anecdotal catalogue of racist woes is itself woefully short on corroboration. "According to Obama Worker X....", and "Obama Worker Y recalled....", just doesn't cut it, especially when the events as described should have been able to engender some additional ear and eye witnesses or electronic recordation. The article's lone substantiated quote, from a public official in Pennsylvania, is perfectly accurate concerning Obama's Muslim relations, the unknowns in Obama's upbringing and later bio, and Reverend Wright. The question, perfectly arguable from both sides, is whether these issues are salient or maliciously irrelevant, and thus tantamount to racism. Nonetheless, immediately following the PA mayor's quote, the WaPo writer refers to systematic "lies" about Obama, as if the mayor had uttered one.

All of that is a long, long way from "Hang that darky from a tree", which just has that art-into-life feel to it, along with the racist graffitti and vandalism. It's certainly possible that present-day white bigots could be so enraged that they'd risk prison time and national ignominy---though the law and societal norms, unlike in the KKK's heyday, is actively against them---but it's at least equally possible that these Obama campaign workers have been schooled in the Columbia University Professor Madonna "Noose is Loose" Constantine method of achieving racial justice, wherein the ends most phrarasaically justify the means. Look for the return of the Noose during the general election campaign, perhaps with a Tawana Brawley or Jena Six-style performance artist at the helm.

To your own words here: "Sadly, many voters will base their selection on little more than hearsay, innuendo, and uninformed "gut feel". Some will do so based upon or at least influenced by racial prejudice and bias". With this statement I fully agree, and it well-describes Obama's own African-American voting base and their guilt-as-piety white progressive enablers. Hmmm, sad to say, despite the best efforts of Obama, his campaign, and his friends in the mainstream press, to make this election "Not About Race", it may become a central issue after all as we move to the general election.