Racism in the Race

“Racism and the Race” by Matthew Rothschild, printed in the October 2008 issue of The Progressive. He states many things about the upcoming election that seem to point to racism as being a deciding factor. He begins by stating that Barak Obama is the better candidate, and lists many issues in which Obama has the better outlook. He then asks the question, why then is he only in the lead by a narrow margin. The only answer he seems to find is racism. He then states how he visited Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and talked to people ages 45 and older about their views on the upcoming election. According to the people he talked to, they will not vote for Barak Obama, even when they voted straight ticket democrats for their entire lives, and could not conceive a reason for not voting democrat. According to Matt, this screams racism, and he may be right. But he fails to include any interviews in which the person says that racism plays a role in the election. Like he said, I guess we will find out come November 4th. To read this full article, please visit http://www.progressive.org/comment1008.html.
“Does Race Really Matter”, written by Michael Cohen, and printed in the Friday, October 17, 2008 edition of the New York Times. Mr. Cohen begins his article by stating statistics about the outcome of the upcoming election. He states that even though race will play a factor in the election, it will tend to favor Obama than to hurt him. We are not just talking about the African American votes here, but the other minority groups in the country also. In 2004, 66% of the Hispanic voters were on John Kerry’s side, and this year a sizeable majority was on Mrs. Clinton’s side. So Cohen states that many of these voters will still vote democrat even though they will not be voting for Hillary. This will play a key role in the southwestern states including New Mexico, Nevada, and Southern California. Also Kerry only lost by a small margin in swing states like Ohio, and the polls show that Obama is currently in the lead in these swing states. So in his opinion, the race will not come down to race, but who is the better candidate for the job. To read this full article, please visit http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/does-race-really-matter/?ref=opinion.
“And If Obama Loses”, written by Patrick Buchanan and listed on the Real Clear Politics website. In this article, Mr. Buchanan, has a very different approach on the issue of race in the upcoming election. He asks the question if Obama loses, will there be a racial backlash in the country. According to him, there is a 94 to 1 poll of black Americans behind Obama, so will these African Americans protest the election of McCain based on the issue of race? Mr. Buchanan says this is extremely likely. He also states that this election could be a lose -lose situation, Obama is the first major presidential candidate to have this little of experience for the office. So Mr. Buchanan says that if Obama wins, the country could lose in the end, but if he doesn’t win, the country could also suffer from a period of racial violence. So you need to ask yourself, which is the lesser of the two evils. To read this full article, please visit http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/and_if_obama_loses.html.