This is the second in a series of dispatches from Melinda Henneberger, who's talking to voters around the U.S. about their views on the election.
Charleston, W.Va. -- According to the exit polls, I was hanging out with a bunch of racially challenged Hillary supporters at last night's victory party here.
One in five West Virginia voters fessed up that race was an important factor in their choice of a candidate –- and they didn't mean they saw Obama's diverse heritage as a positive. How do we know that? Because of those who walked right up to pollsters and said out loud that race was the elephant in their donkey-party living room, 81 percent voted for Clinton. Not only that, but 7 percent of West Virginia voters went for John Edwards –- who ended his run decades ago, as measured in political time –- but was the only white dude still on the ballot. What does that tell us? Nothing we want to hear.
Yet right up until Election Day in November, nothing that can't be mitigated, either. I say that because after the '04 election, I spent 18 months roaming around 20 states, listening to women across the political spectrum rant and rave about Hillary Clinton: Never, ever, they said. And who are her biggest supporters now? The skepticism I heard from them didn't seem to have much to do with gender, so maybe it isn't the same thing. But last night, as I was listening to West Virginians vowing that they would never, ever settle for Obama, I couldn't help wondering how long "never" would last this time.
In part, that depends on the preferred candidate of "hard-working Americans, white Americans." Though it's true that Clinton has been invited to exit the stage, the issue isn't whether or not she quits the race, but whether or not she quits the race baiting. I know a whole wing of the Democratic Party thinks it horribly unfair to conclude that some of her campaign's statements add up to that -- "He's not a Muslim ... as far as I know," plus likening Obama to Jesse Jackson, and "He would not have been my pastor," and "one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use," and the shout-out to "hard-working Americans, white Americans" -- but then, this is a campaign that's been saying for months it doesn't believe in math, anyway. (As a woman sitting near me at Hillary's victory party said, when she saw her candidate's lead narrowing even slightly, "Numbers lie.")
Last night, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow called Hillary the "understudy" candidate, hoping the star comes down with the flu. So if she's Eve Harrington, does that make Bill her Addison DeWitt? And remember sweet, naïve Karen Richards, the Celeste Holm character who engineers Margo Channing's failure to show up on opening night because she can't believe Eve means any real harm? Sometimes, seeing no evil leads to no good.
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Comments
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caniscandida Posted 7:44 am
14 May 2008
As a former Edwards supporter, leaning subsequently towards Obama, but chivalrously retaining some appreciation for my smart, hard-working Senator, I am glad that Edwards is doing what he is doing. And I am glad that Edwards is doing it now, right after the weirdly anomalously distracting primary in West Virginia, where the voters went hugely for Hillary, and they were the kind of voters who also presumably would have been attracted to Edwards.
Besides that, though, I am reeling with disgust at these recent reports, such as Melinda's, of unrepentant racism, on the part of white voters who will never ever be happy with a black candidate, who feel that the interests of African-Americans are inevitably totally opposed to their own, and who can actually find it in their hearts to mock and taunt supporters of Obama.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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amazingdrx Posted 2:43 pm
14 May 2008
I saw several clips where white women were saying they would never vote for Barack because he is a muslim. And one mentioned "Hussein". Did the local party machine disseminate this sort of slur on a word of mouth basis. I have seen word of mouth dirty tricks spread here in our local party.
Rumors of sexual harrasment by a male candidate of a female volunteer by supporters of a woman opponent in a primary.
This was my fear from the start, that a close loss by Barack in the bible belt in the general election would be blamed on racism, covering up dirty tricks and election fraud. A perfect Rovian excuse.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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caniscandida Posted 4:19 pm
14 May 2008
"All About Eve" is not surprisingly a great gay hoot-o-rama. Indeed, one might classify gay men of a certain age according to whether they prefer Bette Davis movies in which she wins, or those in which she loses ("Fasten your seat belts ... "). (Similarly there are those who love the recording done by Maria Callas of "Norma" in 1954 who refuse to speak to those who love the recording that she did in 1960.) Whenever "All About Eve" is shown on the TVs in gay bars, the patrons are as if transfixed, and the Cosmopolitans flow.
(Well, the Cosmopolitans flow in any case; but they do so in a more subdued manner when Bette Davis is on the screen.)
Now, to return from dreamworld to reality: Hillary definitely comes across as a believable Eve Harrington. Whether Bill Clinton is quite parallel to Addison DeWitt may be doubted, however; DeWitt is rather horrified by the monster that he has created, but I do not know that Bill has felt anything like that.
The Celeste Holm character is fascinating, and I am wondering if there is any parallel among the Clintonites: Charlie Rangel (my congressman!), perhaps, who now famously has chid Hillary for her stupid boast of winning "white voters"?
Amazing,
no, I do not think that reports of racism are overblown. And I think racist expressions are only going to get worse -- cynic that I am. But by the same token, there is no reason for Democratic delegates, both pledged and super, to abandon Obama. It would be terrificly bad for delegates, and for us mere voters, to shrink from him, believing him to be unelectable on account of his African heritage.
On the basis of how she has been acting and talking lately, including her interview with Wolf Blitzer, Hillary strikes me as wanting very much to be VICE-president. But I cannot imagine her settling in comfortably into an Obama administration.
Obama for his part looked horrible, horrible, yesterday evening, during John Edwards's magnificent speech. I wanted to run up and whap him with a big pillow, right across that arrogantly smirking face of his, as annoyingly smirking as anything that George W. Bush could achieve. He was looking at Edwards with an expression that said, "Sit down, John. You are a has-been, you have shot your wad, you do not matter any more, you are boring me, so just shut up and sit down."
The Obama-ites are surely right that it makes no sense, in the US, to call an African-American "elitist." But pomposity can be found anywhere, in all races, classes and ages; and, sorry to point it out, but sometimes, Obama comes across as super-pompous.
And it certainly does not help matters, whenever any in-the-street Obama-ites act as though anyone who is deciding against him, or has reservations, is spittable-upon.
Anyway, in sum, back to Melinda's issue: The racist rejection of Obama, on the part of more than a few white people, along with the bullying of his friends, is simply horrible and disgusting. And it makes me all the more willing to vote for him, as a sign to the world that we Euro-Americans are most certainly not all racists.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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Pompey Road Posted 11:19 pm
14 May 2008
The afro-american population in W.Va is about 3%, they have not had to interact with the other races as they were land locked for years by their geography. They rely on sterotypes from the last century to form their opinions about afro-americans.
Obama shoule have took a stronger stand there and let them know its more about class with him than race. The working and middle class, a class struggle to get corporations out of government and get some representation back to the people.
The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.
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redambrosia99 Posted 1:53 am
15 May 2008
My problem with Hillary is that she keeps acting all smug... she has women (I'm a woman, but I don't support her), she has white voters (also white), she has hard working middle class Americans (that's me again), she has blue collar workers, and old voters, and this this and this, as if we don't all want and need the same things, as if things like age and skin colour and what kind of job we have make us that different from each other. She's dividing us up into little boxes, rather than being all like "this is what we all want and believe, so lets all work together", and while that may tend on the corny side, I don't think we should all be so jaded that its not a good idea that we should work towards.
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Baby Boomer Posted 3:08 am
15 May 2008
As for voting based on race, it really, really happens. I'm from Georgia and although my state has made an amazing amount of progress in the 60 years of my being, I still know people (and relatives) who won't vote for Obama because half his heritage is African. I have a Cuban American friend who is for Hilary, but won't vote for Obama based on his race. My friend has a problem with "their culture." I have softened him up a bit.
My basic feeling is this nation really does want a change, and I hope and pray that Obama is up to the task.
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caniscandida Posted 5:39 pm
15 May 2008
Still, we wonder why there should be so much hardship in getting through a simple breakfast order of waffles. OK, so as an extreme waffle-o-phile, I am biased; but he should not have ordered waffles, if he is not really into them that much. It looks like the P-word. (Sort of sounds like a black-and-white bear who lives in China.)
All the same, Baby Boomer, I am kneeling in the same pew as you, hoping and pryaing.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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cathismith Posted 1:13 am
20 May 2008
And, yes, there are African Americans who will vote based mostly on race, just as there are European Americans who will do the same. I have not seen any stats on this, but I would bet that those for whom race is primary are overwhelmingly African American. I wish someone would actually examine this, because I am getting very tired of these type of articles which imply that Clinton is either herself a racist, or an opportunist who eggs on racists to vote for her. Because that is what this author is doing.
And voting for someone to prove that you are not a racist is just plain old dumb. Vote based on the candidate's track record, not to prove you are not prejudiced.
If, as written, 81% of the 20% who said in the exit poll that race mattered voted for Clinton, then 19% did not vote for her. They either voted for Obama or they voted for Edwards. In a state that is 3% African American, that would mean that to more than a few Non-African American Obama supporters, race mattered. (I can't tell because there is not a breakdown of this 19% in the article). Are the 95% of African Americans who voted in South Carolina for Obama, also "racists"? Where is the analysis? The implication that Hillary Clinton is race-bating is nothing more than smear tactics, not based on anything more than innuendo.
And, more to my point, how many of those who vote for Obama are sexist? Sexism is not mentioned, although for certain, and I would called them "smug" as well as ignorant, women, there seems to be a reverse snobbery in bragging that "although I am a woman, I would not vote for that . . . "
Is sexism real? Hillary Clinton is the first serious woman candidate for American President EVER. 53-56% of Democratic primary voters are female, but only 14% of our elected officials are. Isn't that the real elephant in the room that no-one wants to talk about? How many people voted for Obama because he is a man? Would they vote for an African American woman--or any woman? While Obama may not have made sexist comments directly, many of the negative comments in this and other posts about Hillary Clinton are sexist in nature.
The comments are subtle now, but they are still sexist. And this includes blaming Hillary for the racism in this election. Assigning Hillary sinister motives is another subtle way of "not trusting the lying . . .." And so is questioning her Math ability sexist. Holding women to higher standards than men is sexist. Take this little test--Imagine a woman with Obama's resume were running. How far do you think she would have made it?
To the good, liberal folks who support other liberal causes, be aware of your own gender prejudices before implying that Hillary Clinton is a racist and that her supporters (all 17+ million of us) are also.
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mwildfire Posted 2:57 am
20 May 2008
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