? we can blame ignorant racists. That’s what Jonathan Alter tells us in Newsweek:
In the end, the problem was the LIVs. That’s short for “low-information voters,” the three fifths of the electorate that show up once every four years to vote for president but mostly hate politics. These are the 75 million folks who didn’t vote in the primaries. They don’t read newsmagazines or newspapers, don’t watch any cable news and don’t cast their ballots early. Their allegiance to a candidate is as easily shed as a T shirt. Several million moved to Obama through September and October; they’d heard he handled himself well in the debates. Then, in the last week, the LIVs swung back to the default choice: John McCain. Some had good reasons other than the color of Obama’s skin to desert him; many more did not. In October, a study by the Associated Press estimated that Obama’s race would cost him 6 percent. The percentage was smaller, but still enough to give the presidency to McCain.
I’m surprised Alter didn’t just come out and say that an Obama loss would prove Americans aren’t ready for a black president.
