stephanie
04-27-2008, 12:11 PM
True..
Sunday, April 27th 2008, 4:00 AM
The old tale is a personal favorite for its insight into racial and ethnic calculation in politics. It goes like this: A fictitious town whose population is 90% Irish Catholic and 10% Jewish is electing a mayor and there are two candidates, one Irish and one Jewish.
The Irish candidate wins 90% of the vote, to 10% for the Jewish candidate. The winner begins his victory speech by praising his Irish Catholic supporters, then deplores the clannishness of the Jews!
Fast forward to the presidential race, where reality imitates comedy. With Barack Obama routinely getting 90% of the black vote, but only about 35% of the white vote, his top campaign aides are suggesting white racism is a problem.
"I'm sure there is some of that," David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, told The New York Times about the impact of race after Obama lost Pennsylvania by 10 points. Axelrod added: "Here's a guy named Barack Obama, an African-American guy, relatively new. That's a lot of change."
David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, sees white racism as a problem in the general election. "The vast, vast majority of voters who would not vote for Barack Obama in November based on race are probably firmly in John McCain's camp already," he told the National Journal.
You knew it had to come to this, but you hoped it wouldn't. "Race doesn't matter" was the chant of many Obama supporters when he was winning. But now that he has hit a wall with many voters on legitimate issues, race does matter, his supporters claim.
read the rest and lots of comments..
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/04/27/2008-04-27_obamas_race_talk_off_point.html
Sunday, April 27th 2008, 4:00 AM
The old tale is a personal favorite for its insight into racial and ethnic calculation in politics. It goes like this: A fictitious town whose population is 90% Irish Catholic and 10% Jewish is electing a mayor and there are two candidates, one Irish and one Jewish.
The Irish candidate wins 90% of the vote, to 10% for the Jewish candidate. The winner begins his victory speech by praising his Irish Catholic supporters, then deplores the clannishness of the Jews!
Fast forward to the presidential race, where reality imitates comedy. With Barack Obama routinely getting 90% of the black vote, but only about 35% of the white vote, his top campaign aides are suggesting white racism is a problem.
"I'm sure there is some of that," David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, told The New York Times about the impact of race after Obama lost Pennsylvania by 10 points. Axelrod added: "Here's a guy named Barack Obama, an African-American guy, relatively new. That's a lot of change."
David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, sees white racism as a problem in the general election. "The vast, vast majority of voters who would not vote for Barack Obama in November based on race are probably firmly in John McCain's camp already," he told the National Journal.
You knew it had to come to this, but you hoped it wouldn't. "Race doesn't matter" was the chant of many Obama supporters when he was winning. But now that he has hit a wall with many voters on legitimate issues, race does matter, his supporters claim.
read the rest and lots of comments..
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/04/27/2008-04-27_obamas_race_talk_off_point.html