The Bradley Effect Story

... in the off chance that Obama does lose, there will be a massive outcry about racism. I'm sure this shocks no one. National publications have written about it, and Obama himself often brings up that he may lose votes because of his race, but I didn't buy that the idea that the man on the street might also think this, unl today, when a student came to talk to me about the Bradley Effect.

This student was writing an article for the school newspaper, and said that when he talked to the Democratic party about the coming election, one of their officials talked quite a bit about the Bradley Effect and the role it would play if Obama lost. Since this student couldn't get a hold of the Republican party- apparently no one in our school knows any Republicans to contact- he asked me, as the government teacher, to speculate what the Republican Party would say about the effect of the Bradley Effect on the coming election. I was at a loss to what this is, and was surprised that it featured so prominently in a conversation about the election, so I looked it up right then.

The Bradley effect is a proposed explanation for an alleged discrepancy between voter opinion polls and election outcomes in American political campaigns when a white candidate and a non-white candidate run against each other. It refers to an alleged tendency on the part of racist voters to tell pollsters that they are undecided or likely to vote for a black candidate, and yet, on election day vote for his/her white opponent. In other words, it is the intellectual excuse for black candidates to cry 'racism' when they lose an election to white candidates. Maybe 20 years ago it played a role (evidence is slim), but now days, it does not. So why would a Democratic Party official bring it up so quickly in a discussion about the coming election with a writer for the school newspaper?

At the very ground level, in schools throughout the country, Obama already is peddling the argument that the only way he loses is due to racism. He is going to use fear, guilt, and intimidation to win this election. There is no stopping him. Be prepared.