I don't live in a cosmopolitan, liberal/progressive area.  I am in a very conservative Republican part of Ohio.  And racism and bigotry is certainly alive and well in this area.  It is not outwardly evident by just looking but as a lifetime resident here I can assure you that it is very actively simmering just below the surface.  And while I am sure that in a liberal/progressive area such as yours there are probably people who will give up their seat as you describe in an attempt to validate to themselves that they are not prejudiced, I would guess those instances are probably relatively rare in most places.

I, just like you, discount things such as the view held by some that the "that one" comment was racial.  I don't believe it was at all.  But, even with that being said, there is just no way to minimize the role that race has played in this campaign.  Have there been people who have gone to excess in their quest to paint everything in a racial context? Sure there are.  But I don't see how anyone could disagree that Obama would likely be four or five more points ahead but for one simple fact.  His skin is not white.

If I think back over this campaign and all of the interactions that I have had with supporters of the Republican ticket and all of the conversations in which I have been only a passive listener and not a participant; if the conversation goes long enough, almost without fail, Obama's blackness will brought up and derogatory racial comments and insinuations will inevitably ensue.  And it almost always brings a "You know what I mean?" moment along with laughs and smiles in the group.

That is what I see almost every day.  There is a reason the McCain campaign has gone down the "racial code" road in this campaign.  It is because across large segments of the country there is a very receptive audience for this type of thing who understand the innuendo and the meanings behind what they are saying.

So while some people might need a lot of persuasion in order to be convinced about the ubiquity of bigotry in the campaign, from the perspective of someone who is not in a cosmopolitan, liberal/progressive environment, it is part and parcel of a significant percentage of what goes on in my area.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"