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Political commentary over the past week has been dominated by the question of whether Obama has played the race card. All this sound and fury is ignoring the elephant in the room. Specifically, Obama is the race card and Democrats have dealt it in the game by making him the nominee of their party. Geraldine Ferarro got it right when she said that if Obama were white he wouldn't have gotten within a country mile of the nomination. A white person with Obama's obvious lack of experience and qualifications for the top job in the country would not have been given serious consideration by voters. The only reason he has prevailed in primary contests against more seasoned opponents is precisely because it caught the voters' fancy to try to make history by nominating a black candidate. So it's a little late for Dem pundits and supporters of Obama to whine about race in this campaign. They made it about race.
If that was indeed the case, then other black Democratic candidates for the presidency in the past such as Carol Mosley Braun would have done very well in Dem caucuses and primaries. In fact, the exact opposite is true. She consistently finished last with Al Sharpton (another black Democrat).
And it's not exactly like Obama was going up against heavyweights: his 2 chief opponents were Hillary Clinton (who has very high unfavorables) and John Edwards, who is pretty much a joke and would have been soundly defeated by McCain in a general election. We voted for Obama because we heard him speak, liked his message and stance on issues, and was a far superior candidate to the rest of the bunch.
If that was indeed the case, then other black Democratic candidates for the presidency in the past such as Carol Mosley Braun would have done very well in Dem caucuses and primaries. In fact, the exact opposite is true. She consistently finished last with Al Sharpton (another black Democrat).
And it's not exactly like Obama was going up against heavyweights: his 2 chief opponents were Hillary Clinton (who has very high unfavorables) and John Edwards, who is pretty much a joke and would have been soundly defeated by McCain in a general election. We voted for Obama because we heard him speak, liked his message and stance on issues, and was a far superior candidate to the rest of the bunch.
You don't know what you're talking about.
So what you're saying is that any white guy with virtually no qualifications for the job but who was a charismatic speaker could have defeated Hillary in the primaries? Unlikely. But possible because by and large Democrats gravitate toward style over substance.
So what you're saying is that any white guy with virtually no qualifications for the job but who was a charismatic speaker could have defeated Hillary in the primaries? Unlikely. But possible because by and large Democrats gravitate toward style over substance.
Ask John Edwards. He and Obama agreed on a lot more than he and Hillary. Edwards was a one term Senator. He spent much of his time campaigning in 2004. He was useless to NC. I think Obama's savvy and charismatic charm allowed him to get further than Edwards. It doesn't hurt that he's not Jesse Jackson either.
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