By AFRO Staff
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s two-point lead over his Republican rival John McCain would be six points higher in the polls if White racism was not a factor, according to AP/Yahoo News poll.
The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggested that White Democrats are a much bigger threat to the Illinois senator than McCain, with one in five White voters sharing commonly held prejudices that African Americans were "violent" and "boastful", while three out of 10 said they had a habit of "complaining", 13 percent said they were "lazy" and 11 percent branded blacks "irresponsible".
More than a quarter of white Democrats and four out of 10 white independent voters agreed that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites".
Some analysts suggested a look at the Democratic primary in Ohio for the first hint that conservative white Democrats could cause problems for Obama, not only with Hillary Clinton gaining majority of the White vote but also nearly one quarter of whites in Ohio flatly saying race did matter in voting.
After the Democratic National Convention, only 59 percent of Clinton’s white Democratic supporters said they wanted Obama to be president, while about 17 percent of her White backers plan to vote for McCain.
Stanford political scientist Paul Sniderman, who helped analyze the survey, told Journal-isms that there was no significant difference between White Republicans, White Democrats and White independents in the level of bias. “A bigot doesn't think he's a bigot. He thinks he's seeing the world just as it is. That's why bigotry is a force,” Sniderman was quoted. "It doesn't follow that Obama can't win, but "it's up to him to win it."
New America Media reported, “The GOP scorecard in White House wins would not be seven to three over the Democrats, since Richard Nixon’s win in 1968, if conservative White Democrats had not consistently shifted their vote to the GOP.”AP found that seven in 10 people who call themselves Democrats support Obama, compared to the 85 percent of self-identified Republicans who back McCain.
AP will have follow-up articles on Monday and Tuesday. For Monday afternoon papers, AP told Journal-isms, it is moving a story concluding, "Racism remains a major part of American life." Their article in Tuesday morning’s papers will be titled: "A look at the presidential contest and the issue of race in a battleground state, Ohio."