Letters to the Editor
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Let's Hold the Media Feet to the Fire
Every Democrat (politician or talking head) needs to hold the media's feet to the fire. I believe they are the major culprits in this divisive talk. If Democrats would not allow the media to use that kind of talk, then we can begin to stop this segmentation. The media wants to cause division. There is no value in talking like this because it is insidious. If white, working class people continue to hear that they are not voting for Barack Obama, then they will start to think that there aren't supposed to. Talk about dog whistling.
Just to address the reason why Obama is getting so much of the black vote...many people seem to forget that until late 2007, most blacks supported other candidates namely Hillary Clinton. I believe the primary reason was that they didn't know him. Most blacks that I talk to are insulted by the notion that they would vote for a black just because he looks like us. There's a saying, "just because we have the same skin don't mean we are kin". As the field narrowed (I have been a John Edwards supporter for the past 4 years) I gravitated to Obama because like most black people, I am hopeful for change from the status quo. As beloved as the Clinton's have been in the black community, they have shown that they will embrace the divisive politics of the past 44 years for political gain. How long are we going to practice the same old politics and think we are going to get a different result?
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Race versus economic issues
Let's talk race in democratic politics. It is disappointing when 85-90% of black voters support a candidate because he is black, without regard to experience or track record.
What this campaign has taught me is that gender discrimnation is much stronger than racial discrimnation. To date, Obama has not shown me and many women like myself that he can or will represent my interests. What he has shown is that he is well-educated, well-spoken, and arrogant. He comes across as very well-polished but not a real or geniune person, who has had to struggle. Someone else was always there to do the heavy lifting for him. He has also demonstrated that he is an opportunist, who has nas no track record and insufficient experience to be running for president.
Hillary has waged an excellent campaign but much of the traditional mass media has been supporting Obama from the get-go.
The traditional media has been bribed by the Bush FCC policies, which has allowed these media giants to expand their influence to the point that there are no competing voices.
The pundits for these mass media giants have been trying to protray Hillary as mounting a George Wallace type argument, which is beyond belief.
I do not view these statements as being about race but about economics. The affluent elites have benefited from globalization policies of our government but the middle class and the poor have been hurt by globalization as practiced as free trade BUT NOT fair trade.
These are the people who have seen their jobs disappear, when they are outsousrced overseas. Whereas the lobbyist job or other affluent jobs are still in this country.
Initially, I supported John Edwards because I liked his policy proposals and he and Elizabeth are geniune people, who I could relate to. John Edwards also ran an excellent campaign but could not get any traction from the traditional media, when the hot items were the Clinton and Obama campaigns.
When Edwards dropped out, I became a Hillary supporter. Why? Because I believe she would fight for fairness for all Americans, not just fairness for the rich, the connected, the elites. Remember her efforts at health care reform in the 90's.
Obama is very well-educated and well-spoken but many of his ideas are Republican-lite. When he served in the Illinois legislature, there is no record of him standing up and fighting on any issue. Each time that he ran, his opposition has been weak, with the latest being Keyes in his US Senate campaign.
In Illinois, he didn't have the intestional fortitude to stand up to the nuclear industry in requiring the industry to report any accidents. Surely, that is a health issue that all politicians could agree on if Obama had made it a big public fight but Obama played it safe. First, he agreed that reporting could be voluntary but even that concession didn't get the legislation passed.
In short, he doesn't have a record to run on, and he doesn't have the experience.
I have been caught in the globalization buzz-saw. I have worked in the computer field and I have always kept my skills up to date. Companies have gone from not contracting directly with individuals, to hiring H1B special visa workers, to hiring L1 companies to relocating data centers to India and elsewhere.
There are thousands upon thousands of American IT workers, who have seen their jobs go poof; just as all of the good manufacturing jobs have gone poof.
Either we elect a government that represents all of the people, not just the rich and well-connected or we risk going backward as America becomes more protectionist and isolationist, neither of which is good for our country or for the world.
Hillary is the only one that will listen and is capable of leading us out of the current financial and economic criseses that we are facing.
If Obama heads the ticket, I will not vote for McCain but I will also find it very hard to vote for Obama.
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That's not all she said
I less concerned with HRC equating "hard-working" with "white", which I am pretty sure was not her intent, than with her equating "hard-working" with "does not have a college degree", which I am pretty sure was intentional (as well as being a page out of Rove's playbook).
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It simply means...
...that people who aren't biased in favor of Obama because he is black simply aren't impressed with him. It's not the skin tone that is making so many people vote against Obama. It's his skin tone that is making so many vote for him, in spite of his absolute lack of qualifications.