When i blogged about the attention of the issue of race being brought back up I was frustrated and actually kind of pissed off. However I decided to do some research on current polls surrounding race as well as region to see if race and region had any sort of relevance or significant relationship. Obviously not all Republicans are racist and not all Democrats are not blind when it comes to their decision of who to support and race. However, I think it is an interesting point to bring up and it should be investigated, because I sadly do believe that race does play a role more so in some regions of the country than others...
The latest gallup poll by race shows that ...
non-hispanic white voters support John McCain to Barack Obama 51%- 42%
Non-hispanic black voters support Barack Obama to John McCain 93%-3%
Hispanic voters support Barack Obama to John McCain 53%-38%
The latest gallup poll by region shows that...
The East Coast supports Barack Obama to John McCain 55%-36%
The Midwest supports Barack Obama to John McCain 50%-42%
The South supports John McCain to Barack Obama 42%-51%
and the West Coast supports Barack Obama to John McCain 50%-45%
So taking that into consideration, here are the results from the Associated Press-Yahoo News Poll on "Barack Obama's Race Problem"
The question in the poll asks, "Does the fact that, if elected, Barack Obama would be the first black president of the United States make you more likely to vote for him, less likely to vote for him, or does it not affect your vote either way?
More Likely To Vote For Him: 8%
Less Likely To Vote For Him: 9%
Does Not Affect Vote Either Way: 83%
So delving a little deeper, the poll report goes on to say that While Barack Obama leads GOP rival John McCain 43%-39% overall, white Democrats are standing by their candidate much less than their Republican counterparts:
71% of white Democrats who say they support Obama while 85% of white Republicans say they support McCain
The poll goes on to ask those being polled, "how the following adjectives 'describe most blacks' showing those who responded 'extremely well' or 'very well' " by all the respondents, all whites, and white democrats.
The adjectives include: friendly, determined to succeed, law abiding, hard-working, intelligent at school, good neighbors, dependable, violent, boastful, complaining, lazy, and irresponsible.
The poll goes on to see how the respondents felt about other races as well as if they felt that blacks have gotten less than they deserved over the past few years.
Though the poll does not talk about specific geographical information in regards to race, it is interesting to see the series of questions asked as well as how those polled responded in terms of race or political party.
I know that this is a lot of information, but I would recommend that you take the time to look through the AP-Yahoo News poll/ study because it really is interesting and provides a lot of information.
Do you think that the poll shows the reality of the race issue? Do you think that this will affect the result of the 2008 presidential election? DISCUSS!!!
1 comment:
This is a very useful post, Noelle. I notice also that Obama has a Hilary problem as well. Only 59% of Hilary supporters will now support Obama and 14% of these voters are supporting McCain. I guess that means that 27% of Hilary voters are going to sit out the election (59+14-100). Actually, I can't quite believe it. If the polls have swung so sharply toward Obama this week, then either those 27% must have decided to switch to Obama or this information is wrong or dated. The 8% figure is interersting too because that's the Wilder effect. In 1991, Douglas Wilder, an African-American, ran for the governor of Virginia. The day before, the polls showed him 10 points ahead. He won, but only by 1% of the vote. In the succeeding 17 years, a number of studies have shown that that figure to have dwindled to 3-4%. But this recent poll seems to reinstate the Wilder effect (plus those who just aren't tell the pollsters the truth). Maybe when it's the presidency at stake, uneasiness among some whites about an African-American as president spikes upward. If he were running for the mayor of a small town, probably less of a problem.
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