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Face it, Democrats: Barack Obama's got a growing problem with whites
The New York Daily News ^ | May 11th 2008 | Juan Williams

Posted on 05/11/2008 10:23:07 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Hillary Clinton, down to her last straw, is making the case that she is the better candidate to run against the Republicans because, unlike Barack Obama, she can win white Democrats.

She is right. But because she is daring to touch the hot button of racial politics, she is being told to shut up or risk being charged with exploiting racial tensions for political advantage.

The facts are stubborn, however. Since his phenomenal win with 33% of the white vote in nearly all-white Iowa, Obama has been unable to get a firm grip on white Democrats. He has won a majority of these voters in only six states, the biggest of which is his home state of Illinois. Clinton has defeated Obama among white voters in key states such as California, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Exit polls show Clinton winning an overwhelming average of 57% of white Democrats since the February Super Tuesday elections.

If you think none of this is a real issue for Democrats as they try to win the White House, then listen to Republican guru Karl Rove. Citing Obama's inability to get more than 30% of Catholics or working-class white voters in a big state such as Pennsylvania, Rove recently wrote: "Defections like this elect Republicans."

And now we are heading into a general election with an even larger group of white voters in play, key independents and suburbanites in "toss-up" districts that swing between Republicans and Democrats.

So it is critical for the Democrats to focus on what it means to nominate this particular black candidate. It is critical for them to honestly assess his strengths and weaknesses, even when those are uncomfortably intertwined with his race.

In particular, being silent on race is not going to erase Obama's ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the preacher's fireballs of inflammatory rhetoric.

Nearly half of the voters in North Carolina and Indiana said Wright was an important issue for them. Then there is an April poll by The Associated Press that found "about 8% of whites would be uncomfortable voting for a black for President." According to a May Newsweek poll, 12% of voters said they thought most Americans would "have reservations about voting for a black candidate that they are not willing to express"; 41% said they thought some Americans would have such reservations.

To some, any reference to such numbers is desperate at best - and race-baiting at worst.

"I have much broader base to build a winning coalition on," Clinton told USA Today this week, making clear that she consistently does better among white, working-class voters. "There is a pattern emerging here."

That prompted The New York Times editorial page to write: "Yes, there is a pattern - a familiar and unpleasant one," making reference to charges that during the primary campaign the Clinton camp has used veiled racial attacks against Obama.

Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is living in similar denial. If the GOP brings up Wright during the fall campaign, Dean said recently, it will amount to "race-baiting...just like Willie Horton was race-baiting so many years ago."

Obama has run a brilliant campaign. He has won over many white voters by making them proud to vote for a supremely educated and capable man who, at his best, makes race a secondary concern. It is not inconsistent, unfair or unsavory to point out, at the same time, that Obama has been growing weaker over the months in his ability to win all but black voters. Nor am I necessarily suggesting that white voters are drifting from him because of his race - as opposed to judgments about the content of his character or candidacy.

This is about facing facts. And history will reflect poorly on Democrats if they believe it is virtuous to ignore race in the name of nominating the first black candidate for the White House - even if it means giving the Republicans a better chance to once again walk away with the big prize of the presidency.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Williams, a political analyst with NPR and Fox, is author of "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America - and What We Can Do About It."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; blackvote; election; elections; hillary; juanwilliams; obama; whitevote; wright
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To: Lowcountry
"What does it say about blacks that they vote 90% for the black candidate?"

It says that 90 percent of blacks are morons...typical libs who vote based on color instead of platform...

21 posted on 05/11/2008 11:23:50 AM PDT by EnigmaticAnomaly (Proud member of the largest 'Hate Group' in the USA...The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy")
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To: Lowcountry

Obama has the black Vote.
He will select Richardson as VP to get the Brown Vote
He’s got the egg head liberal/commie vote
He’s Got the adoring socker moms Vote

McCain has the independent thinking Vote.
The country Club vote
The Poor white vote
The military Vote
and (reluctantly) the conservative Vote
The Asian Vote
and the illegal Alien Vote.
Lastly McCain has the Anti-Obama Vote.

Sum: McCain Wins it as long as he doesn’t stumble.


22 posted on 05/11/2008 11:45:28 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: Bushwacker777

Arabic is a language—not all Muslims speak it. Iranians, for example, speak Persian—they are not Arabs. BTW where did you get the 6.25%? I thought he was 50% white American and 50% black African-—which makes him just as American as I am at 100% Irish.


23 posted on 05/11/2008 11:45:51 AM PDT by foreshadowed at waco
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To: Bushwacker777
"He’s only 6.25% black"

Um, this is his dad:


24 posted on 05/11/2008 11:51:54 AM PDT by Born to Conserve
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I think Juan is getting more conservative by the day.

Conservative? Probably not.

Intellectually honest? Yes.

25 posted on 05/11/2008 11:55:55 AM PDT by Wade827 (Job 21:3)
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To: DJ Taylor
From Audacity of Hope: ‘I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.’

Pretty revealing!

26 posted on 05/11/2008 11:59:18 AM PDT by rawhide
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Note: he said “Democrats.”

I do hope when Obama loses in November they remember to blame it on the fact that Democrats didn’t vote for him.


27 posted on 05/11/2008 12:04:46 PM PDT by fightinJAG (RUSH: McCain was in the Hanoi Hilton longer than we've been in Iraq, and never gave up.)
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To: BfloGuy

Juan has a very good book out.


28 posted on 05/11/2008 12:05:46 PM PDT by fightinJAG (RUSH: McCain was in the Hanoi Hilton longer than we've been in Iraq, and never gave up.)
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To: CT

That’s rich! Would make a great bumper sticker.


29 posted on 05/11/2008 12:07:45 PM PDT by fightinJAG (RUSH: McCain was in the Hanoi Hilton longer than we've been in Iraq, and never gave up.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
...whites would be uncomfortable voting for a black for President.

So my voting choices are:

1) I am racist if I don't vote for Obama

2) I'm a moron if I do vote for Obama

OK! That was clear as mud...

30 posted on 05/11/2008 12:15:37 PM PDT by John123 (Obama said that he has been in 57 states. I will now light myself on fire...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
He has won over many white voters by making them proud to vote for a supremely educated and capable man who, at his best, makes race a secondary concern.

He's so well educated that he doesn't know how many states there are in the U.S.

And so capable that even now none of his supporters can name a single accomplishment of his.

31 posted on 05/11/2008 12:20:06 PM PDT by Maceman (If you're not getting a tax cut, you're getting a pay cut.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama does have a big race problem with whites, and also with Jews and Catholics.

The problem has nothing to do with Obama's skin color. The problem is that Obama surrounds himself with racists, anti-Semites, and Catholic-hating bigots who have problems with Caucasians, Jews, and Catholics.

Whites, Jews, and Catholics can no more vote for Obama than African-Americans (and also decent white people) can be expected to vote for a candidate who poses arm in arm with Ku Klux Klansmen at a cross burning.

I am a white Jewish person. Why does Obama even think that, after promoting and endorsing Al Sharpton, who uses terminology like "white interlopers" while those under his leadership and supervision spew "bloodsucking Jews," "cracker lover," and "don't give the Jew a dime," there is the slightest chance I will vote for him?

I have a lot of Catholic neighbors. Does Obama really expect their votes after his reluctance to distance himself from Louis "the Pope is the Antichrist" Farrakhan while soliciting and accepting the endorsement of MoveOn.org, which publishes anti-Catholic hate material including a derogatory photomanipulation of the Pope?

(Please COPY and don't LINK, as linking uses my bandwidth. This needs to be circulated as widely as possible.) Obama's "race problems" are entirely of his own making, which is true of most racists. And Obama's use of the term "racial credentials" in "Dreams from My Father" suggest that he might in fact be one, because only racists talk about their "racial credentials." P.S. Is that 2nd Marine Division? That was my father's division.

32 posted on 05/11/2008 12:20:50 PM PDT by Winged Hussar (http://moveonpleasemoveon.blogspot.com/)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Juan, did you mean to say...

Barack has a growing problem with intelligent informed Americans who see him for the socialist government he seeks and culture of black on white racism he embraces which are distictly unamerican.

...and Juan, by identifying the above as a whites only group, aren’t you being racist toward the black community implying they are majority racist and only vote skin color?

I am sick and tired of the race arguement in America. It is a fraud and a scam.


33 posted on 05/11/2008 12:21:26 PM PDT by Eddie01 (one more for the road is actually a really bad idea.)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

You are right about at least one thing: Oprah’s Obama has stolen away the clueless “soccer moms”.


34 posted on 05/11/2008 12:25:19 PM PDT by Theodore R. ( Cowardice is still forever!)
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To: Eddie01

“...and Juan, by identifying the above as a whites only group, aren’t you being racist toward the black community implying they are majority racist and only vote skin color?”

Obama’s appearance with and endorsement of Al Sharpton suggests that Blacks are indeed racists and anti-Semites as well, because that is the constituency to which Al Sharpton appeals.

Suppose a candidate appeared with the Grand Wizard of the KKK. Wouldn’t he be implying that most whites are the dregs of society, because that is the class of whites to whom the KKK appeals? Well, Obama’s appearance with Sharpton says the same thing about Blacks. Hopefully enough Blacks will be sufficiently insulted to vote for McCain.


35 posted on 05/11/2008 12:25:20 PM PDT by Winged Hussar (http://moveonpleasemoveon.blogspot.com/)
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To: Maceman

That’s right there is no phrase associated with Oprah’s Obama except “change we can believe in”, and the American people don’t understand what that means. They hope it means lowered fuel prices and “free” health care.


36 posted on 05/11/2008 12:27:04 PM PDT by Theodore R. ( Cowardice is still forever!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I think Juan is getting more conservative by the day.

I agree and it is good to see. Juan always struck me as a good, decent, if misguided man. So good for him and good for our nation.

BHO's problems are three fold. He is a marxist. He is a muzzie sympathizer. He truly believes what Wright preaches. He is as unfit to be president as he is to be a senator. And the majority of this nation knows it.

37 posted on 05/11/2008 12:43:12 PM PDT by Nuc1 (NUC1 Sub pusher SSN 668 (Liberals Aren't Patriots))
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To: Lowcountry

90% of blacks vote for the Dem canddiate in any election. I’m not surprised Obama’s black vote has continued to increse to the 90% level. To some extent, I think it should be expected. We are a race/ethnicity/religion conscious society. I’d be willing to be that 90% of Mormons voted for Romney. And, if historical records are available, probably 90% of Catholics voted for Smith and then Kennedy.

Obama may not be our cup of tea, but he is the first ‘clean articulate’ black candidate that had a real shot at the nomination that blacks could vote for. He’s not Sharpton or Jackson. And, after Bill Clinton started shooting off his mouth, the pro-Obama vote among blacks only increased. It wasn’t likely Hillary would get the black vote after SC.


38 posted on 05/11/2008 12:45:39 PM PDT by EDINVA (Proud American for 23,062 days.... and counting!)
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To: TexGuy

Just one of many references to this issue:

http://www.oprah.com/community/thread/23106


39 posted on 05/11/2008 12:49:53 PM PDT by Salamander (And don't forget my Dog; fixed and consequent......)
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To: Bushwacker777

Interesting that few people realize that Obama is mostly white! He’s only 6.25% black, 50% European white and the rest African Arabic. Strange nobody is reporting this fact.”

There is no advantage for him to use his white or Arabic blood.


40 posted on 05/11/2008 1:16:12 PM PDT by hdstmf
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