Did the color of the skin infuence some voters? Would some people who voted for McCain vote for a democrat if he (or she) were white?
What would happen if the democratic candidate were a black, son of a black father and a black mother, descendant of slaves, lived the whole life in the USA and had typical American first name and last name, instead of a son of a Kenyan immigrant, someone who lived for sometime in Indonesia and had the same middlename of the former president of Iraq and the last name who looks like the name of the former leader of Al-qaeda? Would the race factor be different?
Race mattered very little in the 2008 election. The only people that it really made a difference with is the "white democrats" group in the south that had a tradition of voting democratic (see: SE OK, NE AR, Cajun country, LA) that didn't vote for Obama.
What would happen if the democratic candidate were a black, son of a black father and a black mother, descendant of slaves, lived the whole life in the USA and had typical American first name and last name, instead of a son of a Kenyan immigrant, someone who lived for sometime in Indonesia and had the same middlename of the former president of Iraq and the last name who looks like the name of the former leader of Al-qaeda? Would the race factor be different?
I do think that if the black candidate is what you're describing there, he/she would've done MUCH better. Sadly, being a son of a Kenyan Muslim and having the middle name Hussein is really what propped up the "birther" movement. This played well with fearful whites, but most of these people were people that wouldn't have voted for a democrat anyway, but it would make a difference and I can see the margin being 9-10 points instead of 7.
