This idea is getting flogged all over the internet this week and it is just not true. It is perfectly possible to vote against Obama without being racist. That is absurd. I am an old white person, the kind you so abhor, so I do know what I am talking about. I am a lifelong, die-hard Democrat so I will be voting for him, but I wish I didn't have to. There are days when I am tempted to not vote at all. Why? Because I think Obama is too inexperienced too immature. He is also arrogant, self-absorbed, and driven by a sense of self that does not care about the rest of us. The fact that he is black is about as insignificant to me as his shoe size. I just don't like him. So what?

Cappy, everything that you've said here translates into: "he's an uppity black". That's what they hear when you say "arrogant". I see his arrogance, I see his immaturity, but when you point it out, you get called a racist. And by voting for him, you're saying that that's ok. The let him be the leader of the Harvard Law review because he's black. His grades weren't up to snuff, he hadn't published anything, but he passed more qualified kids because of his skin color.

So if you plan to vote for this, plan to keep hearing it for a long long time. Because if it works once, they'll go back to the well over and over and over. You can bet on that.

Okay, I'm Canadian, so you can take my opinion at whatever it may be worth.

I do know several dozen Americans, mostly through academia, but also people I've met through travel, & just by living close to the border. Most of my American friends & acquaintances are died-in-the-wool liberal elitist democrats. No way around it. Most of them didn't support either Clinton or Obama in the primaries. Probably three-quarters of the ones over 55 are, for the first time in their lives, voting Republican. Even the anit-military peaceniks. I guess you could call them the "Elitist liberal tree-hugging-anti-war-latte-si­pping-intellectuals for McCain."

Looking in from the outside, it's hard to be too critical, though. Especially with some of the anti-native campaigns our conservatives are running in suburbs & cottage country, which are totally ignored by our media. At least in the USA, people are asking the question, "Is it racism?"