In response to the racism issue I saw an interesting study that showed it did not play a significant role in the election. It compared the percentage of the white vote for Kerry in 04 and Obama and showed in all but three states it was very similar and actually larger for Obama in many places( he won after all). The three states where his percentage was noticeably lower where in the South. Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia I believe. This hardly means that racism is not a problem especially in the Republican party but these people are not voting Democratic anyway so it has little effect on the outcome. Remember how the song "Barack the Magic Negro" was so popular in Republican circles, the different "watermelon" photos that spewed out of RNC allied groups, the constant attempts to portray him as a Muslim, intimating that somehow just being Muslim was bad. Now we have the "Birthers" trying to prove that he really isn't one of "us". All of this is pure racism and it is a big problem in the GOP and to somehow say it is not is just putting your head in the sand. People here may not have these tendencies but passively accepting it, rationalizing it, or ignoring it is just as bad.
