Contrary to many think, the Obama campaign turned race into an advantage in the campaign.
The mainstream media is heavily Democratic, driven by NE liberals, who were totally in love with the idea of "the first black president" and from the minute he announced, they couldn't mention his name without saying "the first black president" and "how wonderful that would be" in the eyes of the world, yada yada.
They PROMOTED the idea.
The Obama campaign played the race card early and often as a tool and a weapon.
They used it through surrigates and by Obama himself until it took hold.
It became so common that many supporters openly held the belief that the ONLY reason that someone would vote against Obama would be because of his race.
Yes, there are racists in America who won't vote for a black.
But there are also those who won't vote for a woman, a pro-life candidate, a Mormon, a Jew, a Catholic, an Italian, a Southerner, and lots of other things.
There are also many people who will actively vote FOR a black as evidenced by the unusually HIGH turnout and percentage of vote among blacks for Obama.
There was also a "white guilt" factor of people who wanted to vote for a black to make themelves feel better that they personally were not racists.
Obama likely gained as many, if not more, votes because he was black than had he been whte.
Many try to use as "evidence" of "racism" that certain Southern States voted for McCain. That's BS.
They rarely vote Democrat in presidential elections. They would not have voted for a Democrat in any case so his being black or white made no difference even if the entire white population had been (just exaggerating here) members of the Ku Klux Klan - which they aren't. They're just conservatives who don't vote for Democrats at the presidential level.
That's where your "ideology" comes in for your paper.
Guns, abortion, anti-military, raising taxes, too much government, they don't trust the government, Democrats are seen as anti-religion, etc.
They'll keep voting center-right.
Oddly, most of the skinhead and KKK-type groups are now headquartered in the North and Mid-west which went for Obama.
These groups are small and pathetic.
As you can see, they have little influence. They rant on the internet.
The FBI and other law enforcement keeps an eye on them - except in the voting booth and there's not enough of them to make a differnce.
Obama won despite them.