The New Math
Throw out the rules.
That is the Hillary Clinton who now thinks the Michigan and Florida votes should count. When she thought there was a chance that there would be low voter turnout she was for the rules.
Now with a win in West Virginia, she stated tonight she didn’t want to ignore 2,000,000 voters.
Not until she found out the majority were for her. Wonder if she would feel the same if the majority were for Obama?
The votes should count, when both candidates names are on the ballot in Michigan. But that pesky detail seems lost.
The overt racism in this race is marginalized only inasmuch as the MSM reports or under reports it. Maureen Dowd reported it, as did the Washington Post. But try as they might, this primary in WV shows race still is an issue. Exit polls show a majority of those who voted for Hillary Clinton would vote for John McCain if Barack Obama were nominee.
It appears the Democratic party is grappling with a real problem concerning race. Well in America that is not new. Having it in the main arena is.
The hard working white blue collar worker is now the new decider.
He has won 32 states , has the most delegates and super delegates and the popular vote.
Get ready for the New Math.
I think there are a lot of issues running around in this post, and it is important to separate them, i.e., the superdelegate count, the botched DNC attempt to make certain that the best representative for ‘the party’ goes up to bat in November (whether or not that trumps the actual tally of votes), Hillary’s nonstop acrimonious campaigning, and the race issue.
I am white. I can’t claim the black experience as mine. I just don’t think racism per se will dictate this election. It may, but it does a disservice to Obama’s campaign to assume the worst, and it undercuts the very message of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mr. Obama.
The race issue per se is very different than Hillary’s continued pandering to the lowest common denominator in this country via fear and smear, which is what her bigotry really rests on: more of fear and smear. “You must vote for me, because a black man can’t win.” In effect, you are agreeing with her, and you have always agreed with her, presuming always that a black man can’t win. Is this a position you are comfortable with, one that agrees with Hillary’s?
To assume that the vast majority of whites in this country won’t vote for Obama simply because he is black, no matter the unconscious racism which permeates this country, seems to me woefully unfair and also at odds with Obama’s message and the very hope of all civil rights movements.
Racism is a reality of the black lived experience — but not all whites are blind to this, nor do they believe that the color of one’s skin dictates a thing about leadership capability.
No matter the media biases, lord knows they are many, and the legacy of slavery (and misogyny) in this country, give people some credit. Even Bush has managed to finally claim the victor’s crown of Worst President ever, no small feat for a huge chunk of the electorate to admit they were wrong.
Martin Luther King has a Federal holiday in his honor — more than any woman in this country, I might add. We have made strides. Despite our problems, we have made tremendous strides, and America loves its own mythology of freedom, equality, and upward mobility. That mythology in and of itself is a power motivator, one which transcends race and gives people hope. A vote for a black man is a vote for hope, a manifest destiny that good can and does triumph. Even when our prisons are stuffed full of black males, the myth helps move us along. And I think many people will vote for a black man to prove that they aren’t racist — they are, you know, hip and liberal, even if they are deaf, dumb, and blind to what the “black experience” is for vast swaths of this nation.
No matter the problems, we currently have a black man and a woman leading the pack in a Presidential race.
That speaks volumes.
Cynicism dictates the campaign of one of those, the one you take to task here.
Perhaps your sentiments lie in the wrong camp.
Comment by bluesmokeofparadise — May 14, 2008 @ 10:50 am
I would also add that Obama did not get to be the first Black editor of the Harvard Law Review via cynicism, nor did Reverend King become one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century through cynicism.
Optimism and idealism are not enemies of realism: rather they exploit every opportunity to make the most of situations which seem insurmountable.
An opportunity that Mr. Obama, in this voters mind, missed in West Virginia. An opportunity JFK did not, if we are to believe Ms. Dowd.
Just thoughts.
Thanks for the entry.
Comment by bluesmokeofparadise — May 14, 2008 @ 11:00 am