UPDATE #4:I didn’t even know about this book, whch goes far beyond my own ideas but seems pretty convincing from this interview. The book is here.
UPDATE#3: The Democrats are falling all over themselves with racial coments. It’s sort of Keystone Kops commit politics.
UPDATE #2: Here it comes. You New Hampshire Democrats are racist according to Chris Matthews.
UPDATE:#1 The post-election pundits are now saying that Hilary got the traditional Democrat base voters; low income, single women and poorly educated. Of course, the New Hampshire vote is overwhelmingly white. Now comes the second thoughts. In California, it is called the “Bradley effect.” It isn’t that white voters won’t vote for a black candidate; we saw them do that in Iowa. It is just that they will tell pollsters what they want to hear and it isn’t always how they vote. Part of that concept is the fact that Iowa caucuses DO NOT HAVE A SECRET BALLOT. That piece I linked to never mentioned that fact. This one does.
If someone wants to feel good about himself, he will publicly vote for the black candidate. That happened in Iowa. Something like that happened with exit polls and pre-election polls in New Hampshire. It isn’t racism on the part of the voter, at least not the usual variety of racism. It is the Democrat variety of racism. Tell the pollster what you want him to think is true about you. You are enthusiastic about a black president regardless of his qualifications. Being the first black president is enough. Just as it is enough to send all those affirmative action kids to Harvard. Only you and I know that most of them are upper class kids or foreign born kids.
Anyway, I think the results confirm my theory so far.
Now that Obama is leading the Democratic race (although he seems to have failed to meet expectations in New Hampshire), will we see the latent racism in the Democratic Party emerge? They, of course, are fond of accusing Republicans of this and some of their wilder partisans are already fully engaged. In case you are unwilling to actually click a link to Glen Greenwald (or one of his sock puppets), here is the money quote:
There’s a prevailing sense that Obama is not as offensive to the right-wing GOP faction as other Democratic and liberal candidates in the past have been, or that he’s less “divisive” among them than Hillary. And that’s true: for now, while he tries to take down the individual who has long provoked the most intense hatred — literally — among the Right. But anyone who doesn’t think that that’s all going to change instantaneously if Obama is the nominee hasn’t been watching how this faction operates over the last 20 years. Hatred is their fuel.
Yes, the hatred is ready. There are a few problems on the road to satisfaction for Mr. Greenwald (Have you ever noticed that people who spell Glenn with two Ns are usually pompous?).
First, we have Bill Clinton on the attack. How long before we see some nasty stuff from the Clinton machine? This whole election saga is the story of the McGovern coalition. They are not the old union households of my childhood. They are the progressives of the universities, the black “leaders” who promise to turn out the vote and the public employee unions who have a vested interest in government spending. Obama appeals to the progressives who want to feel good about themselves and what better way to do that than to vote for a black president? The black “leaders” have made deals with the Clintons and, after all, this is not about progress for the black underclass. It is about bank accounts for Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. The unions will sign on to anyone who will keep the money flowing into union coffers.
But what happens if he looks like he might lose (Even in the primaries)? The coalition would be stressed. The progressives don’t much care about economics or the welfare of unions or blacks. They are all about themselves. Why else did they run Ned Lamont against Joe Lieberman ? Lieberman’s long Senate record was irrelevant. It was about the progressives being powerful! It will be interesting to see how this plays out if it really stays as close as it seems to be in New Hampshire tonight.
I had lunch in London yesterday (January 7) with two friends and we talked American politics. One of them is adamantly against the Iraq War. He has traveled extensively in the middle east and doesn’t think nation building will ever work. There is also the chronic English concern about naive and blundering Americans who don’t take their advice. Of interest to me most, however, was the fact that he is very worried about Obama becoming president. He knows how inexperienced and naive Obama is. What will happen when the European wing of the Democrats get that feedback from their friends across the Atlantic? It could get ugly.