Attack hoax puts race back in mix

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By Adrienne T. Washington

John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News, said: "If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee. If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."

Neither Mr. Metzler nor I would go that far on either end. True, some folks say this historic campaign is getting uglier by the day, but scarier is more like it. Fear and hatred are sadly the prevailing factors as we come to the homestretch.

The issue of race is being "repackaged in a more subtle way, but in a way that has the same effect," he said. For example, people are "pretending not to see race while using racially tinged language."

The racist T-shirts, the Curious George monkeys, the fried-chicken food-stamp circulars with an Obama likeness, and the vitriolic blogging on Web sites we've seen could make you question if this is 2008 or 1958.

"There is an incendiary tone and tenure with what is being said," Mr. Metzler said. "This [campaign] started with Barack Obama not being black enough ... to is he too black?"

As I've always said, stereotypes cut both ways.

Yet against this racial backdrop, two new polls suggest that race will not be a major factor for voters on Nov. 4 and that Mr. Obama enjoys more support among white voters than any other Democrat since 1976.

A CNN/Opinion poll Research Corp. Survey released Friday found that 70 percent of Americans questioned said that race will not affect their vote for president this year, up nine points from when the same question was asked in July.

"Take all this with a grain of salt - race is a complicated topic and polls may not reveal each respondent's true feeling on this hot-button issue. Nonetheless, the poll suggests that race may largely be an influence on Americans who aren't typical Democratic voters, and that race works both for and against Obama in roughly equal proportions," said Keating Holland, CNN polling director.

According to a Politico.com analysis reported Friday, Gallup polling of roughly 13,000 people in the past two weeks shows 44 percent of non-Hispanic white voters support Obama - the highest number for a Democrat since 47 percent of whites backed Jimmy Carter in 1976.

The economy is the factor working most in the Democrats' favor, with polling by Pew Research Center showing respondents saw him doing a better job of "improving the economy." Mr. McCain still maintains large advantages over Mr. Obama with white voters on issues ranging from instituting "wise foreign policy" to "dealing with immigration," Politico reports.

But as Mr. Metzler noted, "There is significant inconsistency with what's in the polls and what's being said."

Beware the Smiths, the Stuarts and now the Todds.