what ever happened to voting for the most qualified candidate?

the new hampshire pre-primary polls predicted [say that three times, fast!] that barack obama would beat hillary clinton by anything from 7 to 13 points, but hillary bested him by 2%. why would the polls be so far wrong? well, among other theories, including the fact that clinton shows above obama on the alphabetized ballots, is the theory of "the bradley effect". the idea is that when polled, people will say that they are planning to vote for the black candidate, and then they go vote for the white candidate. the bradley that the effect is named for was running for california governor in 1982, was predicted to win by 9 to 22 point, but ended up losing. oh, and duh - he is a black man & was running against a white man.

during the story on npr, the reporter actually said that white people will say they are planning to vote for the black candidate, so that they will not appear racist. really. it is considered racist for a white person to say they will vote for a white person. is it also considered racist for a black person to say they will vote for a black person?