 Reuters reports that John McCain was warmly received at the NAACP convention. Unfortunately for him, he'll only walk away with about 1-3 percent of African-American votes in November.
By the way, have you heard the one about Barack Obama not being stupid enough to write jokes about? Yes, I admit it, I am going to miss Dubya and his endless cast of nitwits...
Meanwhile, a CBS/NYT poll shows that America's racial divide is as sharp as ever, according to the paper, Obama's polling success so far notwithstanding:
In the survey, 83 percent of blacks had a favorable opinion of Obama, compared with 31 percent of white voters. The poll shows that the essence of the divide is that a preponderance of white Americans believe that racial discrimination is a thing of the past, which black people make too much of, while most black Americans feel that racial discrimination is very much a thing of the present, which white people make too little of:
On the status of race relations, 59 percent of black respondents thought they were generally bad, compared with 34 percent of whites who thought the same way. The nationwide telephone poll of 1,796 adults showed that 39 percent of blacks said there had been no real progress in recent years in getting rid of racial discrimination. Only 17 percent of whites said the same thing. Twenty-seven percent of whites said too much had been made of problems facing black people, while half of blacks said not enough had been made of racial barriers faced by black people.
What's ironic, is that some of the same white folks who say too much is made of racism harbor concurrent, negative, and I dare say racist, views of black people. If you don't believe me, read any comment thread under any online story about Barack Obama, or almost any other prominent social or political figure. Update: The Obama camp is disputing the Times reporting, saying that the full poll disagrees with the paper's headline about Obama "not closing the racial divide." (H/T to the HuffPo.) TMP Election Central reports: The Obama campaign sent over a detailed critique of the story, which concludes from the poll that Obama isn't closing the divide on race. The story's lead reporter was the paper's top political writer, Adam Nagourney. "The NYT story about their poll ignores multiple and significant pieces of data that actually indicate a trend much different from that which the story suggests," the critique reads. It goes on to list "some straightforward points from their data that are omitted from the story."... a) More white voters say Obama cares about people like them, than say the same thing about McCain by 31 to 23 b) On the essential issue in this campaign - bringing about change in Washington - Among white voters, Obama is seen as the change agent by 52% to 30% c) Obama's 31% favorable rating among white voters is virtually identical to McCain's, which is at 34%. d) By a 2 to 1 margin over McCain, white voters are more likely to say that Obama would improve America's image in the world e) "Racial dissension" around Mrs. Obama's 24% favorable rating among whites is an extremely odd description given that Mrs. McCain's favorable rating among white voters is 20%. f) Enthusiasm for Obama's candidacy is roughly 2.5 times higher among white voters than is enthusiasm for McCain's.
Read the rest on TPMEC.
Last but not least, let's go to the horse race. Nationally, here's how the race looks:
| Source | Obama | McCain | Undecided/Other |
| Gallup DTP (7/14) | 47 | 43 | 10 |
| NYT/CBS (7/7-14) | 45% | 39% | 16% |
| ABC/WaPo(7/10-13) | 49 | 46 | 5 |
| Quinnipiac(7/8-13) | 50
| 41 | 9 |
| Newsweek (7/9-10) | 44
| 41 | 15 |
Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, polls, presidential candidates, race and politics |
