Bradley Effect? The Boogey Man is Under Your Bed

Allow me to get irritated for a minute.  The first article below (first link at the bottom) is an example of inciting unnecessary fear. 
 
The so-called “Bradley” (a.k.a., Wilder, a.k.a., Dinkins) effect, of which there is sparse evidence, has been assigned to Obama for one reason: because he’s an African American candidate (and race and drama go hand in hand).  Polls by their very nature are “retrospective” (snapshots of yesterday) not “predictive” (forecasts of tomorrow). 
 
Most in the media who are talking and writing about a possible Bradley effect with Obama have very little theoretical understanding of survey research methods, polling, or research on racial attitudes in America.  Moreover, there are plenty of times when black candidates run and there is no pre-election poll versus outcome discrepancy (see 2006, with Swann, Steele, Ford, and Patrick).
 
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