04-08-2008, 02:09 AM
<b>Polls: Race helps Clinton with whites </b>
Same is for Obama, being Black helped him in SC, MI, MO, MD
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Pollsters have long expressed doubts about using polls to precisely gauge voters' feelings about the sensitive issue of race, concerned that some people give answers they think are socially acceptable.
The phenomenon even has a name, the Bradley effect, after Tom Bradley's losing 1982 run for California governor despite favorable polls, making him one of several prominent black candidates in the 1980s who did worse than surveys suggested. Critics argue that other factors could account for the discrepancies and say <b>white voters' reluctance to support black candidates has diminished since then.</b>
No one doubts some voters are influenced by a candidate's race. The pivotal questions this year are how many are abandoning Obama because he is black, and whether they are offset by others supporting him for racial reasons. Many of this year's primaries have already seen increased turnout among black and younger voters.
<b>"We'd be foolish to say it's not a factor</b>," Harvey Gantt, an Obama supporter who lost two senatorial races against Republican Jesse Helms in North Carolina in the 1990s, said of race.
But Gantt, who was the first black mayor of Charlotte, N.C., said he believes those voting for racial reasons can be offset by higher turnout among blacks and others eager to support a black candidate. He and others said fewer voters are letting a candidate's race outweigh their concerns about issues or political preferences.
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Same is for Obama, being Black helped him in SC, MI, MO, MD
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Pollsters have long expressed doubts about using polls to precisely gauge voters' feelings about the sensitive issue of race, concerned that some people give answers they think are socially acceptable.
The phenomenon even has a name, the Bradley effect, after Tom Bradley's losing 1982 run for California governor despite favorable polls, making him one of several prominent black candidates in the 1980s who did worse than surveys suggested. Critics argue that other factors could account for the discrepancies and say <b>white voters' reluctance to support black candidates has diminished since then.</b>
No one doubts some voters are influenced by a candidate's race. The pivotal questions this year are how many are abandoning Obama because he is black, and whether they are offset by others supporting him for racial reasons. Many of this year's primaries have already seen increased turnout among black and younger voters.
<b>"We'd be foolish to say it's not a factor</b>," Harvey Gantt, an Obama supporter who lost two senatorial races against Republican Jesse Helms in North Carolina in the 1990s, said of race.
But Gantt, who was the first black mayor of Charlotte, N.C., said he believes those voting for racial reasons can be offset by higher turnout among blacks and others eager to support a black candidate. He and others said fewer voters are letting a candidate's race outweigh their concerns about issues or political preferences.
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