Racial Relations

A West Virginia television station reported that race isn't an issue for more than 80 percent of West Virginia voters. It was also reported that McCain has a 10-point lead over Obama in the states, but had Clinton been the nominee voters would have her leading McCain by 10-points. It must be due, the station concluded, due to resentment over what happened to Clinton.

A 20 point-gap based on resentment?

While voluntary polls do give some indication to how voters feel about issues, they might not be as accurate when dealing with issues like race. In American culture any kind of racial prejudice is a major social misstep, something that few would dare admit to. However, polls cannot take into account what people are afraid to say, or what people don't even realize about themselves. It seems unlikely that that many people would abandon their political affiliations over resentment that hasn't seemed to play a huge role in any other state.

Obviously it would be wonderful if our country had come to a place where race was sincerely not an issue, but realistically we're not there yet.

***UPDATE***
A Yahoo! poll showed a possible six-point loss for Obama on elections day, a scenario that would tip the election to McCain.