Will Obama Fall And Disappear Into Racial Divide?
WASHINGTON - The questions surrounding Barack Obama’s victory in South Carolina: Was the split between white and black voters an anomaly in a state were the Confederate flag still flies on the statehouse grounds? Or has the Clinton campaign successfully marginalized him as the “black candidate?”
What’s clear is that for Obama to win the nomination, he will have to improve his performance among white voters. Being the clear favorite among blacks won’t be enough as the candidates turn to 22 states that hold contests on Feb. 5.
Obama’s overwhelming victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton came with 80 percent of South Carolina’s black voters backing him, but only a quarter of whites. Clinton and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards each got about a third of the white vote.
That’s a division Obama will have to close if he is to win the nomination.
Obama has proven that he has appeal among whites. He won Iowa, one of the whitest states in the country, and won more than a third of white voters in multi-candidate contests in New Hampshire and Nevada—even though Clinton won both states.
But that changed in South Carolina. The state delivered a stunning rejection to Hillary Rodham Clinton and perhaps even more so her husband, famously regarded as the “first black president.” The black voters of South Carolina said they wanted Obama in the White House instead of another Clinton.
Bill Clinton was the one who worked the state all week long as Obama’s chief critic, even as his wife turned her attention to the states voting on Feb. 5 in anticipation of the loss. Voters listened—more than half said the former president’s campaigning was an important factor in their decision, according to exit polls collected by The Associated Press and television networks. But people who said Bill Clinton’s campaigning made a difference in their vote still supported Obama.
Among those voters was Iris Gladden, a self-described news junkie and black voter who lives in rural Timmonsville, S.C. She struggled all year to decide whether to support Clinton or Obama. She said the decision was made when she heard Bill Clinton lambaste Obama for his position on the Iraq war. She said she was offended by the Clintons’ air of entitlement and cast her vote Saturday for Obama.
“He said, `Give me a break, is this a fairy tale,’” Gladden said. “Even when he was advised to cut down on it, he didn’t. Based on that negativity, I made up my mind.”
Asked whether Bill Clinton hurt his wife’s candidacy, South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn said, “I don’t know whether he hurt it or not, but I don’t think it was very helpful. I know the early polls I saw a months ago, she was leading Obama in the state by double digits. So something happened.”
Clyburn said the campaign should move away from race now to talk about the future of the country.
“I think those people that were campaigning, drawing attention to this man’s race and trying to get him off message, I think those people were rejected tonight,” Clyburn said.
But however much Bill Clinton may have hurt his wife’s candidacy, his effort may also have hurt Obama’s image as a candidate who can cross racial lines.
Bill Clinton suggested that Obama’s victory was an indicator of black support and not of real strength. “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in ‘84 and ‘88,” the former president said Saturday as voters went to the polls. “Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”
Being the clear favorite among blacks won’t be enough as the candidates turn to 22 states that hold contests on Feb. 5.
For example, black voters were just 8 percent of the turnout in the California Democratic primary four years ago. They were 15 percent in Missouri, 20 percent in New York, 23 percent in Tennessee and 47 percent in Georgia—all states that are among those that will vote 10 days after South Carolina.
“He won fair and square,” Bill Clinton said of Obama Saturday night. “Now we go to February 5 when millions of Americans finally get in the act.”
(AP)
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
I don’t want to live in a country where everything that was white will now be black and everything that was black will now be white. I want up to remain up and down to remain down. But, we have a number of useful idiots in this country, we’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t want the entire country to resemble our inner cities.
January 27th, 2008 at 12:47 amThe inner urban centers in America are the microcosms of what the United States would look like if it had been run roughshod by Democrats the last 40 or so years like the inner cities have been… it goes without saying that the ideas of social engineering have been an utter and abject failure… rather than helping minorities it has made minorities dependent upon a political system that will never really help them, yet year after year they vote for the next democrat without even looking around and seeing that their status never changes…
common sense would tell most people that if you’ve voted for the same party for 20-30 years sometimes more, yet things are staying the same or getting worse then maybe its time to try a new strategy…
the Liberalization of the education system has worsened the system, the Liberalization of our culture has worsened the bulk of social problems from teen pregnancy to juvenile crime to divorce rates… this “liberating of America” has actually caused us to become less free… we are enslaved by political correctness and we’re seemingly powerless to revolt against it…
January 27th, 2008 at 2:13 amOsama’s appeal is to blacks and young college-aged kiddies still living off of their parents. Those farther up the food-chain of success voted for the Beast or her white twin
the Breck girl.
CNN and LSNBC are all about Osama. But that isn’t going to be enough to carry him to victory in November.
Whether the rest of the Dhimis are dumb enough to support Osama, hard to say. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a 50-50 split in delegates after Super Tuesday. It depends on how many working Dhimis show up at the precincts.
If the college pukes show up in droves, Hilda is sunk. If working people and the WWII/Korea generation show up in droves, Osama is sunk.
Stay tuned.
January 27th, 2008 at 7:13 amIt is a no win situation if Obama loses the nomination or Presidential election. The Black Community will cry foul and the recounts will make Florida look like a picnic. We’ll get weeks of Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al on TV crying about the election was stolen by whitey wanting to keep the black man down. And we will probably have protest and possibly some rioting.
If Obama wins. Many in the Black community in a display of jubliance will run the streets burning and looting stores. The Black community will expect much of Brother Obama. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al will be on his doorstep from day one pushing the Black cause.
No matter what happens it will be interesting.
January 27th, 2008 at 8:51 amDamned if you do damned if you don’t. I agree that win or lose for the first time in recent history that our election system will have a violent fallout. Having been stationed in Long Beach during the LA riots I am stocking up.
In the end I think SHitlary will get the nomination, Osama has color and religion to overcome. Either way it’s gonna get ugly before it’s over.
January 27th, 2008 at 9:24 amDoes anybody care what this guy stands for? Does anyone know? He is an empty suit carrying an empty briefcase. Since he says nothing and talks in nice-sounding platitudes, I assume that he is a socialist, and will destroy the country if elected.
January 27th, 2008 at 9:32 amAnother point for massive controversy is the dem’s online voting. I can only wait for the fallout if there is any hint of hacking.
January 27th, 2008 at 9:59 amI think he is just another Democratic. I definitely think he is in the same camp with Clinton and Kennedy and yes in lock step with the values of people like Soros and moveon.org. Race isnt even an issue with me. I have heard it time and time again and completely agree myself that he is an empty suit. I have zero confidence in him to run the military. I have zero confidence in him to govern the country in a manner i see even remotely acceptable.
I heard him last night at the little victory rally and he said he will pull the troops out of Iraq. I will never support someone who treads on our brave men and women who are fighting so bravely and winning for all of us.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:07 amof ALL the candidates he is the only one with a “fire in his belly”..hell probbly win with democrats
January 27th, 2008 at 10:45 amObama can’t win the primary. I beleive he is more popular with the moonbat dem base; however, because the moonbat base are sheeple, incapable of rational thinking without the government providing the answer and easily herded the base will passively capitulate to the fact their voice has been ignored by the dem controlled Clinton machine. The same Clinton machine which holds the key to the dem coronation of her thighness — dem superdelegates.
Ironically, the dem pro-Obama base will capitulate simply because the dem Clinton Machine will tell them (dem voters) that they, the dem base, actually voted for Hillary Rotten Clinton.
What will be interesting is when the Clintons have been retired to pasture. Obama will still appeal to the dem base. The dem machine being the racist tools they are will find themselves in a real dilemma. How will they get rid of Obama then? It wouldn’t suprise me in the least if the DNC were already grooming the “white Obama” to step in at that time.
“I will simply say that the Democratic Party has fielded the foulest, power hungry, anti-country, self absorbed group of individuals that I have observed in my lifetime.” — Jimmy L. Cash, Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret.
January 27th, 2008 at 11:35 amThe real racist reside in the democrat party, it’s thogh to hide the likes of Sen. Byrd, Fulbright and all. It’s all bubbling to the surface for the world to see
This next couple of weeks are gonna be fun!!
January 27th, 2008 at 11:58 amThe amazing thing about the riots is that the blacks have always seemed to loot and incenerate their own neighborhoods.
As for what Obama stands for, he like all the other Republican and Democrat candidates open their mouths and nothing comes out but chin boogie for the cameras. Like an old man I once worked with would say…..Your mouth talks shit!
January 27th, 2008 at 1:12 pm