There have been GD threads on his electability (example) and Pit threads on racism and his campaign (example), but if there’s one strictly about how his being biracial will affect his electability I can’t find it.
I’m not going for White Liberal Guilt look-at-me points (because I really don’t have much if any White Liberal Guilt) when I say that Obama’s racial heritage is neither a positive nor a negative to me, at least not in general. A part of me admits that it’s another point in his favor because biracial from a working class background is as far aways as you can get from Bush without throwing in female and single-mother, and another part of me says “About damned time” to the notions of a viable non-white presidential contender, but generally speaking if he were whiter than Barry Manilow and Julie Andrews’ lovechild or if he was the half brother of both Flavor Flav and Maya Angelou he’d still be my favorite candidate.
I like Obama because I think he’s an extremely intelligent critical thinker capable of having lofty ideals but also capable totally pragmatic on the ground action, because I think he’s by far the most likely candidate to get Dems and Reps to work together rather than completely predictable Dem%/Rep% votes on major issues, because he knows what Sunnis and Shi’ites are, because I think that in a 24/7 media age great oratorical ability and charisma are WAAAAAY more than just gravy (as we’ve been reminded for the past 8 years), because he has the energy of youth to help put out the fires that have started under the Dubya regime (I will admit that while it’s not enough to stop me from voting for him, McCain’s age does weigh heavy against him to me- the next president has got a job ahead of him/her that “no merciful God would allow”), because I think he’s the least likely to use cabinet positions as rewards for his business buddies, because I think he’s close enough in time to when he had to clip coupons and count pennies to remember the feeling yet at the same time a graduate of an Ivy League school that was not a legacy admission, because I think…
Well, I could go on and on and on, but the point is I like Obama because I like Obama. I actively like him as much as I actively dislike Hillary and McCain (nothing personal against them, wouldn’t surprise me to know that they’re both great neighbors and wonderful parents and the like, but I’m not electing a neighbor or parent).
The fact that he’s half African (o.t., but I get irritated by the number of “half African-American” comments- he’s 100% American but his father was African) is a major plus in at least one way: it galvanizes the black vote more than any candidate in many years if ever, and they are historically the most likely to sit out elections and they are also most heavily concentrated in historically red states which means that combined with the white Democratic vote there’s a chance that some Deep South states might go blue for a change. However, as his debacle in West Virginia and expected big loss in Kentucky (though that’s not yet come to pass) demonstrate, there are people who are not going to vote for a black man. Period. Doesn’t matter who he’s matched against. (I don’t dispute for a second that there are legitimate reasons to favor Clinton over Obama for the Dem nomination and that to do so or to favor McCain over either does not make one intellectually inferior, but the Clinton landslide in a state with one of the lowest non-white percentages (5.4% WV v. 24% national), the nation’s lowest college graduate percentage (16.9%) and one of the lowest incomes ($35,800, number 42/51), it’s no more coincidence they voted for the white candidate than is the fact most black voters vote for Obama.
So, back to the OP, how much will the “racist” vote hurt Obama if he’s the Dem. nominee? (By “racist vote” I’m not talking about people who vote for McCain or independent candidates for ideological or political or economic reasons but those of any demographic who will not vote for a candidate who’s not 100% white [and I’ve no doubt there are many Democrats and “liberals” who fall into this category])? Short question, do you think that there are enough racist voters to swing the election to McCain?
And now for something completely different- a hijacking [though semi-relevant] of my own O.P. as an aside to those who live or have lived in West Virginia:
On the news (and on the Daily Show) last week they showed several clips of West Virginians who openly admitted they weren’t voting for Obama because he’s black, “because he’s a Muslim”, “because he’s a Hussein”, etc… Okay, being from Alabama I’m very much aware that people who’ve never lived here woudl think we’re all toothless Bible “tornado bait trailer trash”* Bible thumpers if you knew us only from TV. Is this the case in W.V., or are there really a disproportionate number of ignorant rednecks {two terms that are not redundant} there?
*To forestall any “trailer trash is elitist and that sounds like white trash and that stands for above-the-ground pool” recreational outrage comments,[that’s a movie quote] for those who aren’t familiar.