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16th May 2008
Presidential elections: is race an issue?
If we cast our minds back to the start of the primaries in January, race was an issue that operated off the radar. Barack Obama’s candidacy was different from that of previous black candidates such as Jesse Jackson since Obama did not so overtly focus on black issues. Obama was widely hailed as evidence of how far America had progressed.
But many black people expressed doubt on whether the electorate was really going to propel a black man into the White House.
Then quite suddenly in March race became an issue when the Jeremiah Wright controversy erupted. William Storey focuses on race in the latest edition of tutor2u’s online Politics magazine, First Past the Post – well worth a read if your school has a subscription.
On Matt Frei’s Washington diary, the BBC’s Washington correspondent discusses how race has come to the fore during the campaign:
‘The numbers and the exit polls indicate that Barack Obama has a problem.
The man who started the nomination marathon by wooing predominantly white Iowa is ending it by failing to seduce predominantly white West Virginia.
Race has become an issue.
How do we know? Because in their exit polls the voters told us so.
On a subject where honesty tends to be conspicuous by its absence, one in five voters told the pollsters that race was a factor in their decision-making process.
And a significant number of Hillary voters said they would not vote for Mr Obama if he was the nominee.
No Democratic nominee can win without the support of African Americans.
But nor can they prevail if white, blue-collar voters opt for John McCain - that is the Democratic Party’s biggest conundrum.’
Frei then goes on to talk about a meeting with a Michigan voter:
‘Geoff, a long-distance truck driver with too little work, was only buying Hillary’s message.
“If Obama is our candidate, I am voting for McCain.”
Why? “Lack of experience. He’s too young. He hasn’t done much. He’s never suffered like John McCain did during the Vietnam War. And, yes, race is a part of it too.”
Unprompted, Geoff referred to the Reverend Wright issue.
It was a refrain we heard over and over again.’
So if Obama clinches the nomination, can he win the battle against McCain in the autumn for white working class votes? As I alluded to previously, if you had asked me in January I would have said yes. But now I am not so sure. There appears to be a significant number of voters who still cling to the politics of the past and pledge that they would not vote for a black candidate under any circumstances.