Though insisting race and gender have little to do with it, many Democrats are supporting the presidential candidate who looks most like them.
Super Tuesday polls showed clear racial and sexual divisions between backers of the two candidates hoping for historic firsts: Hillary Rodham Clinton, seeking to become the first female president, and Barack Obama, trying to become the first black commander in chief.
Each campaign is working hard to lure the other's supporters. So far, Obama seems to have outdone Clinton, making progress among whites and women since this year's earlier contests, according to polls of people leaving voting booths in this week's primaries.
That still leaves the two rivals with supporters who look different from each other. Two-thirds of Clinton's supporters on Tuesday were white and nearly as many were female, compared with just slightly over half for Obama. That's an advantage for Clinton because whites and women dominate Democratic voting _ 61 percent of the party's Super Tuesday voters were white, and 57 percent were female, the exit polls showed.
Seven in 10 Democrats said they'd be happy if Clinton were the nominee, and a virtually identical portion said the same about Obama. But as the party faithful mulled whether they'd most like to make history by putting the first woman or the first black man in the White House, some said they felt pressure to conform.
Nicole Brown, a homemaker from McDonough, Ga., said she supported Clinton, a New York senator, because she has more confidence in Clinton's abilities and track record. She said sex and race were not factors in her decision, but she said she has run into resistance. "Even in talking to my parents, they're surprised," said Brown, 31 and black. "You feel like a sense of obligation, you're letting your race down. But I'm not one to follow the masses, I follow my heart and my mind."
Three in 10 blacks said race was an important factor in choosing a candidate. About one in 10 whites said so. Most of those whites back Clinton, while blacks considering race overwhelmingly backed Obama, the Illinois senator.
What a sad state of liberal affairs. Whenever I read news stories such as this or I see and hear Bill Clinton race baiting on the campaign trail, I have to look at the calendar and remind myself that it's 2008 - not 1958!
Maybe liberal Democrats go by a different calendar. One that moves backwards. In every possible way.
Makes sense. After all, Democrats are the party of the past.
3 comments:
What?? I thought Bill Clinton was the first black president already. I must have missed a few revelations about this. It is a pretty pathetic situation. It would appear that the party of segregation is still at it dividing us up and suppressing the ones they don't like and promoting those they think will give them the path to power. Neither race or gender should be issues in a political campaign in this century. Oh wait, they only are for Democrats and the far left. (Sorry to be redundant there.) Some of us have progressed in a century.
Right - so, let's elect two white men, possibly both Christian. Let's move forward!
Letting go of racial and religious prejudice would be "moving forward."
I feel so sorry for self-loathing White liberals but I can't blame them. They have a lot to loathe.
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