Letters to the Editor
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@billcap
Yes. And I know this because my tinfoil hat allows me to read the minds of all the hundreds of thousands of republican voters who have done so. Thanks to my fantastic abilities, I'm also able to state with absolute surety that
Actually there are exit polls that bear this out, but let's not have facts get in your way. . .
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Clinton what a fright!
What I think a lot of you folks fail to see is that there is a lot of white flight away from the one white democratic nominee - Hillary Clinton. Obama couldn't ever have come as far as he has without the votes of both white men AND white women. Obama is busy bringin' home the bacon while some petty minded people are still quibbling over whose race will win the race. Obama has put the face of the human race on his campaign, while Clinton is still running a cheap sideshow where race is the main attraction. Enter the new politics, exit the old.
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The answer really is right in front of your nose
Republicans voted for Hillary because they were told by Rush Limbaugh to do so (there is a reason they are called "dittoheads"). It's that simple. He gave them their marching orders and they did what they were told to do.
Why would Rush tell his listeners to vote for Hillary? Because he sees all the same polls that we do, particularly the polls that say McCain is less likely to win in a match-up against Obama then he is against Clinton.
If you're asking yourself "Can it really be that simple?" you haven't listened to enough of Rush Limbaugh and his adoring fans.
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@manos
Hey, will you still be showing up here if:
a) Obama loses the nomination?
or, barring that
b) Obama loses the general?
I sincerely doubt it. Because from all of your posts it is easy enough to see that you are a fair-weather activist, all gung-ho and rah-rah when things are going your way -- but quite petty and nasty when they're not. The Democratic Party may want your vote, but you're not the type of long-time supporter they would really want to cultivate. Too emotionally immature. Clouds the judgement.
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Primary in Miss.
Instead of lamenting that only 25% of whites in Mississippi voted for Obama why not think that this is progress in the most backward and racist southern state?
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Maddie @ 5:49 a.m. In some jurisdictions Farrakhan's statement would be regarded as incitement
but I don't know about your laws. Malcolm X was killed but Farrakhan is as large as life, even an object of adulation. Your racial politics are beyond my understanding. There are minorities in Europe too; the Basques in Spain are more vociferous than the French Basques, while the French Bretons regard themselves as Celtic. The recently-declared independence of Kosovo has caused ructions in Serbia with attacks on the American Embassy in Belgrade. It's hard to keep up with all the grievances.
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red_gti2000
Your bitterness is most unbecoming.
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Hillary pursues Southern Strategy for the primaries...
...is it possible for Barack to pursue an inverted Southern Strategy for the general?
I've learned a new term in the last few weeks: "white ethnics". I apparently was born into this demographic, though I now bear the label of "latte-sipping lefty coastal elite". Ain't pigeon-holes grand?
Still, I know a few things about these folks, still have family and acquaintances who fit that demographic, and Ferraro precisely identified and put into words both the express and inchoate fears, resentments, and anger of these so-called "white ethnics" (I'm using quotes as I'm not entirely comfortable with the term).
You know what I mean. The notion that blacks lead a charmed life, playing on white guilt and succeeding on affirmative action... at the expense, of course, of "white ethnics". And how many of these "white ethnics" have been criticized for expressing their anger and resentment over the advantages they perceive of being black, and feel themselves to be the victims of "reverse racism"?
Well, my white brothers and sisters, victims of affirmative action and reverse racism, you don't have to be Reagan Democrats anymore. Hillary feels your pain.
I don't believe Hillary is racist. I simply believe that she holds not a single principle that wouldn't be trumped by her pursuit of power. In this respect, I think that ol' bastard, Joe Klein, sussed out the true nature of this couple way back in '92. That chilling final scene now seems to be politics-as-usual. Simply typical for the Clintons. Expected.
And I don't believe that Clinton, Wolfson, Penn or anyone has developed a white paper delineating a Southern Strategy, and I don't believe that Ferraro was sent out as an emmissary to give voice to it. I think this feeling simply exists within the coterie of the Clinton Campaign, and it just happened to be expressed by a national figure the day before the primary in one of the true bastions of old-school racism.
But I can't help but think that this would not have occurred had the black vote not started peeling away after Iowa, and then become completely alienated after South Carolina. It's no longer simply that black voters prefer Obama over Clinton. They now resent Clinton very deeply. The calculus is pretty clear: she'll trade her chance of getting considerable black support in the general election to win the primary.
Of course, this creates larger problems for the Party. She's alienating a core constituency that has always been reliably and overwhelmingly Democratic for a constituency that has crossed over to the Republicans in the last several decades. Clearly, it's a risk she'll take to win the nomination. More than that, when the Clinton Campaign sent Bill to appear on the Rush Limbaugh show the day before the March 4 primaries, it can only be construed as a validation of his efforts on her behalf (Rush's efforts of course are really on McCain's behalf, but Clinton's been giving assists to the GOP candidate for weeks now).
So, Republicans in Mississippi who voted in the Democratic primary gave her 77% of their vote. Do any of you think she'll get their vote in November?
Bottom-line: Clinton is no longer simply playing with the politics of personal destruction. She's now risking the politics of party destruction.
Two questions: (1) will these "white ethnics" ("Reagan Democrats" if you prefer) ever vote for a black candidate? (2) Conversely, will Obama's strength in the black community - coupled with McCain's lack of support among socially-conservative, Christian-right Republicans - put Southern states into play should Obama win the nomination?
Maybe one more question: as a Democrat, which of these Southern Strategies are you more comfortable supporting?