It's sad to see such racial polarization manifest in West Virginia, but the sadness is lessened by a number of factors:

1) Obama has won with plenty of white voters to date.

2) He leads Sen. McCain in almost every national poll taken this month, including a 7-point lead the most recent poll from ABC/W. Post.

Those leads would not exist if Democrats were significantly fractured. There remains great unity on the fundamental issues facing the country.

3) Republican attempts to win congressional races by using Obama and Rev. Wright as boogeyman keep failing.

4) We're seeing how well Obama can handle various smears with little help from surrogates, while other leading Democrats legitimize and foster racial divisions, and he's performed quite well under the circumstances.

He will likely beat McCain even with the current level of racism weighing Obama down. And maybe past comments will have lasting damage.

But when all Democrats are fully on board, furthering instead of undermining Obama's consistent message of unity and common purpose, that will maximize the possibility for the big win needed to usher major change.