What’s the Matter With California?

by Paul Hogarth via Beyond Chron

Wed, Feb 6, 2008 6:22AM

Wednesday, February 6, 2008 : Last night, Barack Obama accomplished what no insurgent presidential candidate has ever done: survive Super Tuesday. The Illinois Senator did so by amassing a broad coalition of blacks, liberals and red-state Democrats – paying off dividends across the country except in California. Hillary Clinton’s double-digit win here exceeded expectations, and such baffling returns will keep progressives guessing for days what went wrong in the Golden State.

Clinton won in part because she got a large share of support from white women and Latinos – her traditional base – as well as from Asian-Americans. But Obama also got slaughtered in the Central Valley and other conservative parts of the state – defying the national trend, and confining his base to San Francisco and other liberal coastal counties. The state’s electorate was also very conservative when it came to Propositions: voters approved 4 anti-labor Indian gaming compacts, sinked a measure to fund community colleges, and (while it’s good news for progressives that Prop 93 failed) kept the status quo for term limits.

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§Super Duper Latino Vote is No One's Big Enchilada

by NAM (reposted)

Wed, Feb 6, 2008 6:57AM

Originally From New America Media

Wednesday, February 6, 2008 :Instead, the Latino vote segmented along other vectors, the most interesting of which is regional, says NAM contributor Roberto Lovato.

Asked on Super Duper Tuesday to choose between a black candidate and a white candidate, Latinos chose both -- and neither.

"The candidates need to understand where Latinos stand," says Smithe Celestrin, 31, standing outside Public School 24 in Brooklyn’s diverse working class neighborhood of Sunset Park. Celestrin, a dark-skinned Puerto Rican-French-Chinese digital advertising manager, says her main issues are the war, the economy and immigration. “This is our country and we will have our say in it.”

In a Democratic contest in which the issue of race has played a definitive role, racially fluid and ambiguous Latinos like Celestrin delivered a loud and historic message to the candidates and pundits and to the country as a whole: the black-white electorate of yesteryear is dead.

Preliminary results of the most intense primary in recent memory indicate that predictions of a monolithic Latino "firewall" for Clinton have fallen short. The candidates split key Latino-heavy states in different parts of the country. Clinton won states like New York, California and New Jersey while Obama won states like Colorado and Illinois.

§Women Deliver on Super Tuesday

by NOW (reposted)

Wed, Feb 6, 2008 7:00AM

Wednesday, February 6, 2008 : The women's vote carried Hillary Clinton to victory in delegate-rich states that will put her ahead in the ultimate delegate count. Her historic race has energized the gender gap, which is key because women make up the majority of voters in the general election.

The gender gap, a significant margin among Hispanic voters, and confidence in her strength on the economy will all give Clinton a strong advantage against John McCain in November.

-- Kim Gandy, President, National Organization for Women (NOW) and chair of NOW PAC.

Women delivered big for Hillary Clinton in key Democratic states with the mother lode of delegates. After working for the women's movement for over forty years I am ecstatic, because I believe women are on the verge of cracking the highest of glass ceilings. I am so sick of hearing that women are their own worst enemy -- after these results, I hope that we have finally put this old saw to rest.