More Obama

It's been a while, but I've had the pleasure of being in New York City for a couple of days and haven't had the chance to post. Nice, quaint little town worth visiting if you get the chance.

Another good comment from P's Blog regarding Obama and the perception of his racial makeup. I'm not entirely sure if P's challenging me on my suggestion that people with a biracial background (black/white in this case) identify themselves, and are identified by others, as more black than white, but I'll stick by my point for now - although I'll admit that it's based on intuition more than anything else. 

For better or worse, race matters in America. It matters to an awful lot of black Americans, who I think see Obama's candidacy, and the idea of an Obama presidency, as a point of pride. The last poll I read said something like 80-90% of black voters in the Democratic primaries had gone for him. Given that his policies don't differ tremendously from Clinton's, I think it's reasonable to suggest that racial identification has played a role in these results.

Similarly, there are Americans who have a viscerally negative reaction to the idea of a black president, a view that could be borne out of guilt, ignorance, or out-and-out racism. That Obama's racial background is mixed makes him a unique candidate, one that both black and white voters can "claim" as one of their own. This is one of the reasons he's been so effective in talking about race. He can frame the issue for whites and blacks in a credible way, because he is both white and black, and at the same time neither.

He's been less successful talking about class issues, because he's the kind of well-off, highly educated liberal that historically chafes working-class voters. However, if he does win the nomination, he'll have a lot of time to recalibrate his approach to this demographic.

Speaking of the nomination, Clinton winning Pennsylvania just delays the inevitable. She almost literally cannot win without convincing superdelegates to vote against the will of the primary voters, who have turned out in record numbers during this campaign. It's time for her to get out of this race. Her attacks on Obama are creating a blueprint for McCain to go after him in the general election, and if she does manage to convince the superdelegates to overturn Obama's near-certain pledged delegate and popular vote win, a lot of pissed-off Obama Democrats are going to turn into McCain supporters. Either way, she's hurting the party.