Timing, Bush help Obama cut racial gap

Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune

- Last week, a New York Times/CBS News poll suggested that even though Sen. Barack Obama is poised to make history next month by becoming the country’s first African-American presidential nominee, it is difficult to ignore the issue gap that persists between black and white America.

According to the poll, nearly 60 percent of African-American respondents said race relations were pretty sour. Thirty-four percent of whites felt similarly. Forty percent of blacks polled said there has been no progress in recent years in eliminating racial discrimination; less than 20 percent of whites felt similarly.

One of the most striking (but maybe not really) findings of the poll was that although black and white Americans disagreed on almost all of its questions, blacks and whites did agree that the country was ready to elect a president who’s half black and half white.

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