Why Barack? 'The Color of My Skin, I Guess'

Photo Credit: Stephen Morton
SHAILA DEWAN writes from Orangeburg, SC:

On Thursday, on a dirt road near the small town of Bowman, Townsend Pelzer sat in his truck with his two lap dogs while his beagle chased rabbits in the woods. Mr. Pelzer, 83 and black, a retired maintenance worker for the state highway patrol, said he was going to vote for Mr. Obama.

Asked why, Mr. Pelzer shrugged, smiled and pointed to his face, saying, “Color of my skin, I guess.”

Scott Mattingly, 22, a white economics teacher at a virtually all-white private school in Bowman, said that many of his fellow volunteers at the Obama campaign office were “ignorant of the issues and are far more excited about the concept of a black leader.”

Although it makes perfect sense that Mr. Pelzer, at 83, would vote for Barack because their skin colors match, it makes less sense to me that volunteers at Barack's headquarters would be ignorant of the issues.