DAVE WEIGEL OVERLOOKS THE, UM, ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Dave Weigel is usually a pretty smart guy, but he seems baffled at the end of this post, and the only thing that's baffling to me is why he's baffled.

Here's the post, up to the final paragraph:

Poll: Americans Less and Less Convinced that Obama is Helping Race Relations

The new Washington Post/ABC News poll asks this question for the third time:

Do you think Obama's presidency has done more to (help) or more to (hurt) race relations in this country, or has it not made much of a difference?

When this was first asked in January 2009, 58 percent of Americans said the Obama presidency would help race relations, and 7 percent said it would hurt. One year later, the "help" number fell to 41 percent. Today 35 percent of Americans say Obama's presidency is helping race relations; 14 percent say it's hurting. In that time, the percentage of blacks and whites who say it'll help has fallen 24 points, identical for both races. (Among blacks it fell from 75 percent; among whites, 55 percent.)

Now here's the baffled part:

Here's a chaser that I'm not sure how to interpret -- since Obama was sworn in, the percentage of Americans saying blacks have achieved equality has risen from 35 to 42 percent. It has remained static among blacks, and spiked nine points among whites.

Gosh, now why would that be? Do you suppose it's because, in the two years since Obama was sworn in, Fox News and talk radio have told a statistically significant percentage of America's white people that America is now run by a black dictator? That a marauding band of neo-"Black Panthers" is coming for your white ass? That a black guy named Van Jones wants to take over and turn the whole thing communist? That health care reform is "reparations"?

Do you suppose maybe that's why 7 percent more white people think blacks in America have achieved parity with whites than thought so two years ago? I dunno, it's just a hunch.