The Bradley effect? A problem or urban myth?
CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric asked Democrat Barack Obama the question that many are asking about all those opinion polls which portray an advantage for the first African-American candidate for president. Pre-election polls showed that another African-American, former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, was favored in a 1982 California governor's race, only to lose the race.
(The so-called "Bradley effect'' of voters not leveling with pollsters about an African-American candidate has been disputed by many, including The Gallup Poll's Frank Newport -- suggesting that Bradley's own pollster invented a myth as a means of covering the tracks of his own bad polling. Others suggest that Obama may overcome any such reak factor with an extraordinary turnout of African-American voters.)
"There's been a debate about the Bradley effect, which as you know, in essence is when some respondents lie to pollsters and say "Sure, we'd vote for an African American candidate but on Election Day they just don't do it,'' Couric told Obama, in an interview conducted in Ohio and aired this evening. "A lot of people say it's a phenomenon that's outdated, overstated - and misunderstood. Having said that, do you think we'll see evidence of that on Election Day?''
"You know, I have to tell you, I'm in the camp that says it's outdated and overstated,'' Obama replied. "I mean, the fact of the matter is that people have been worrying and fussing about whether or not I'm hampered because I'm an African American since we were campaigning in Iowa.
"The reason I'm sitting here two days before the election as the Democratic nominee is because the American people ultimately care about whether or not you can do the job.''