I'm not sure the incident at George Fox has anything to do with Obama; I'm pretty sure it has more to do with prejudice against non-white students on the George Fox campus, particularly those receiving Act Six scholarships. The mimicked hanging of Obama is meant to intimidate these students and make them feel unwelcome there, not necessarily to say anything about the election.
George Fox is an EXTREMELY conservative institution, perhaps one of the most conservative in the state. It is so conservative I have evangelical Christian friends from my university who transferred because it was so hard to deal with all the restrictions. Oregon is not all hippies, and George Fox is certainly representative of that piece of our population that isn't on that side of the dial.
Racist incidents aren't unheard of here, you know. Forest Grove (north of Newberg, where George Fox is) used to have an active chapter of the KKK. There used to be rampant segregation in parts of Portland prior to the Civil Rights era. Nowadays, most of what other people would construe as racism elsewhere simply stems from ignorance here; quite frankly, we are a very white state. Half of the state is occupied by xenophobic rednecks.
I'm sad to say that this doesn't surprise me in the least, especially given where it took place. And by the way, if you want a real treat, you should read some of the user commentary on the Oregonian's website, about how this is all some liberal conspiracy to make conservatives look bad.
