If President Barack Obama wins, he will be the popular choice of Hispanics, African-Americans, single women and highly educated urban whites. That’s what the polling has consistently shown in the final days of the campaign. It looks more likely than not that he will lose independents, and it’s possible he will get a lower percentage of white voters than George W. Bush got of Hispanic voters in 2000.It's looking pretty clear that President Obama will win re-election. But we really don't know yet how big that win will be. That's not what these folks are talking about though. What they're saying is that no matter how big the win is - if he doesn't get enough of the white vote - it can't be a mandate.
A broad mandate this is not.
Remember half-term Governor Palin's shit about "real America?" Yeah, that's what these folks are doing too.
Helpful hint for the idiots over at Politico: He didn't get a majority of the white male vote in 2008, either. Yet everyone managed to point out at the time that he had a whopping majority of the electoral vote, as well as a majority of the popular vote.
ReplyDeleteNot included in your quote is this:
ReplyDelete"The pressure on Obama to deliver for this liberal base will be powerful."
This is one of those right-wing tricks of making a non-political issue, here racial identity, political. Homogeneously, people of color are not simply "the Democratic base" but are "liberal." That's of course not true. The main reason people of color tend to vote Democratic is more than anything the result of the use of white racist appeal by the GOP.
By somehow making this a liberal-conservative issue, the centrality of white privilege in our politics, economy, and society, is avoided. The inequalities it brings are safe and sound.
Well said!
DeleteDisgusting. An American is an American. A majority of American voters is a majority, no matter what the racial distribution is. What the hell was this idiot thinking???
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThese same idiots did an article about 'white votes still matter' and Bill, your point is correct: POC, esp. black folks are shrewd political actors that vote in their best interests. Voting for a party that is hostile to our interests would be crazy.
ebogan63
So if non-highly educated rural/suburban white males don't vote for Obama, he doesn't have a mandate. I see.
ReplyDeleteOf course we will continue to see these two idiots in high-profile talk shows like Morning Joe and Chris Matthews. Have they written anything credible?
ReplyDelete