A tarnished glimmer of hope

I caught this interview with Charles Barkley. It gives me a glimmer of hope, but a tarnished one in that he seems to think that racism is the only reason that people wouldn't vote for Obama. While I'm sure that is a reason for some, I take offense at being painted with that brush.



I find it interesting that despite the claims that the Republicans are running on race, the Democrats are the only ones who you hear talking about race. It's interesting that they constantly claim that the Republicans are running on race, but since you can't find anyone in the Republican party saying that people shouldn't vote for a black man the Democrats have to claim it's done by codewords.

I could go on all day about that as well as some things in that interview that made me want to stand up and cheer Mr. Barkley. I'll write about those in later blogs but today I want to talk about my glimmer of hope.

My glimmer of hope is in what he said about the polls. I disagree with the motivation, but I truly agree with Mr. Barkley that the polls are completely useless and that this election will be neck and neck down to the wire.

I agree that there are probably a lot of people who will tell pollsters that they would vote for a black man and then actually vote for someone else, but I think that in most cases it's not racism but political correctness that motivate that. I know a couple of people who are very racist, and they will admit to anyone who will listen that they would never vote for a black man. However, others that I know (including myself) wouldn't vote for Obama, not because of the color of his skin, but because we believe that he and his Socialist policies will take the country down a road of destruction. I believe that some of these people (myself not included) would tell a pollster that they would vote for Obama because they don't want to be seen as a racist.

As of today, the polls show that Obama's lead had dwindled to within the margin of error in most cases, and if we look back at a sampling of the 2004 election, on the left is what the polls predicted, on the right was the actual election result...

Iowa
Kerry by 1%.......................................Bush by 0.1%
Nevada
Kerry by 1.4%...................................Bush by 2.6%
New Mexico
Kerry by 4.2%...................................Bush by 0.8%
Ohio
Kerry by 6.5%...................................Bush by 2.1%
Minnesota
Kerry by 14.3%.................................Kerry by 3.5%
New Hampshire
Kerry by 15%.....................................Kerry by 1.4%
North Carolina
Bush by 3.6%.....................................Bush by 12.4%
Pennsylvania
Kerry by 13.8%.................................Kerry by 2.3%
Wisconsin
Kerry by 5.7%...................................Kerry by 0.4%

As I said, I'm with Charles here. The polls are totally meaningless, this will be neck and neck down to the wire, maybe, just maybe, it wasn't too late and the people have seen what a frightening spectre that a Socialist candidate who thinks that the Constitution was wrong.