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• Tuesday, April 15, 2008 10:21 PM

  To Joan

  I'm still thinking, but:

  For the sake of discussion let's say that you are spot on, that there are more awful obama supporters than Hillary ones. Let's even just take it for granted that that the awful Obama supporters are awful in the way you describe; they are smug, elitist and really look down on anybody who doesn't agree with them. Taking that, for now, as a proven fact:

  Even if Obama has a higher percentage of awful supporters than the average presidential candidate, how much does that inform us about the nature of the man (in this case) himself? And how much does that inform us about the effect his policies will have on the health care system, on foreign policy, on new economic steps, on education, on race, sex and other issues? If we assume that Obama has 8% more awful supporters than most presidential candidates, based on that, how much do we know about the reasons we should or should not vote for him?

  I've guessed before that you focus on this fact because you are concerned solely with strategy, that you simply are trying to figure out how perception will affect the democratic nominee. This is partly why I think if Hillary was in the lead you would be seriously concerned with how she is perceived. It would help me so much if I knew that you really were coming form this basic strategic question because then I would not get agitated by why I perceive as an odd over-focus on how Obama can be percieved negatively.

  But I also have to give you credit: there is no way that you are only thinking strategically. Your concern about the higher percentage of awful Obama supporters (let's say 9% higher) must also be connected with ideas you have about what this actually means about his potential presidency. I really want to know your thoughts about this. I also want to know your strategy thoughts, but that leads to questions about Hillary's downside as well and I'm not all that interested in spending much more time talking about negative Hillary perception. I think there is a useful conversation to be had about what the higher percentage of negative Obama supporters says about the affects he will have on our country if he is the person walking off of Air Force One.

  —Carol Richards Read Carol Richards's other letters
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