Brandon, a 9-year-old black kid, attended a campaign rally hosted by Michelle Obama. A cameraman interviewed Brandon, who was there with his dad. "Why does (Obama) need to win?" he was asked. "Because if Mitt Romney wins," he replied, "we'll be going back to the crop fields. We'll be picking crops." Off-screen, his father could be heard laughing.

From whom does a 9-year-old hear that Obama's opponent is a racist who, to quote the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, wants "to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws"?

Brandon's father might alert his son to a recent column by Douglas Wilder, the black ex-governor of Virginia and himself a former presidential candidate. Although former Secretary of State Colin Powell's re-endorsement of President Obama got more attention, a far bigger deal is the refusal by Wilder to endorse President Barack Obama for re-election. Wrote Wilder: "The classic question, 'Are we better off than we were four years ago,' leaves a mixed answer for many people I meet when traveling around Virginia and the country."

Artur Davis, a black former Alabama congressman and co-chair of Obama 2008, switched his support to Romney. An opponent of ObamaCare, Davis said, "A comprehensive, 2,000 page, near $1 trillion dollar overhaul of the health care system is just too cumbersome and too costly in a time of trillion-dollar deficits." When he was first criticized for his stance against ObamaCare, Davis said, "I vigorously reject the insinuation that there is a uniquely 'black' way of understanding an issue."

The Associated Press, however, wants people like little Brandon to know that, yes, had Obama lost, it was racism that did him in. Indeed, the AP says its online survey shows that many Americans possess negative "racial attitudes" toward blacks -- enough to hurt Obama's re-election.