I write this on August 5, 2008.  It is not at all clear who will win this year's presidential election.  However, what is clear is that Democrats are already setting the stage for blaming racism in case Obama loses.  Every week you hear several prominent Democrats on TV or in the papers talking about how they fear racism might rear its ugly head in the last few moments of the campaign and cause millions of Americans to have second thoughts and suddenly pull the lever for McCain.

So in case that happens, I thought I would post the results of a Rasmussen Poll that they posted on August 5.  This poll shows that the electorate is increasingly trusting McCain on 9 out of 14 issues.  If McCain is able to pull off an upset win in November, please remember this poll taken back in August that showed him gaining ground on Obama in a majority of the most important issues to Americans.  It might just be that if Obama loses it is because he began losing ground on a majority of issues in late summer.  

"John McCain is now trusted more than Barack Obama on nine out of 14 electoral issues tracked by Rasmussen Reports. The latest national telephone surveys find that McCain has the biggest advantage on the war in Iraq, by a 51% to 39% margin.

Perhaps the most interesting finding of these polls is that McCain has expanded his leads on nearly every issue he had previously had the advantage on, while Obama’s leads have diminished over the past two weeks.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll shows the race for the White House is very close. The results are consistent with results from the past couple of weeks showing a race that is essentially even as the convention season approaches (see recent daily results).

In the new survey, McCain has tripled his lead on the topic of immigration. He now has a 45% to 36% advantage over his Democratic opponent, up from a three-point lead two weeks ago.

The Republican also has pulled ahead on the issue of balancing the federal budget. Two weeks ago, the candidates were tied on this issue at 40%. McCain now has a 43% to 40% lead on the issue among voters.

McCain used to be behind on the issue of Social Security but has pulled ahead of Obama for a 44% to 38% lead.

On issues that Obama has previously enjoyed huge advantages, such as health care and education, his leads have decreased. On health care, Obama leads 46% to 41%, down from a 12 percentage-point lead just two weeks ago. On education, Obama leads 43% to 39%, down from a 10-point lead two weeks ago. On environmental issues, Obama’s advantage over McCain has gone from 14 percentage points down to eight this week.

The economy is the top issue for the majority of voters this election season. Voters have consistently trusted the Democratic Party more on this issue, but the two presidential candidates are tied at 45% as to who voters trust more. A week prior, Obama had a statistically insignificant one percentage point lead on the issue.

On national security, an issue that McCain consistently performs well on, the Republican leads 52% to 40%. His lead represents an improvement from the eight-point lead he held the week before.

A poll released this week finds that over half of voters support Obama’s proposal to provide working families with energy credits but aren’t sure about his idea of taxing big oil companies. When asked who voters trust more when it comes to energy issues, voters choose McCain by a 46% to 42% margin.

When it comes to government ethics and corruption, Obama has a 46% to 44% advantage. A separate survey finds that the Democratic Party is trusted more on this issue by a 40% to 29% margin"

Another poll taken in mid-July shows the vote split this way among the races:

Blacks for Obama:  94% - 1%
Whites for McCain: 49% - 42%

Whites are clearly quite divided with nearly half of them very comfortable in supporting Obama at this point.  This indicates that if Obama eventually loses the election it won't be because of his race.  It will be because of ihs policies and beliefs.  

9/16/08 UPDATE:  Fatimah Ali wrote today in the Philadelphia Daily News: 

"We don't have to wait until after the election for a race war.  We're in one now.  Flip through right-wing talk radio, and you can hear this type of intolerance daily... we're not anywhere near 'post-racial' times."  

This is just one of many examples of radicals trying to set up a framework that America is too racist to elect a black president.  Mark my word, they will use this if Obama loses.   Note that the commentator above didn't bother to provide any examples of "racist talk radio" because there aren't any.  No major conservative talk radio host has expressed any racist thoughts towards Obama whatsoever.