Bradley Effect...how Many Of You Are Concerned That It Will Resurface This Election?

**momofthree** · 10-02-2008, 03:26 PM

Good article on the subject:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...,5653453.column

He's way ahead in the polls now, and may still be on the morning of Nov. 4, but will that really translate into a win? :unsure:

**LBellatrix** · 10-02-2008, 04:36 PM

Too much can happen between now and Nov. 4. In 2004 I remember thinking John Kerry was a shoo-in...right up until maybe 3 days before the election. I'm not sure what it was that sent that prescient chill down my spine but...sadly...I was right.

I found this statement interesting:

Bradley was a UCLA graduate, a former cop and City Council member, and he regarded himself not as a black politician but as a politician who happened to be black. Philip Depoian worked with Bradley for about three decades, and he told me that Bradley's "was probably the most integrated mind-set I've ever come across -- he never looked at anybody from an ethnic point of view." When a student visiting City Hall in 1979 asked the mayor whether L.A. voters had gotten "a black Gerald Ford rather than a black John Kennedy," Bradley replied, "I'm not a black this or a black that. I'm just Tom Bradley."[/b]

Now maybe somebody who remembers Bradley as mayor can confirm or deny this but...how do we know that he wasn't just saying that for white folks' benefit? Traditionally we've learned to be one way to white folks and another way to our own...it may not be as prevalent now but back then it most definitely was.

At this point, given how increasingly crazy the Repugs look, I'm thinking this election is McCain's to lose. There may very well be a Bradley effect but it'll go off into the third-party candidates (Nader, Barr). I'm hoping enough people have the common sense to not let their fear sway them away from the only truly sane choice out here.

**BasementBeat** · 10-02-2008, 04:54 PM

Oh absolutely. I think its a ton of people out there saying they are voting for Obama to appear as if they are beyond race. But when they get to ballot, when its just them and a paper/machine, their inner hatred will come out and nobody will know.

So yeah, i'm a bit concerned. Americans haven't exactly given me much hope in their choices.

**Scrills** · 10-02-2008, 05:37 PM

bradley effect or not, I don't trust polls. It only samples small amounts (1100) and I'm concerned that it only reaches people with home phones. and at what hour are they calling?

**sannie** · 10-02-2008, 05:46 PM

For every 'Bradley voter' there's a closet Obama voter. I'm not worried about that at all. I do worry about people not getting off their behinds to vote. Especially when he's far ahead in the polls.

**momofthree** · 10-02-2008, 06:29 PM

She is fly, you know, that is something I have wondered about a lot--Bubbas secretly voting for Obama all the while wearing a McCain-Palin t-shirt. I guess we'll find out. We might have some big surprises come election day. I just read that fully one third of independent voters now say Palin makes them less likely to vote McCain, so maybe we will come to call the reversed Bradley effect the "Palin effect". Did you see what she said (or better, didn't say, to Katie Couric on the Supreme Court? She has turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving!!

**sunschild57** · 10-02-2008, 10:39 PM

:blush: I thought you were talking about Bill Bradley. I would say that I was having a Palin moment but I doubt she would know who Bill Bradley is. Wait, she did play basketball in college ^_^