Undecided as Code

Somewhere in the higher-than-usual percentage of undecided voters in the late stages of an almost two-year campaign are those who can't or won't vote for an African-American candidate.

The good news for Barack Obama is that, as his lead in the national polls grows toward double digits, it may, as gamblers say, "cover the spread."

Michelle Obama recently dismissed the Bradley Effect by pointing to the primary vote that gave her husband the nomination, but that overlooks the late surge by Hillary Clinton among white voters in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, where Rep. John Murtha, in his usual blunt way, recently pointed out that race matters.

A critical question about such voters may be, How deep does their "indecision" go? Is it virulent enough to make them choose McCain or just skip voting entirely? Since many of them are among those most worried about the sinking economy, the answer may be a test of self-interest against deeply held prejudice.

In any case, on Election Night, we will learn something about how far America has come on the subject of race since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Ultimate Idiocy of Identity Politics

Gwen Ifill is under attack as moderator of the VP debate because she has written a book about how African-American politicians have moved beyond the identity simplicities of the civil rights struggle.

Immune to irony, Conservatives are preemptively piling on with accusations of prejudice, even though the book has been common knowledge for some time.

Michelle Malkin argues in a post on National Review that Ifill is "so far in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running."

Proof that Ifill is not objective, some contend, can be seen in her facial expressions after Palin's acceptance speech during the Republican National Convention last month. "Those viewers apparently believed Ifill didn't seem sufficiently excited," the AP reported today.

"We're very lazy when we think about race in this country," Ifill has said in describing the theme of her book. "We love simplistic conflict."

The Fox News gang is proving that with a headline on their blog: "VP Debate Moderator Pens Pro-Obama Book."

Shirley Chisholm, who ran for president in 1972, always insisted that she encountered more prejudice over her gender than her race. On that basis, Democrats should be railing about Ifill because of possible favoritism toward Palin as one woman to another.

Or maybe they should all shut up and see whether or not Palin can ace her test tomorrow night.

Rapist Rights

In a Nebraska courtroom, a judge has told a woman not to characterize her experience as “rape” or “sexual assault” or describe herself as a victim and the accused man as an assailant.

The defendant’s presumption of innocence and right to a fair trial trumps the woman's right of free speech, according to a Lincoln judge who issued the order.

This is a long way from the social contract not to publish the name of a victim (make that "recipient of unsolicited affection") of sexual assault (that is, "excessive familiar attention") by a rapist (er, "overzealous suitor").

The woman lost her case for violation of her First Amendment rights, but a federal judge, in dismissing the suit, doubted a jury would be swayed by her use of the word “rape” instead of some “tortured equivalent.”

“For the life of me," he said. "I do not understand why a judge would tell an alleged rape victim that she cannot say she was raped when she testifies in a trial about rape.”

But in this era of political correctness, you can't be too careful. If we started calling collateral damage murder, where would it all end?

The Hate Vote

Old-fashioned American prejudice is alive and well, if today’s poll numbers can be believed.

Close to half of all voters are committed to rejecting Mitt Romney (44 percent) and Hillary Clinton (43 percent, 50 percent of men).

In Sen. Clinton’s case, it could be argued that at least some of the virulent opposition can be traced not to the fact that she is a woman but to 15 years of high public visibility. In Romney’s case, however, voters don’t know enough about him to account for such strong feelings except the fact that he is a Mormon.

If you asked these people about prejudice, undoubtedly most of them would strongly deny it. That’s old-fashioned American, too.

Redhead Abuse

If ye have tears, prepare to shed them now for Prince Harry of England and Nicole Kidman, victims of prejudice by an unfeeling society against the ginger-haired.

In Britain, ABC reports a rising tide of discrimination with one family driven from its home by anti-redhead grafitti, vandalism and physical assaults and a waitress awarded $35,000 in a suit for “ginger abuse.”

The U.S. has been spared thus far, possibly because only 2 percent of the population is (pace Clairol) naturally red-headed, while in Scotland and Ireland more than one in ten are subject to ginger-phobia, often expressed by rude remarks from strangers in the streets.

The notion that persons of such color are untrustworthy can been traced as far back as the belief that Judas had red hair.

The plight of carrot tops has not yet resulted in organized resistance, but there has been a revival of interest in the Sherlock Holmes story, “The League of Redheaded Men,” which would now, of course, be “Persons.”

Back here, the American response has been typically defiant--T-shirts with a ketchup bottle labeled “Saucy Redhead.”