After probably the worst couple weeks of Senator Obama's campaign, with the Wright scandal front and center in the headlines, Obama being accused of "elitism" and his loss in Pennsylvania, Senator Obama rebounded with a decisive victory in North Carolina and a performance in Indiana which has virtually ensured his nomination in August.
Senator Clinton needed to win big in Indiana, but only won by two percentage points. It is widely believed that her holiday gas tax proposal, which was opposed by most economists as well as Obama and viewed by him as "pandering" did not help her in either the Indiana or N.C. primary and in fact, may have hurt her.
As usual, the political analysts looked at the exit polls to see how different demographics voted. It is interesting that during this year, race and class have become very important factors in the voting. I cannot recall the analysts talking about "downscale white voters" or the "white working class voters" as much as they do during this election.
I was driving home from the dentist, and I decided to listen to Michael Medved, a conversative radio talk show host, just to see what he had to say about last night's primary results. (It's important to know what your opponents are saying!) Frankly, he disgusted me. He called Obama "dead man walking" and he said that working class whites would NEVER vote for him, that they were Reagan Democrats and they'd all end up voting for McCain in the general election. It sounded like he just KNEW this, and he took it for granted. These are people that were supporters of Hillary Clinton.
If he really feels this is the case, I would really like to know WHY. I know that there is a certain contingent of people who openly admit that they just will not vote for an African-American person, and clearly this is based on racism, pure and simple. I would like to hope that this is a small minority of people. But would there be other reasons why Medved would say working class whites would NEVER vote for Obama? Would they really go against their own best interests and vote for what amounts to a third Bush term? Or is this just right-wing rhetoric? Obama's and Clinton's positions on the issues are much closer to each other's than they are to McCain's when it comes to ecomonic policies, the war, health care, abortion, gay rights, you name it. Clinton herself has said that she would support Obama if he were to be the Democratic nominee. So why would a voter be willing to support Clinton and not Obama, if their own candidate is willing to support Obama? I'd be interested in people's opinions on this.
I think it's important to have these conversations because only then can we come to a greater understanding about people who are different from us. To think that race and class won't be a factor in the general election is to be shortsighted. We've already seen from this primary season that both of these issues have become part and parcel of this campaign season and I have a very strong feeling that in the general election it will get even worse.
