All white on the night for Romney

One demographic Barack Obama can rely on for votes is editorial staff at Slate magazine, which voted Obama almost exclusively in 2008 and looks set to do the same again this time round. Writer Tom Scocca defends this tiny "bubble" in a lengthy piece that claims the real, airtight bubble in this election isn't Obama's, it's Romney's - and inside it are white middle-aged men. The key line here: "White men are supporting Mitt Romney to the exclusion of logic or common sense".

According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News national tracking poll, Romney claims 60 per cent of white votes to Obama's 37 per cent - an advantage of 23 points.

"What is it with these white men?", asks Scocca. "What are they seeing that ordinary people don't see?"

It comes down to the phantom Obama Romney is running against, the concoction of prejudice and spin Republicans have been moulding incessantly since Obama took power.

"At the most grotesque end of the fantasies, he is a foreign-born, anti-colonialist Muslim. In more reputable precincts, he is a power-mad socialist and a dumb affirmative-action baby, promoted all the way to the presidency by a race-crazed, condescending liberal elite."

As one GOP strategist acknowledged, changing racial demographics in America may soon mean that a straightforward and exclusive appeal to white voters won't be enough to gain power. With luck, says Scocca, "this will be the final sounding of that bugle".