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"  Fifteeen. That&amp;#039;s the number of days left until the 2008 election is over. It&amp;#039;s hard to believe that in just a few weeks the question that has made headlines for nearly the last two years will be resolved. If it comes down to polls, Barack Obama may have the election locked. For the last several weeks, John McCain has trailed Obama by more than five percent in most national polls. Pollster.com predicts that Obama&amp;#039;s got more than 150 electoral votes over McCain, with only around 70 votes still a tossup. Something drastic will have to happen if McCain is going to pull off a last-minute win. One such something drastic could be the Bradley Effect. The Bradley Effect gets its name from the 1982 California Governor&amp;#039;s race in which Democrat Tom Bradley, the black mayor of Los Angeles, lost his gubernatorial bid after having led in the polls in the election lead-up. The phenomenon, therefore, refers to a discrepancy in pre-election polling and actual voting as a result of deep-seated racism among voters\u2014they claim to support the black candidate, but then something stops them from ticking his name in the voting booth. Although many argue that the Bradley Effect has been debunked, some pundits have speculated that this could befall Obama.   As a young conservative voter, the Bradley Effect raises serious concerns. I want desperately for McCain to win this election, because his vision for the future most aligns with my own. I&amp;#039;ve been a fan of McCain since his first presidential bid in 2000, and I probably would have voted for him regardless of who the Democratic nominee was. For me, my preference for McCain over Obama is tied up in fiscal conservatism, foreign policy outlook, and a fear of big government programs. But as I cross my fingers for a McCain win, it&amp;#039;s troubling to think that my desired outcome might hinge on someone else&amp;#039;s racism. Writing in Slate last summer, Jacob Weisberg argued that racism is the only reason McCain could beat Obama.[1] &amp;amp;lt;#_ftn1&amp;amp;gt; At the time, I thought Weisberg&amp;#039;s musings were a stretch, if not potentially offensive. Now I worry he may be right. As a friend of mine who defected from the McCain camp to Obama frequently reminds me, McCain has failed to run a competitive campaign. Having sealed up the primaries early, McCain should have had no trouble building a strong general election campaign, but he&amp;#039;s fallen rather flat. In last Wednesday&amp;#039;s debate, McCain repeatedly failed to stage effective attacks on Obama. For instance, in his condemnation of Obama&amp;#039;s ties to Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers, McCain&amp;#039;s challenges were underwhelming. Obama effectively hijacked McCain&amp;#039;s attacks, as he calmly explained that he&amp;#039;d merely served on a board with Ayers and that he&amp;#039;s had no involvement in the election. Even if I don&amp;#039;t necessarily buy Obama&amp;#039;s answers, I understand how undecided voters with no major loyalties to core issues could find Obama far more appealing than McCain. At this point, I&amp;#039;d be shocked if McCain won on November 4. Still, I&amp;#039;m crossing my fingers\u2014both for a McCain win, and for a McCain win that is legitimately policy-based as opposed to racially based. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a975/race-in-the-race-3490/>