I listened to a segment of the Howard Stern show the other day in which they walked around Harlem interviewing black people about who they would be voting for in next week's election. Obviously the clips played were selective, and the whole process non-scientific, but it was still surprising to hear how many people were voting for Obama when McCain's platform, policy, and even running mate were applied to the name 'Obama', making a case for the black community voting blindly for Obama on race.
But after thinking about it for a moment, and given things like the arrest of two people this week with intent to assassinate Obama based solely on the colour of his skin, I am convinced that for every person that votes for Obama because he is black, there will be at least one white person who votes for McCain because he isn't black.
The fact was broken down all too eerily again on the Daily Show, probably over a month back as I recall, when they did a bit on how stupid people will control the outcome of this election. Of course they intended it as a joke, but its not all that far from the truth when you think about it.
Every day you are confronted with something new and more unbelievable, whether its an unlicensed plumber discussing foreign policy with the McCain electorate, or people walking the streets of New York voting for Obama and his 'running mate' Sarah Palin. Obviously, hopefully, its a small minority of uneducated people being highlighted in the media, but my suspicion is that's not the case. The election next week will probably be decided by a few percentage points. A whim going into the election booth of a few 10s of thousands of people, some international event spun to play into a candidates hands between now and then, or blind fear of or faith in a black man could decide who presides over the most powerful country in the world next week, and that scares me.