Who gets the racist vote?

Despite the fact that Obama says he wants his campaign to transcend race, exit polls and election anecdotes seem to reveal another shameful truth: Some people aren't going to vote for a black candidate, and others are going to put up vocal, overt and racist opposition.

Andrew Sullivan says, "I think all of us who once dismissed the fashionable view around the world that a black man would have a real problem becoming an American president have had a learning experience these past few weeks. … You have to be blind not to see the impact of race."

In Pennsylvania, the Obama campaign dealt with vandalism and volunteers faced racial slurs. The North Carolina GOP party ran an ad John McCain denounced and the New York Times condemned as "a clear bid to stir bigotry in a Southern state." Pennsylvania exit polls showed the usual racial rift: Clinton won white voters - the older the voter group, the greater the margin - while Obama won 85 percent of the black vote.

An April AP-Yahoo poll found that 8 percent of white voters would be uncomfortable voting for a black candidate, but given people's reluctance to admit racism the number is probably higher. A prominent Republican told Politico's Roger Simon that if Obama faces John McCain, the racist vote is worth 15 percent to McCain.

If McCain is getting the racist vote in November, is Hillary Clinton getting it now? Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told Talking Points Memo that race-based voters are "probably firmly in John McCain's camp anyway." But in Pennsylvania, about one in five said the candidate's race was among the top deciding factors, and white voters who cited race supported Clinton over Obama three to one.

The racial tension is spilling over into party politics. The Washington Post leads today with a story about Democrats fearing a racial divide within the party. After Bill Clinton accused the Obama camp of playing the race card on him, House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn called Clinton's behavior "bizarre" and accused the Clinton campaign of marginalizing black voters and creating racial divides within the Democratic party.

On The Corner, Victor Davis Hanson says, "Much of the tragedy of the Obama campaign is how ever so steadily, incrementally its theme has devolved into a racialist message." The question is whether or not this racialism was always present in Obama's campaign, as Hanson suggests, or due to a still racially charged political climate.