Obama -- The Race Question

Although many are saying that this Presidential contest is not about race, I still wonder whether race is a simmering issue under the surface that may in fact decide this election. The question may ultimately be, will other factors like the economy trump race as an issue?

Most people when asked a question about race would answer that they are not racist or that race is not an issue. However, when push comes to shove in the ballot box and where no one is watching, will voters vote based on race?

Obama might be leading in most polls at the moment and he is leading comfortably in some. Nevertheless, there is precedent here for a black (African-American for the more politically correct) candidate to be leading a race only to be done over in the ballot box. When Los Angeles Mayor, Tom Bradley, ran for the Governorship of California he was leading comfortably in the polls in the lead-up to the election. Yet, he still lost the election once the counting was complete.

This was 1982, perhaps it is different now. What most pundits believe is that white voters when polled were not acknowledging the fact that they would not vote for a black man. Are things different now?