It won't matter to them. They won't look at him as being a success or good president as long as he's black. They'll never give credit to him.

Hopefully "Maybe the niggers ain't so bad after all," but honestly, I don't think anything will change. They'll just assume everything positive that happens under his administration is a result of Bush's genius carrying over. What's funny, though, is that a huge percentage of racists are voting for Obama. I quote, "That McCain guy scares me more than any nigger ever did."

Which racists? The one's who don't like black people? or the one's who don't like white people? ..oh yeah I forgot, there is only one kind of racism.

Who cares what the racist think if the man does it good job leave the thinking to the normal American people

"He's half white", probably, or they'll ignore it.

Racists are notoriously resistant to change. So I suspect they will say "We should have never taught them how to read"

I think they will likely view him as liberals view Bush now, for he is one of the greatest presidents in US history, given his victory over Saddam Hussein, and his fight against terrorism. As for Barack Obama, he is a major gamble. We will be lucky if he backs up even 1/3 of his talk with proactivity.

Racism is not a reasonable position, so I don't expect a racist to react reasonably. If Mr. Obama should become the greatest president ever, a racist would probably be eager to point out that he is "half white".

probably something along the lines of "well he's part white so yeah"

Hate needs no rhyme or reason. It exists unto itself.

I assume by 'racists' you mean people who are explicitly and openly, to themselves and others, racist? Perhaps venemously so? (As opposed to stereotypical/demeaning ideas, openly hateful, I mean.) I think even in that specific group you wouldn't get just one reaction or type of reaction.

What concerns me is that if Obama becomes president will there be assassination attempts on him by some crazy white racist just because he's black.

All the racists simply voting for Obama because he is a “person of color” don't actually care if he does well or not. They will think the exact same thing either way.

They'll think "He only did those things because the white man voted him in."

I'd hazard a guess that if you rounded up 10 million racists you'd get about 10 million disagreements

They will still be racists. Furthermore, we are ALL RACISTS. It's bred in and part of genetic human nature. Our fight or flight instincts train us to fear and reject anything we don't understand or identify with. But, it doesn't really matter how much of a racist you are. What matters is how much you fight to identify it when it happens and supress the behavior it causes.

Well, I'm sure they (a minority) would be terrified. It seems that most Americans are not racist. I saw on the news today that 90% of likely voters are "comfortable" with having an African-American president, 76% are "very comfortable" with this idea. Yet, only about 50% are comfortable with the idea of having a 72 year old being president. Just the fact in itself that Obama may very well become the next president and is leading in most polls shows that the people of the US are by a close majority not racists. Obama could very well be one of the greatest presidents in US history. For one, being the first non-white president (well, he's half white, does that count?), being credited for withdrawal from Iraq (well, W. Bush called for this, but it's not widely publicized). He seems to have something you could compare to JFK, but I don't know what it is. There is something about him that makes you feel like part of something greater than yourself. I can't explain it. It's the charisma, or something. This in itself could boost the psychological health of America. We might decide to spend more, have a belief that everything will be okay. I think that those who are so petty to be racist will undoubtedly regret their decisions.

Racism and thinking are mutually exclusive terms. One is emotionally based,and the other on reasoning. The thing is some people will see what they want to see. And sometimes some people will want to see beyond external differences to a deeper truth of our collective humanity.

I don't think we will have to worry about him being one of the greatest presidents ever. Lets be honest who ever takes over won't have an easy job, things are messed up. Obama's problem is people make him out to be some saviour who will rid the U.S. of all problems and fix everything. Come on people, wake up! Anyone who sets such unrealistic, unattainable goals is only setting themselves up for dissapointment. People believe what they want, its kind of like when poor people buy lootery tickets and sit around talking about the great things they will buy when they will. The odds aren't good!

They really won't think anything. They'll continue trying to discredit and finding fault with everything...right after they try to assasinate him

Let's face facts. Unless he does something Bushesque the people that voted for Obama will think he's a great president, and the people that voted against him will think he was horrible.

those are some big ifs wouldnt you say, why dont you concentrate on helping him win before you put up on thelist with reagan and lincoln

I don`t believe it will change the mind of the racists. The racists will continue to use hate as an agruement to " try" to defend their own racism and fear. What scares me is how Obama and his family will be used as targets for hate by racists. I fear for them as I believe someone will try to assasinate him or his family members all because of the color of his skin. Sad :(

It'll be kind of ironic, because to impress 'the racists' - that is, the people who are confidently and actively racist, not the people who don't realise they're ethnically bigoted, who make up a far larger number - and be considered 'great', he will have to some really 'ungreat' things, like possibly ditching welfare altogether and invading Pakistan or some crap (which he openly considered before campaigning).