Will Obama Suffer From the 'Bradley Effect?'

Sen. Barack Obama has a sizeable lead over Sen. John McCain, polls show, but those numbers could be deceiving if the "Bradley effect" comes into play.

The Bradley effect is named after former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, an African-American who ran for California governor in 1982.

Exit polls showed Bradley leading by a wide margin, and the Democrat confidentially thought it would be an early election night.

But Bradley and the polls were wrong. He lost to Republican George Deukmejian.

The theory was that polling was wrong because some voters, who did not want to appear bigoted, said they voted for Bradley even though they did not.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/13/obama.bradley.effect/index.html