The video was fascinating and sad and enraging and hilarious, all at the same time.

Taken by ABC News on the day of the West Virginia primary, it showed an older woman — a Hillary Clinton supporter — explaining why she can't vote for Barack Obama:

"He's a Muslim."

Uh, the reporter sort of gingerly suggested, he's not. After all, remember his crazy Christian pastor?

But the voter was having none of it. "I don't believe it," she said. Don't bug me with facts; Obama is a closet Muslim just waiting to take America down.

Shoot me. Shoot me now.

Hillary Clinton won West Virginia by a massive margin — as if that means anything at this point — and in her victory speech Tuesday night she asserted that she was "more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard."

Unfortunately, a lot of the people making their voices heard were stone racists.

There are, of course, legitimate reasons to vote for Hillary or against Obama, reasons that have nothing to do with race. But West Virginia is 95 percent white, just 3 percent African-American; in terms of education and poverty levels it lags significantly behind the rest of the country.

In the week leading up to the election, I was struck by a Washington Post/ABC News poll that noted, "While overall discomfort with an African-American president is much lower, it rises among less-educated whites — the same group that's been a challenge for Obama in the Democratic primaries. Among whites who haven't gone through college, 17 percent say they'd be at least somewhat uncomfortable with a black president; that compares with just 4 percent of white college graduates."

You can be "somewhat uncomfortable" with the idea of an African-American as president without being a closet Klan member. But in the Washington Post on Tuesday was a story about things Obama volunteers have encountered — things that would indeed put you in good standing with your local Klavern, though I'm sure the people who actually said these things would bristle at the suggestion that they're racist:

"Karen Seifert, a volunteer from New York, was outside of the largest polling location in Lackawanna County, Pa., on primary day when she was pressed by a Clinton volunteer to explain her backing of Obama. 'I trust him,' Seifert replied. According to Seifert, the woman pointed to Obama's face on Seifert's T-shirt and said: 'He's a half-breed and he's a Muslim. How can you trust that?' "

You've got a friend in Pennsylvania. Unless he's a "half-breed."

In this year of the "Average Joe" voter, we're supposed to pretend these are legitimate political opinions. Because these salt-of-the-earth types from depressed economic regions are hurting, see. They want someone who's going to represent their interests — their values. And a scary half-breed Manchurian Muslim just can't be that guy. Because he's black, or part-black; he's not a real American. Only real Americans — white Americans — need apply.

And to call that stupid or racist or both — why, that's elitist.

And so Hillary, the media and the country legitimize this, when it should be marginalized, even if that hurts the Democrats' chances in November. Because I've no doubt many of these Democrats will vote for McCain in the fall if Obama is the nominee. They might not like McCain, or his policies. But he's white — and that will make all the difference.

That, I think, proves something about America. I'm just not real sure I want to know what it is.

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Gil Smart is associate editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at gsmart@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-8817.