Not to be confused with:
WHITES HEAVILY BACK OBAMA IN IOWA,SOME BLACKS

Who really is playing the race issue?

The reader should be reminded that NH taught us to be leary of polling. As we learned in NH, what whites tell pollsters is one thing. How they vote is another.

Thus, whites might have said they voted for Obama so as to make themselves seem less racist. In reality, they just as easily could have voted for Clinton or Edwards.

I suspect if you look at the final numbers and determine that 25% of whites and 80% of blacks voted for Obama, his margin of victory would have been much, much greater than it was.

I'll keep my eye on the final numbers and report to you tomorrow.

BlogMoses: Open Letter to Barack Obama – The Challenge

Dear Senator Obama,

I am a former Democrat turned Independent voter living in California and I want believe in an UNITED States of America again. I have been watching this primary season very closely and I am encouraged by the intense energy, interest and participation of young voters, new voters and previously disaffected voters. I attribute this enthusiasm more to your candidacy than I do Senator Clinton’s or former Senator Edwards’. We have seen this in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and now, South Carolina.

I am not against either of your opponents. I love John Edwards’s message about the poor and working families in this country. I would have loved to see him at the top of the ticket in 2004. However, I think about his “fighting” message this election cycle and I wonder, do we want a President to be fighting lobbyists, fighting Republicans, fighting the insurance companies, fighting corporations, fight everyone for 4 years? If he spends all his time fighting all these interests, what we he actually get done? He will need some of these interests to achieve a lot of what he would like to do.

As for the junior Senator from New York, if she is to be the nominee and is somehow able to overcome her high negatives and polarizing persona, will she be able win in states that Senator Kerry lost in 2004? And let’s say she does etch out a one state victory, do we really need to start another dynasty in the White House? There were some great things about the 1990’s and there were some terrible things about the 1990’s, however the country would rather not rehash those battles for another 4 more years. Another Clinton in the White House would mean more fighting with the Republicans who would in turn stall any agenda that she would try to push through further insuring that nothing gets done. And recent events have shown that the Clintons are only concerned about winning at all cost, the Democratic Party, the American people and the country be damned.

Senator Obama I have heard all of your speeches. You talk about MLK’s belief in “the fierce urgency of now” in your speech. So here is my challenge to you Senator. In the next debate (your most challenging format) in California on January 31, can you tell America from the heart why you want to be President? Why should Democrats make you the nominee of their party in 2008? What is your vision for the future of this country and how do your policy proposals support that vision?

I believe these are the essential questions to your candidacy. Could you articulate your vision in a clear, concise and compelling way speaking from your heart and not a stump speech like other candidates? If you can, I believe the Democratic Party will follow, and in turn the rest of the country. I feel the country is ready to be united again. There is a fierce hunger for it. Black, White, Latino, Asian, Christian, Atheist, Muslim, Mormon, rich, poor and everyone else in between loves this country and would like to unite under one leader that represents them all whether they agree with them or not. Show the naysayers. Lead us. UNITE US. The country IS ready.

Sincerely,

BlogMoses
blogmoses@yahoo.com

I think what enabled Obama to win in SC will ultimateley cost him the nomination in the rest of the states where the democratic voters are not 60% black. As an Edwards supporter I can not support a candidate who campign spins legit criticism into racial discrimination. The memo was a real downer for me. Before I would have ahppily accepted Hillary of Barrack had Edwards dropped out. However after all the tactics by Obama I can not support his campaign. I didnt realize his ties to Rezko ran so deep and I didnt like how he just dismissed Rezko as some guy who he didnt know. In reality REzko and Obama are very much connected at the hip. I also thought it was frightenting how Obama has had every political oppenent eliminated up until now. If you read about his campigns in IL and how they eliminated all opposition included Jack Ryan. I think a lot of people like myself who were on the fence have had their eyes opened to the real Obama. Not to say that the Clintons are angels, but they are not the ones running on a lie of being a "different" kind of politician. I was very disappointed in Obama over the last week or so. The more I learn the more turned off I am. THis is just one democrats opinion.

Your headline writer has an interesting choice of words: "Some whites" back Obama. A fourth of the votes is "some whites?" Hillary got just a quarter of all the votes, from whites, blacks, browns and all colors between. This was an old-fashioned skunk-out and media efforts to portray it otherwise are transparently futile. You want to see a real skunk-out? Watch what happens if Hillary gets the nomination and blacks don't show up to vote and Republicans and Independents do. She'll make Jimmy Carter's debacle look like Winged Victory by comparison.

The Democrat race war continues.

Enuff said. Now Bill will move his office from 125th street in Harlem, and tell Black people he no longer feels their pain. For her part Hillary/Bill will continue her slash and burn march across the U.S.

Thank you, Bill R. As much as I didn't want to, I also found this post offensive. It implies that people vote on the basis of race rather than intellect or conviction. Otherness...will we ever move beyond it?

Only the looney liberal whites voted for socialist, Barack Hugo/Hussein Obama.
90% of the black voters have no clue and voted by the color of ones skin and not ones experience.
Hillary should have won by a landslide, but the racist dem party has leaned toward the dark side to rid themselves of their past racial history.

Paulo

"The reader should be reminded that NH taught us to be leary of polling. As we learned in NH, what whites tell pollsters is one thing. How they vote is another."

Talking about how inaccurate the polls are is a great way to feel smarter than those silly pollsters but, by-in-large, they know what they're doing.

In NH, the average of the polls before the primary had Obama scoring 36.5% (he really got 36.4%), Edwards 19% (actual 17%), McCain 33% (actual 37%) and Romney at 29% (actual 31%). In other words, people who said they were going to vote for Obama (or Edwards, McCain or Romney) did, in fact, vote for their candidate.

The only surprise in the polling was how many of the 38% of undecided voters broke for Hillary in the last few days. But you can't take that outlier and translate it into "People who claim they'll vote for Obama won't". The predicted numbers in NH for Obama were spot on.

The uniter hardly! The race card Obamba played after his loss in NH played out as predicted. He got 82% of the black vote. Granted he won South Carolina but the country is only about 10% black. His race card started moments after his loss in NH his surrogates were crying the Tom Bradley effect. Next came racial hysteria about Hillary comparing MLK and LBJ to him as MLK and Her as LBJ. Oh racist Hillary. Then he totally distorted Bills remarks about his war vote record to a Fairy Tale. WOW what a racist thing to say. Finally his drug use and how off limits it was and how racist it was. Since when is drug use that he published in his book off limits for one and secondly since when did drug use become a black only problem and racist?
Now he wants to be the healer.Many will remember his dirty tricks. Creating racial tension to get what he wants. Is that how he will govern using racial issues to get what he wants? Dividing a country just like he did in South Carolina.

History repeats itself.

Another Black candidate, Jesse Jackson, won the SC Democrat primary in 1988 with (like Obama) a near unanimous Black vote and very little White support.

Jackson's so-called "Rainbow coalition" was, like Obama's, a rainbow with only one color.

The Democrat race war continues.

Posted by: Medill | January 26, 2008 10:29 PM

Unfortunately, it is not limited to the Democratic party. The Clintons just brought it to the party with their innuendos. But it is an American problem, not just a Democratic one.

The fact is, however, that many, many more African-American "leaders" support Clinton than they do Obama. And Clinton had a fair shot of getting the votes to follow.

But along with the Clintons, those black leaders couldn't contain themselves. At every turn they had to drum Obama first for not being black enough to later "taking drugs" while Hillary was championing for black causes, etc.. After a while, the black community did what white women in NH did after the druming Hillary got in the debate and after her crying game: they stood by their candidate.

Postscript from above: Having followed the vote count and from what I could gather about the percentage of black (53%) voters, it does appear that the reported percentages hold up. However, Obama scored an even more impressive vote count which leads me to believe that the exit polls were at least somewhat flawed.

I would guess closer to 9 out of every 10 blacks voted for Obama. Conversely, this may also suggest that fewer than 2 in every 10 whites voted for him.

I will never back Barack Obama even if he is the nominee, I will vote for McCain. . .oh yeah I'm a young American!