It was Perot in 1992, then Nader in 2000--third party candidates who may have decided the eventual outcomes of elections in which they never had a chance.
This year we're witnessing the impact of the most powerful, but unrecognized third party candidate in history--one who may single-handedly decide the next President. His name is racism.
Here is my belief--utterly unscientific, unsubstantiated, and based entirely on instincts I developed not by living in Seattle, but in the big city and small town atmospheres of the 'heartland'. I believe that 10 to 12 percent of U.S. voters will punch McCain's name simply because they could never support the idea of a black man as President. They may not dislike Obama himself; but they would never contribute to the further dissolution of their 'way of life'. Chip in another percent or two representing radical Christians who think any person with a middle name Hussein must constitute a threat to their religious freedom and you wind up with one in seven voters who march uncontested into the McCain column.
Why are the polls so close? Easy. If Obama is trending ahead 49-35 among non-racist, non-religious wacko voters--which seems entirely plausible to me--folding back in that one-seventh segment levels the race at dead even.
Two-against-one may not be fair, but that's what Obama faces.
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