Obama lost WV because of racism?

That's what an Obama supporter asked me today, if I thought Clinton won big because West Virginians won't vote for a black man. I replied that may have been part of it, but not all of it.

From what I have seen of West Virginians, which is mainly in the southern part of the state, people want to vote for the candidates who are most like them. West Virginians see a better reflection of their own identity in Hillary Clinton than in Barack Obama, so they preferred her. Plus, a lot of people have good memories of the Clinton years in the White House, so her candidacy gave them hope of reliving those times.

What happens in November? I think McCain carries West Virginia. I've already run the numbers. If you want to review them again while our online tech people try to get our archive access running, you can go here.

Beyond the numbers, I think more West Virginians will identify with McCain than with Obama.

So I turned the tables on the person who asked me about racism among West Virginia voters. I asked him if West Virginians would rather have a third term of George W. Bush, which is how Democrats will paint a possible McCain administration, or a second term of Jimmy Carter, as some Republicans are already painting an Obama administration.

I tend to think people will choose Bush over Carter, but I have been wrong before.

Back to the original question, which troubles me more as I think about it more: Just because a person votes for Clinton over Obama, does that make that person a racist? What does it say about Obama supporters that they feel they have to blame a defeat on racism, when it's possible a lot of people prefer Clinton over any other candidate?

I'm not getting into the question of who injected race into this campaign. I'll let the bloggers and wonks who have access to endless archives of quotes do that.