Yes, there are folks who wont vote for a black candidate, a woman candidate or an old candidate. But to paint everyone who doesnt support YOUR candidate as racist is self defeating.

This is how we will lose this election. By saying that anyone who cant see how wonderful Senator Obama is MUST be a racist. That will turn off more voters than anything McCain or Obama says.

HRC brought many women into the Democratic party to vote for her, women who have voted Republican in the last couple of elections. The fact that they have moved back to the R column is no necessarily because they are racist. However it is sentiments like this that will keep them there.

I love me some Bill clinton but it time to stop kissing up the Clintons.

we meed to do what the Republicans are doing and tell people why they shouldn't vote for McCain. I think we need a pro-choice ad up in all the swing states.

Whether it's race or not, the American voters will have to decide between the failed and loathsome GOP policies that are destroying the dreams of the working and middle class of this country and the worker-friendly policies of the Democratic Party.

If American voters cannot get past racial identity, then we are in for at least 1-2 terms of loathsome radicals who will tear our country apart and sink our middle and working class folks down the ladder to join Chinese laborers. Humans aren't always known for their critical thinking skills, after all.

But when I find a Republican in my neighborhood who wants to pour all of his/her anxiety into a political discussion and then says "but, but he's black" or, more likely, covers the real reason with "but, I can't vote for a Democrat" or the highly stupid, "but, he might get assasinated" then I have a response.

I recognize what the person says and then recommend that the person stay home from voting and let the rest of us make the decision. That's the best I can do--depress the turnout of these misguided folk.

I do not know if there are enough to support Obama by November; but this fight is worthy. I want a world that is not changed even more by these far-right radicals. My grandson deserves better from me. So I will fight on instead of getting all depressed and figuring "oh, well, nothing will change."

Depressed, my a$$. Get out and keep talking, folks. Work with the campaign so we can get the folks to the election who are not so fearful of someone's race, political affiliation or the entirely stupid fear of getting the person assassinated. Stop it right now and get busy.

I agree with onceler.

This, "I don't know enough," or "he needs to convince me" crap is the laziest, most dishonest tripe a voter can spew out. It's the epitome of consumerism, like these guys are both out hawking a product, and the one with the best pitch wins.

Not the best product, not the product that fills your needs, but the one that's best pitched.

These folks think it sounds smart and savvy, this "I need to hear more." No, it sounds like stupid people who've been too damn lazy to actually learn about and defend their own interests.

Bet they'd do a lot more digging if they were buying a new flatscreen TV, or debating who the Lions' starting QB should be.

Instead, they'll sit on their asses, watch TV ads; express some mild discomfort with the Democrat; vote based on some inane, erroneous tidbit from one of said ads, forwarded emails, or their equally stupid and lazy neighbor; then complain for another four years while shit goes further down the toilet, and we repeat the entire process in 2012.

Because god knows, it can't be as simple as looking at who's been in charge, and living the consequences. God knows, "Bush" might suck, but modern Republican ideology could have nothing to with it.

Well.....we don't know Obama because he's new and, we don't know Hillary because.......what we see is only what we are meant to see.

Congratulations to the republicans. They have been successful, mostly, in using the Hillary (PUMA) thing to kill my ideological motivation leaving my desire and belief that "change" can really happen on the trash heap with the rest of the hopes left from my idealist youth.

Copenhagen is so nice this time of year.

Elsewhere in TPM world there are a lot of complaints that last night was too tame on the repubs. I think the campaign did a great job however. They introduced Obama's family to the American people in a way that hadn't been done before. It will be so much harder for people to say that they "do not know him". The fact that his brother-in-law is college level basketball coach was a great touch (I didn't know that before). Many white sport's fans can identify with a black at this level.

Last night was very good for Obama, and it was good because they addressed the concerns in MJ's post.

Yes it is about race and I always knew it would be because the subject would be far too tempting for the R's to pass up. And, no, I am not saying everyone who questions Obama is a racist but we do live in a society where race is an issue. We identify ourselves by it (i.e. Irish-American, Italian-American, African-American, etc.).

The only way to win is to mobilize as many young voters as we can. They seem to be the least motivated by race as an issue. Also I think McCain's age, and declining mental capacity, should be just as big an issue.

We shouldn't wring our hands over an attack we knew was coming. As MJ pointed out they would be attacking Hillary if she was the D's nominee over her gender claiming she is some kind of radical feminist and planting the 'seeds of doubts' so whoever decided they could use them.

When the D's got down to Obama and Clinton as their potential nominees I knew that a race or gender attack was gonna happen by the R's, even if it was a 'soft attack' (the celebrity ad, stc.). All they know how to do in terms of message is attacks based on harted, fear and/or ignorance. We don't live in a post-racial America quite yet. I say attack McCain over his age, his policies which are the continuation of Bush's, his temper and his legislative record...try to put more doubt about McCain in their minds than they have about Obama. The reasons the should doubts McCain are real and tangible as opposed to the irrational doubts they might have about Obama.

I actually thought the country was farther down the road on this issue than it is. Looks like I'm wrong. Just look at the polling number among older white Americans.

Yet McCain is the one who says that Social Security is "disgraceful" while quite happy to collect his every month. Most of these "Older White Americans" are the ones whose Social Security Checks are, what keeps their rent paid, their food on table and pays for their medications. Why do these people keep voting against their own interests. Do they simply see McCain as one of their own?
P.S. I'm one of the above group and I'm terrified of what McCain's handlers will do if he gets into office.

It's all about which candidate will guarantee that 9-11, Iraq and the "Wat on Terror" will be forgotten about, so nobody has to reproach themselves, or even worse, be reproached. The man who can win is the man who can make the last eight years a "freebie" or "do-over". Obama cannot do this. His very appearance is a reproach, one which says "You white guys really fucked up"!
McCain on the other hand, will give us the best excuse to just pass all that water under the lid, and flush; the greater emergency and bigger enemies to come!
Obama knows this, it shows plainly, but there's not a damn thing he can do about it. Every time he attacks McCain, he might as well be attacking every person in America who went crazy after 9-11, then profited by it. That's a hell of a lot of people. It's a nasty situation.
Me, I'm just gonna try and pull the Obama and D handles as many times as I can before they drag me, kicking and screaming, from the booth.

Remember, we're living in a country that put George W. Bush in office twice. The American electorate is ill-informed, disengaged, and prone to voting against their own best interests.

Given the sorry state of our media and the political culture at the moment, the only way I see Obama winning is with massive turnout. If Democratic voters show up at the polls in historic numbers, Obama/Biden will win.

I find this really offensive. "people who don't support Barack Obama are racist, and the proof of that is they're not supporting Barack Obama."

it's been awhile since college but I believe they call that a tautology.

nobody has any real reasons for not liking him? how about these:

he's too liberal; he's too young; he's too inexperienced; he keeps changing his stances so I don't know what he really believes; he says he's about "change" but then chooses Joe "Mr. Beltway" Biden for his VP; he 's a typical Chicago pol who won his first races by political maneuvering; he's pro-choice; he spoke of having a baby as a "punishment"; he's a tax-and-spend big-government Democrat; I don't like how he treated Hillary; he didn't campaign in my state; he didn't want to seat my state's delegates; he called me bitter; his former pastor is a wack job; he wants to negotiate with that nut from Iran; he wants to pull our troops out of Iraq and leave a bloodbath in our wake; his policies will lead us to socialism.

now...I'm not saying *I* think all these things. (I don't. not all. maybe a couple.) but these are all typical comments I've read on conservative blogs.

you may choose to believe that all of these concerns are just thinly veiled ways of saying "I don't like the Negro," but I think to do that is incorrect. it's wishful thinking, because you don't want to DEAL with the fact that Obama is way to the left of most of the electorate. it has nothing to do with his skin color, much as you would like it to.

I'm not saying there aren't people out there who won't vote for him because he's black, but there are an equal number who wouldn't vote for a Jew, a woman, a Hispanic, a Catholic, a Mormon, or a freaking "Ginger." we can't do anything about freaks like this. but they represent a small percentage of the voters.

"I just don't know a lot about him" sounds like the comment of a person who just doesn't want to discuss it with you because they don't want to say anything un-PC. who wants to be called a racist, after all? what, that wouldn't happen? look again--it just did.