Letters to the Editor
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Of course racism is a factor
Bill Clinton was correct about his 'fairy tale' comment: he clearly makes the comment in a larger point about his views of Obama's position and votes on Iraq. But Hillary's manipulative Swift Boast-esque comments are fair game and she deserves the criticism of all Americans for them. First of all, Obama never compared himself to Dr. King or JFK. He cited two examples of popular American figures who believed that hope itself is action - King for civil rights and JFK for a trip to the moon. And that we should never underestimate the power and value of hope. Never did Obama compare himself to either of these guys. This point is entirely absent from this discussion (that's you, Joan Walsh. We're waiting). Second, it was in fact Hillary who injected race into the discussion by dumbly commenting that LBJ, the president, closed the deal for the dreamy and ineffective MLK. Wow. And wow again. Too many points to make here (e.g. as though King had a snowball's chance in Dante's Inferno to any elected office at that time. He was a little pre-occupied trying to gain access to buses and water fountains. The White House would have to wait). Finally, by dissing Obama and MLK and all black people, Clinton actually makes their point: it does take a president to drive actual legislation and that is why Obama is running to become president. The difference today is that he can. Yes, he can.
But it ain't gonna be easy. John Judis can wrestle w/ polling data all he wants, but have him chew on this for a few: http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/voter-brain.htm
Quick quote if you don't follow the link:
The findings they announced Tuesday suggest polls overestimate support for Barack Obama and underestimate support for Hillary Clinton. They asked voters whom they planned to vote for, and 42 percent said Obama, versus 34 percent who chose Clinton. Then the volunteers took a version of the Implicit Association Test, which requires rapid responses to words or images on a computer screen...Clinton came out ahead with 48 percent to Obama’s 25 percent.