The NYT accuses American voters of opposing Obama because he's black.

This is a scurrilous article! Where's the evidence? It's just creepy, New York aversion to the fly-over people.

While Mr. Obama will always be known to the history books as the country’s first black president, his mixed-race heritage has only rarely surfaced in visible and explicit ways amid the tumult of a deep recession, two wars and shifting political currents.

Exactly. It's remarkable, the absence of racism. But the NYT is just so eager to rake some up anyway.

The Obama campaign aggressively monitors any racial remarks made against the president, but officials rarely openly discuss Mr. Obama’s race....

Don't you think this material, searched for so diligently, would be passed on to the NYT if something could be made of it?

Researchers have long struggled to quantify racial bias in electoral politics, in part because of the reliance on surveys, a forum in which respondents rarely admit to prejudice. In 50 interviews in this county over three days last week, 5 people raised race directly as a reason they would not vote for Mr. Obama. In those conversations, voters were not asked specifically about race, but about their views on the candidates generally. Those who raised the issue did so of their own accord.

I'd like to see the text of these interviews. They give us some quotes that are not fairly characterized as someone saying she wouldn't vote for Obama because of his race, but statements of belief that other people voted out of enthusiasm for having a black President

“I’ll just come right out and say it: he was elected because of his race,” said Sara Reese, a bank employee who said she voted for Ralph Nader in 2008, even though she usually votes Democrat....

“He was like, ‘Here I am, I’m black and I’m proud,’ ” said Lesia Felsoci, a bank employee drinking a beer in an Applebee’s. “To me, he didn’t have a platform. Black people voted him in, that’s why he won. It was black ignorance.”

Drinking a beer in an Applebee’s... oh, the horror!

But the main quarrels Democratic voters here have with Mr. Obama have nothing to do with race....

Exactly. How disappointing for the enlightened elite in New York City!