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Article date 11/03/08 Posted purposely after the triumph. The number of all voters who would reject Obama based on his race, and the number more likely to vote for him because of his race, is about the same. There's apparently more than one reason for a racist to vote for Barack Obama; An abysmal economy during which the white candidate's campaign has seemed disorganized and erratic, common sense or shared values can prevail over gut fears about the color of a candidate's skin. People can look past skin color while acting in their own best interests. For whatever reason or reasons -- the economy, healthcare, the Iraq war, Sarah Palin -- some racists are determined to vote for the black guy over the white one.  Racism will remain an elusive, unquantifiable force, one whose influence we can't tease out from among the many other conflicting factors that will determine how Americans vote.