Racial Prejudice Among Democrats

A recent study explores the factors causing some Democrats to withhold their support for Obama. Race came up as one possible factor.

"The AP-Yahoo study concluded that white Democratic racism may cause 2.5 percent of voters to 'turn away from Obama because of his race,' roughly the margin of President Bush's victory over John F. Kerry in 2004. The AP-Yahoo study found that one-third of white Democrats cited a negative adjective when describing blacks and, of those, just 58 percent said they planned to back Obama. For example, AP reported that more than a quarter of white Democrats agreed that “if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites.” Four in 10 white independents agreed, while a quarter described blacks as 'violent.' // The survey's conclusions are likely to be controversial. AP reported that its team of pollsters “set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats.”" Dems' prejudice may cost Obama votes - David Paul Kuhn - Politico.com