It's good to hear about people like your uncle and I am sorry I used terms like "pounding it into their heads" or made it sound like all the people in Florida are stupid. I didn't mean that. I just think it's true what you're saying. There are people who will overcome their own prejudices, take the issues into account and vote for Obama and why aren't they being heard? And JohnD2008, if there are black people out there voting for Obama just because he's black, that's absolutely fabulous with me. If that's racism then I adore it. I personally refuse to vote for McCain because he's a grinning rotten potato head with silver mold on top who is not a leader.

...I'll bet their mayors and governors can describe the Bush Doctrine.

George W. Bush received an M.B.A. from Harvard. Barrack Obama received a J.D. from Harvard. George W. Bush got his B.A. at Yale and Obama got his at Columbia after transferring from Occidental.

I supposed he was faithful to his wife.

My point has been brought up before on Salon, but why continue to present these anecdotal 'analyses' of voter preferences for the upcoming election? Basically, I'm sick of predictions!

I would prefer to read criticisms of each candidates' platforms. Am I alone in thinking that (apart from Glenn Greenwald) this has been omitted in the recent months (especially by Salon opinion contributors)?

Pete in PA

So, is it more racist that 95% of African Americans are voting for Obama because he is black, or that 15% of Caucasian Americans will not vote for him because he is black?

Now seriously, are any of these poor white crackers starvin to death? The Republican theme is get rich on your own, get backstopped if you fail. It's hard to run against that, might take another election cycle, and a lot more pain, a lot more/

Barak Obama spent a considerable portion of his youth in poverty. He worked his own way to the top.

John McCain -- John Sidney McCain III -- is the son and grandson of admirals. He's American military aristocracy. And he married, as aristocrats often do, into serious money.

Any blue-collar voter who thinks McCain is more "people like us" than Obama has to be, I'm sorry, a complete goddamn moron.

I am struck by one rather sad, if somewhat amusing, irony. Cathy Massingale, the thirty-three year old woman from North Carolina imagines that the McCain's might know her better because "Obama just doesn't feel like someone who knows me." Well Cathy, you might consider the possibility that many of these Republicans do know you, and they probably don't want to be to closely associated with you. You know, it's a lot like Cindy McCain's step siblings, the ones that Cindy refuses to acknowledge even exist or John McCain's ex-wife, the frumpy, disabled one he dumped for a hot young rich babe he met while still married in a bar. These McCain republicans know you Cathy and they find you contemptuous. They will gladly take your vote, they will play on your racism, but they won't be sharing their inheritances with you (just ask Cindy McCain half sister) nor will they inviting you to dinner at any of their various homes.

You hit the nail right on the head. Hopefully this type of thought will prevail.

As for these ignoramuses who say "he ain't my kinda paypul", if they put McLame/Failin in, well...they DESERVE them. I guess 8 years of hell wasn't enough. God forbid we should have a president with intellect.

Is it really this bad?

Do we really have a contingent of people in this country whose excuse for not voting for Obama is:

"Well, I don't trust anyone who isn't an under-educated provincial hick like me..."?

In a word, yes.

They are not hurting enough. Maybe they will never hurt enough economically.

As a black woman, educated, from a small town, child of teachers, I just don't buy the "don't know educated blacks" thing. I do buy the "most afraid of educated blacks" thing NOT talked about in this article. Because the scariest black man to this group is the one in a suit. The one who could be their boss.

It's racism. An educated black man is the worst fear of some of the people in this world, and I say that having grown up in a small Louisiana town. Insecure small town whites (who do NOT represent all or even most rural whites) tend to be the loudest, and to threaten everyone else into submission.

It is about race and class. They resent an educated black man as uppity. How dare he? They also see "book learning" as making people think "above themselves" or causing their own relatives to reject them. When their educated relatives reject them, it will be for the constant insults to their intelligence, jibes about book learning, and obnoxity.

WHat they won't admit, except when drunk, is that they were too lazy to pay attention to school until it was too late. They weren't disciplined enough for college. They make fun of it because they could not do it.

Remember, it has been 43 years since the Civil Rights Act. Such a small time period. The people from that period are only ten years older than me, and I am in my early forties. They saw segregation as children. They still mourn it in some ways.

They have so little. They think that if they make common cause they will have to share. They don't see that by making common cause they will increase what they have exponentially. I'm not sure there is a way to get that through to them, other than their child having an interracial baby. That seems to cure most racists quick. There are a few exceptions, and they seem to be suffering from more than racism- like mental illness or just plain meanness.

Provincial "small-townies" are going to decide this thing all over again. Doesn't matter what the facts are, I'm starting to think Barack will lose this thing. McCain should be ashamed of himself. By playing into the fears outlined in this piece, he's become Bush. Truly disgusting.