Pursuing the elusive white voter

"They might have a case among those who choose not to remember how hard Obama had to work to woo black voters away from Clinton before his South Carolina primary victory."

Did you also mention that this included calling Bill Clinton racist (before he even made the Jesse Jackson comment).
What next are you going to call every non-black person who didn't vote for Obama racist?

I know that you are a big supporter of Obama but, you cannot be calling everyone who is not voting for your guy, and everyone who is standing between him and the white house racist.

There is now no question that Obama will have the black vote but, as Mr. Page notes, that's nothing new for Democratic presidential candidates. They typically have captured 92-93 percent of the blacks. If Obama cannot get over 35-40 percent of Democratic whites, what is he going to do to win over a majority of Independant and Republican whites in November? Especially in light of his comments about his "typical white person" grandmother and his disdain for working class Pennsylvanians, an obvious reference to middle class whites? What other rhetorical flub will he make between now and the general election? Like it or not, Hillary's analysis is fairly accurate. But Obama is what he is and he is going to be the Democratic standard bearer. The other question is how many other Democratic office seekers will ride down this wave with him?

Yeah, Obama needs white working-class votes to win. Guess what? All of the candidates, in this or any election, find that there is some group they need to do better with if they're going to win. The winners are the ones who figure out a way to do this. Why would anyone think that Obama would be the unique magical candidate who is uniformly popular with all groups of voters? For that matter, why aren't we reading about Wellesley- and Yale-educated Hillary's utter failure to connect with younger, more educated, and affluent white voters?

no obama for me

Obama will never get my vote period.
That means in the fall too.

GO HILLARY !

I are for Hilarry. She drinks like me and lyes when she have two.

Hillary just can't accept the fact the she has been beaten by a political novice. At this time last year her coronation was a foregone conclusion among many.

Vic wrote:

"They might have a case among those who choose not to remember how hard Obama had to work to woo black voters away from Clinton before his South Carolina primary victory."
Did you also mention that this included calling Bill Clinton racist (before he even made the Jesse Jackson comment).
What next are you going to call every non-black person who didn't vote for Obama racist?
I know that you are a big supporter of Obama but, you cannot be calling everyone who is not voting for your guy, and everyone who is standing between him and the white house racist.

Geraldine Ferraro is correct when she says Obama is only where he is BECAUSE he is black. There is no way that he would get 90% of the black vote against Clinton had he been white, as the Clintons have been very popular with that community.

Now if the Obama campaign can drop the race card on Clinton they will not hesitate to play it AGAINST anybody. These racially divisive tactics
are blatently hypocritical considering Obama's relationship with bigots like Wright and his own comments in San Francisco.

Nevertheless, McCain is no bargain as like, Obama, he is a RUBBER STAMP for the OPEN-BORDERS ESTABLISHMENT; so I think this election will be decided by the candidate with the best Economic strategy.

Big Kielbasa wrote:

For the life of me I just can't figure it out. Why is it when 95% of Negro's support Obama it's called supporting the brother but if 95% of whites should support Hillary or McCain it's called racism. The loyalty of the Black people astound me, didn't take long for them to toss their former first black President and his lady under the bus wheels.

exactly- our media and government are corrupt to the gills..........what to do?

Pretty much my thoughts exactly......... all 3 candidates are terrible..

are there no real leaders amongst us? or are they so filtered out they never rise from the lowest political office?

bottlecap wrote:

<quoted text>
Geraldine Ferraro is correct when she says Obama is only where he is BECAUSE he is black. There is no way that he would get 90% of the black vote against Clinton had he been white, as the Clintons have been very popular with that community.
Now if the Obama campaign can drop the race card on Clinton they will not hesitate to play it AGAINST anybody. These racially divisive tactics
are blatently hypocritical considering Obama's relationship with bigots like Wright and his own comments in San Francisco.
Nevertheless, McCain is no bargain as like, Obama, he is a RUBBER STAMP for the OPEN-BORDERS ESTABLISHMENT; so I think this election will be decided by the candidate with the best Economic strategy.

None of the canidates are going to "identify" with the poor, middleclass, working, unemployed, etc. They have not been in any of those worlds for quite some time. Who cares if they are black, white, male, female or drink Pabst Blue Ribbon with the masses? The problem is most people, of all races and social levels, focus on this crap instead of their policies. Policies are boring, unlike the two second sound bite that makes headlines. As long as WE focus on fluff, so will the canidates.

Obama, who basically has been treated with kid gloves in the media so far, will face unsurmountable problems in the general election when the Republicans shine the national spotlight on our corrupt city, county and state, and whom all the corrupt players are invariably linked in degrees to Obama.

Once the nation sees how corrupt the whole system is in Obama's backyard, the most taxed in the U.S. by the way, they will vote for the other guy. After all, it can be argued that Chicago and Cook County are communist states within a socialist state, and Obama is right in the middle of it.

Irony- Obama replaced the seat of Pat Fitzgerald, who sacrificed his political career to get an honet and determined federal prosecutor to try and clean up the corruption in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois. Potential irony-Obama gets elected and replaces the prosecutor and puts to rest his investigations.

Oh God, do I wish there was a viable third party candidate.

of course blacks have not an ounce of racism in them..........
that is why the block vote??
ahh the trailer slam...... kind of getting old... but, what else do you have, certainly not a valid argument

Miles Long wrote:

<quoted text>
I see that the trailer-home schooled are checking in with their opinion! <laughing>
What I'm worried about is that Obama, being half white, is going to go all white on us when he gets into the Whitehouse. Do we really need more of the same lame white culture, yet again? Boring music, no eye candy hanging out at the pool, no malt liqueur on tap? <snicker>
On a serious note, those like Fred are a breath of fresh air. At least they're honest. The vast majority of the Obama naysayers are engaging in nothing more than racism by proxy.
Miles "National Jungle Fever" Long

Miles Long wrote:

<quoted text>

On a serious note, those like Fred are a breath of fresh air. At least they're honest. The vast majority of the Obama naysayers are engaging in nothing more than racism by proxy.
Miles "National Jungle Fever" Long

You prove the point! You are claiming that those who oppose Obama are engaging in rascism which is funny since he belongs to the party that was the driving force for Slavery, Jim Crow Laws, Segregation, the KKK, Lynchings and the "great society" welfare system.

What is also comical was how Obama's white grandfather dropped the race card on Obama's white grandmother because he was too lazy to drive her to work. She told Obama she didn't want to take public transportation because the previous day she had been accosted by a panhandler. The grandfather told Obama that the "real" reason for his grandmother wanting a ride was that the panhandler was black.

Obama fell for it; ha ha ha ha ha ha and his own grandmother became the "typical white person" ha ha ha ha ha

Barack is such an easy mark, no wonder he was taken in by Reverend Wright.

Mr.Page,

The problem with the racial conflict is in how we define racism.

I think there are 2 ways to define this.
1. One is being racially discriminating, meaning, you dislike other race(s).
2. The other is being racially biased, meaning, you simply like to hang out with your own race (but you don't necessarily hate the other race(s).

I know this is a fine line...but it's important to differentiate between the two so that we can avoid falling into the wrong category.

When 90% of black people are voting for Obama, I think it's fair to call that being racially biased (not racially discriminating). And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It is natural to like your own...much like Chicagoans loving the CUBS despite its abysmal record.

On the flip side, it would be chimerical to expect the blacks and whites not to be racially biased. It is not natural. It would be like asking the CUBS fans and the SOX fans to switch teams. It just ain't going to happen.

But just like the CUBS fans are more loyal fans, blacks are more loyal supporters of their fellow blacks. Again, there is nothing wrong with this. Anyone who finds this wrong would be being racially discriminating..

Are there blacks and whites who are going to be racially discriminating (meaning they despise each other’s races)? Of course. But generally speaking, I believe what we are seeing is a real cultural difference between the blacks and whites. And that is, the blacks are more supportive and loyal to their fellow blacks than whites are on whites.

By the way, I am Asian. So if there were an Asian candidate, I just might be supporting him/her (provided he/she is qualified). Yes, I admit, I'm somewhat racially biased towards Asian. So stone me.

Mario Uy

..that hip hop intro sounded stupid..Constant contridiction is why u people are in here talkin about that white vote..oops..I mean talking..don't want anyone saying im on welfare and violent..

What's the big shame is that this whole election was supposed to go beyond race, gender, and all the other boxes republicrats put everone in. Instead all we ever hear anymore is how this group or that group vote for this guy or that woman. For once it would be nice if Americans were treated as individuals and not part of some disenfranchised group. The only one so far who hasn't done it is George W. Bush, he screwed everone equally

Not for many years has the country been as divided as it is now. So much for "uniters" in the White House. With
Bush, the red vs the blue. Obama will advance the racial divide. Any one who believes that he can unite not only America but the world is living with Obama in his fantasy world.

Whenever I have a strong enough stomach to actually read the comments in response to an article that raises the question of Senator Obama's race, I find myself descending into a cavernous pit of despair. Have we no chance of getting beyond the racism hurled with insults and vitriol in so many of the comments and with slightly more subtlety by Senator Clinton in the remarks discussed by Mr. Page in this editorial? Then I remember that so many of Senator Obama's supporters are the beautifully young who are capable of looking at the candidates for what they are rather than what color they are. They give this old white woman's heart hope that the haters cannot dominate our nation forever. Perhaps my children and grandchildren will be able to inhabit a better United States that welcomes the talents of both genders and of all ethnic heritages. Can we get beyond it in this election cycle? From the comments here, obviously not. But I pray that we can make good progress towards openly discussing our real long national nightmare.

It is interesting that someone who did not win 15% of the black votes thinks that she can win the General election. How quickly do people forget history. Did not Bill win the second term with the black votes? Is Hilary taken the black votes for granted? Does she think that blacks will vote for her no matter what? How funny!