Posted by
Defend America on Tuesday, October 07, 2008 10:44:06 AM
Nobody likes to talk about this, but this does happen. The Bradley effect does occur in politics, even though it is not widely discussed. Tom Bradley, an African-American was ahead in the polls before election day in the 1982 California gubernatorial election against a white Republican named George Deukmejian, but when election day came around he lost. The media outlets were so sure that Tom Bradley who was the mayor of Los Angeles at the time, had won based on exit polls and polling done before the election, but they turned out to be wrong. It is now known as the Bradley effect when usually whites tell pollsters that they are undecided or voting for the black politician as a way to appear not racist, but when election day comes around they vote for their opponent. Nobody really knows how many actual races were affected by the Bradley effect, but there is a list of elections that make it look suspicious.
I only write this today because yesterday on Special Report on Fox News, Brit Hume brought this up to Juan Williams, an African-American. Juan Williams said it is very possible that the Bradley effect could occur in this election, but would not matter due to Obama's lead in the polls. He predicted that it would only be worth 5% of a difference. But, that 5% could be big in this election, especially considering that Obama does not have a surmountable lead in the polls. Two new polls I posted today by CBS and Zogby, show that the race is actually getting tighter, so it makes me wonder how much if any will the Bradley effect play in the 2008 presidential election.