Race, class and the politics of the Obama campaign

Thursday, March 20, 2008 : Barack Obama’s remarkable speech on race won largely raves from the media and pundits. But much of the coverage questioned how the speech would go over with white ethnic voters, routinely identified as “Joe Six-Pack.” Apparently, Obama, unlike every serious presidential contender of the past and present, must not simply prove he can win an electoral majority, but rather that he win large segments of every constituency.

But male white ethnic voters have backed Republicans in every presidential contest since 1968, and even Democratic U.S. Senators typically fail to prevail among white males. Far from offering an authentic voice of the working class, the “Joe Six-Pack” icon is typically a solid Republican whose views are more representative of his race than of a class whose black and Latino members vote overwhelmingly Democratic. The real issue is not Obama’s ability to win over white male ethnics, but rather that he is well-positioned to add Hillary’s core base---older women and Latinos---to his current supporters, making him the strongest Democratic presidential candidate in decades.

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008 : Under fire for controversial statements by his long-time pastor that could frighten white America, Barack Obama gave a speech yesterday to bring his presidential campaign back on track. We’ve seen this game before: a liberal politician is subject to race-baiting attacks that endanger his electoral prospects, and so takes action to assure “swing voters” that he’s acceptable.

Usually, that means throwing the problem under a bus – pandering to the white Joe Six-Pack while alienating his black liberal base. That would have been the “smart” thing to do, but Obama proved that he’s a lot better than that. While he repudiated Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s inflammatory comments, Obama refused to disown him – and over the course of 37 minutes publicly tackled our nation’s biggest taboo like no serious White House candidate has ever done. For that reason, yesterday’s speech was historic.

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Originally From New America Media

Thursday, March 20, 2008 : WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sat with members of the Black Press of America March 12 for an hour-long forum, and fielded tough questions about her campaign’s racial gaffes, NNPA reports. NNPA Foundation Chair Dorothy Leavell and Chairman John B.

Smith, Sr. co-hosted the event, in which Clinton said she was either sorry for or regretted the racial overtones of the campaigns. That included remarks made by 1984 vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, who resigned recently from her position on Clinton’s finance committee. Ferraro had said of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama: “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.”
“I regret that [the comments] were said,” Clinton said. “She doesn’t speak for the campaign. She doesn’t speak for any of my positions.” She also said she was “sorry if anyone was offended” by remarks made by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who compared Obama’s victory in the South Carolina primary to the 1984 and 1988 wins of the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

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