He is who he is

"A new poll that accompanied a much buzzed-about Associated Press article on Saturday seemed to quantify the cost of racism to Obama: 6 percentage points in the polls." — Politico

So what? What purpose does that statistic serve? If we really put our mind to it we could probably work out how much better he'd be polling if he were from the South. Or pro-Surge. Or pro-life. Or right-handed. Working out the statistical cost of his race seems an academic exercise at best, and at worst neurotic and inflammatory. He is who he is. "A related and unresolved question is how many persons will vote for Barack Obama because he is black" says Nate Silver. So that's that poll rendered instantly meaningless.