Prejudice could cast deciding vote for Obama, Hillary
Most won't admit ballot biases, but emotions often rule in booth
It's up to the good people in Indiana and North Carolina to do the right thing:
They should ignore the political mischief and judge Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on their visions for America, which has played out during this primary.
Looks like Clinton has gotten a lift from the fear-mongering, and is now slightly ahead of Obama in Indiana, and has narrowed his double-digit lead in North Carolina.
Polls in Indiana show Clinton now leads Obama there by four points among likely Democratic voters, 48 percent to 44 percent. Eight percent of voters there remain undecided, according to an analysis by a CNN poll.
That means the Jeremiah Wright controversy has hurt Obama and helped Clinton, even though some voters in Indiana would probably swear on a stack of Bibles that they weren't influenced by the negative coverage.
Meanwhile, Obama continues to put his money on his belief that the majority of Americans won't cast their ballots on race, but for a candidate who they believe will best represent their interests in Washington.
Despite the racially polarizing events, Obama has not wavered from this belief and recently reiterated his belief that if he loses his bid for the Democratic primary, it won't be because of his race.
I'm still not so sure.
For instance, reported on the New York Times blog on Monday was a piece by a reporter who went to a "mostly white highly educated, professional . . . politically independent" area and found voters were "unaffected" by the Wright controversy.
But the reporter also found that while supporters of both Clinton and Obama said "they did not think the Wright episode should change the race" they feared it might in other areas where "people might be searching for some acceptable explanation for not voting for a black candidate."
That's a truth that many will call a lie.
Because the greatest irony in American politics is that voters say they want the truth, but as Jack Nicholson said it best in "A Few Good Men": "You can't handle the truth."
So, candidates seeking political office are forced to pretend to be something they are not.
While they can't afford to get caught up in a lie, like Clinton did when she fabricated her misadventure in Bosnia, the strictures of American politics force candidates to create antithetical images. So, you get the wealthy New Yorker that Hillary Clinton has become, riding shotgun in a pickup truck in rural Indiana, and the Harvard-educated Obama bowling in rural Pennsylvania.
Like Bill Clinton playing the saxophone, both were comedic attempts to appeal to a particular demographic, which for this political cycle has been identified as working-class white people .
Once upon a time, the coveted demographic was African-American voters, and Bill Clinton's strategists did such a good job type-casting the southern Democrat, Clinton was dubbed the nation's "first black president."
Now, black voters have been made painfully aware that Bill Clinton isn't black. Hillary Clinton doesn't ride around in pickup trucks, and judging by Obama's bowling score, bowling isn't one of his pastimes.
Because American voters are so accustomed to being fooled, many of them don't see these images as tools that are used by campaign strategists to pander to our longing for inclusiveness.
In the secrecy of the voting booth, many of us still vote for a candidate because of his or her race, or gender, or status, or humor, or style, or attractiveness.
But when asked, the majority of voters would die before admitting that they cast a ballot based on those superficial qualities.
On Monday, Obama supporters fanned out across Indiana to knock on doors for their candidate.
Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, who is considered the godfather of Obama's political career, spoke at several Indiana churches on Sunday.
"He has to get out his strong base vote. We would like to win North Carolina," Jones told me, conceding that Indiana's demographics work in Clinton's favor.
Because the truth is, some voters will vote for a black candidate. Some voters will not.
If fear-mongering has swayed Indiana voters in this critical primary, it can't be blamed on Wright.
It would be their shame.