I live in a small town and the people here who won't vote for Obama because he is an African-American would never have voted for a Democrat in the general election.

For some of his supporters to continually blame all of his problems on racism accomplishes nothing. No Democrat has won a majority of the white vote since LBJ, who said when he signed the Civil Rights Bill that he had lost the South for the Democratic party for a generation.

Obama and Biden need to focus on the voters they can win, and with the help of Bill and Hillary Clinton, I think they can reach many of those who are still on the fence, particularly women who will realize when they read more about her positions that Sarah Palin is not somebody we can identify with on the issues.

But please stop making it all about race because it isn't. If America was as bigoted as these people seem to think, he would never have become the nominee.

I think the statement at the beginning of this article--'Obama, he's not our kind of people'--captures the essence of how many Americans, not only in small towns, view Senator Obama. While it doesn't have the harsh ring of overtly racist language, it does reveal an underlying mistrust and dislike for those who are seen as 'different' in our society. Although in the next few decades the white majority will be outnumbered by minority populations, it is our society's whiteness that still defines what is 'like us' and what isn't. In face to face interations most of the people who were interviewed for this article would not behave in a racist manner, but societal/cultural racism is often more subtle, though equally powerful, when it is clothed in concerns about a candidate not being 'our kind of poeple.' The Republican Party's longstanding and successful campaign strategy of defining opponents as different, out of the mainstream, not patriotic enough, dangerous to American values feeds perfectly on the underlying inability of many Americans to embrace those who don't look like past Presidents or don't look like their neighbor. The Bush/Republican years have been marked by a clear strategy for political victory---attack and divide; the 50% plus one approach. It has been successful and I fear it will succeed again this year.

I think you miss the point that many are making here, and your misconstruing that point only weakens your argument.

Nobody I’ve read (except you) has written that NOT voting for Obama makes you a racist or an idiot. There are lots of reasons one might have to not vote for Obama, and some of them - like his supporting the new FISA bill - are even good ones.

But, for many quoted in this article, their reasons qualify as racism and/or profound anti-intellectualism.

My opinion is that, once a person reveals himself as a racist or anti-intellectual, we should move on and not waste time either calling this person names or trying to persuade them of a different worldview. It’s a cost-benefit analysis, and the next 52 days is too small a window to spend throwing hail-mary passes to such individuals.

Instead, let’s focus on the swing-state moderates and independents who are actually reachable. There are millions of them, and they are worth our effort.

My parents lived in New York City on 1st Avenue just down from the United Nations. I live in a small town (pop: 30,000), but have been to NYC many many times over the years. I just love it when the big-city, so-called intellectual leftist groups look down their noses at the small-town crowds in rural America. Not all of us are closed minded, backward, uneducated, country bumpkins. I for one have two college degrees and work for a highly progressive company. Interesting how Mr. Hoyle picked out those who would (of course) give the answers that just feed into the liberal frenzy that has become Obama. And also interesting that just because so many of us out here "in the sticks" are not enthralled with this empty puppet who has done nothing but pen two autobiographies and visit Europe as a "pretend President", we are considered stupid, uneducated, and in some way, un-American.

I don't like either candidate, and am disgusted and embarrassed with so many of my fellow Americans as well as how this election has gone. Surprisingly enough, though Obama promised early on to stay above the negative fray, he has become one of the most virilent (another one of his about-faces), as have his liberal followers. For a party that is supposed to be all-inclusive, liberal Dems are suddenly closed-minded if you dare to disagree with them.

My advice for the big city liberals: go home and leave us alone.

A white man asked me, 'Are you voting for Barack Obama just because he's black?'

I responded by saying, 'Why not? In this country men are pulled over everyday just cause they're black passed over for promotions just cause they're black considered to be criminals just cause they're black and there are going to be thousands of YOU who won't be voting for him just because he's black!'

However, you do not seem to have a problem with that!

So yes! I'm going to vote for him! But it's not just because he's black, but because he is hope, he is change, the same reason I voted for white candidates in the past and he now allows me to understand when my grandson says that he wants to be president when he grows up, it is not a fairy tale but a short term goal. He now sees, understands and knows that he can achieve, withstand and do...

ANYTHING

JUST BECAUSE HE’S BLACK!

There is an anti-intellectualism in working class America

No there isn't. It's anti-icompetence. America all but engraved on your forehead that they wanted Hillary to fix the economy.

You insisted on nominating the ideological opposite candidate to rankle your opposition instead of an appealing candidate that could win. Save for Bill Clinton you've done this for 40 years and never "GET IT'. The same old tired excuses about the supposed "racism" and "stupidity" of those who reject you are so lame and transparent and fool nobody but yourselves.

As a Californian and (former) Dem I can tell you that 40 years later it's just fkg embarassing how incompetent and weak and yes,STUPID the leftwing of the party is.

Maybe the small-town folk feel the same way.