Racist Voting?

The other day, I heard someone suggesting that blacks were voting for Obama solely because he is black. So, I did a little digging.

Harris Polls says that Obama has an 88 point lead over McCain among black voters. CNN’s exit polling after the 2004 election showed that Kerry had a 77% lead over Bush (88% vs. 11%) among black voters. Their exit polling after the 2000 election showed Gore with an 80% lead over Bush (90% vs. 10%) among black voters.

So around 75-80% of the lead can be attributed to blacks as a demographic preferring democratic candidates. What about the remaining 8-10%?

Well, lets not forget that the democratic candidate lost both the 2000 and 2004 elections. In 2000, he led in the overall popular vote by about 0.5%. In 2004, he trailed in the overall popular vote by about 1.5%. In contrast Harris says that Obama has about an 8% lead among all registered voters right now. So, Obama is doing about 8-10% better in the runup to this election than the previous democratic candidates were .

It all fits pretty neatly together… and without having to invoke any racist voting behavior on the part of African americans.

Ron Paul 2008...

Ron Paul 2008... thoughts, comments? I'm so totally not looking forward to this presidential election. Anybody who is remotely appealing to me has an issue or two that I really hate. I might vote Ron Paul this time around. I need to mull some things. Anyone else thinking about the election yet?