Racists FOR Obama?

Slate has a great article discussing how Obama's African ancestry might not, in fact, be hurting him among racists:

The implications of this are stunning: Far from costing Obama the election, as some have argued, race may not be much of a factor in people's decisions—even those with negative attitudes toward blacks. It then follows, however, that his election may not represent the victory over racism many of his supporters hoped it would.

On the face of it, it seems at best absurd, and at worst offensive, to argue against the relevance of race in the first general election in U.S. history featuring an African-American candidate for president. But recent polls, as well as anecdotal evidence, suggest that other issues may trump race.

And something for all of us good liberals to keep in mind is that not all the badness in the world comes from Republicans:

Ironically, though, racism becomes a greater factor among voters on the left than on the right. Republicans have plenty of reasons to vote against Obama that have nothing to do with race—they might disagree with his health-care plan or think withdrawal from Iraq is a terrible idea. Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to agree with him on policy. When they oppose him, therefore, it's more likely to be due to race. So when people say that Obama might lose because of racists, they're not talking about racist Republicans. They mean Dems and independents. Some Democrats chafe at this idea, arguing that there are perfectly good reasons to dislike Obama. Fair enough. The point is that race becomes a larger factor in voters' decision-making when they agree with him on just about everything else.

Click here to read the full Slate article.