until this year, the Dems put up an unending string of white guys for president, too -- but because for most of the last 40 years they sensed, correctly, that the GOP wasn't friendly to their interests. It's silly to pretend there's an equivalence.