I've subcribed to Newsweek for years. I will not renew. I buy a news Mag. for objective reporting,Fineman,Alter and Wolffes love affair with Obama on print and MSNBC has soured me on all of them.They all belong on Fox,come to think of it maybe Fox is more fair and balanced than them
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After beginning his campaign with a stunning statement of cross-racial appeal—his big win in Iowa--Obama took New Hampshire too lightly, and was blindsided on his victory lap by the wobbly front runner, Senator Clinton. Had he knocked her out in New Hampshire, he perhaps could have run a different kind of campaign. But he desperately needed a big win in South Carolina, and to get it he had to fight the Clinton family's deep ties in the African-American community nationwide.
And so Obama focused heavily on the black vote, first in South Carolina, then everywhere, not to the exclusion of other constituencies, but to perhaps a greater degree than he might otherwise have been required to do. With the help of Oprah Winfrey and others—and the mixed blessing of his wife, Michelle, declaring that she would finally feel proud to be an American—Obama worked it big time.
The bottom line in South Carolina was a racially polarized result that has continued to this day. Obama wins blacks by unprecedented numbers, and, in most states, college-educated and younger whites. Hillary wins less-educated and less-affluent whites, and the lion's share of Hispanic voters. (One reason she is staying in the race: the Puerto Rico primary.)
The legacy of South Carolina remains intact. South Carolina also was the place in which Obama's campaign began crying foul over real or imagined racial slights. It worked in many ways, increasing black voter solidarity and goading Bill Clinton into serial fits of purple rage. Sometimes complaining about others who play the "race card" can itself be a form of playing the race card.
The Obama campaign may be right: that raising the profile of this issue is the way to finally defeat it. America has come a long way, and perhaps younger voters will express their impatience with racial old-think by voting for Obama in the fall as an expression of faith in the future.
We'll see. In this campaign, the new argument over race and personhood hasn't ended. It's just begun.
© 2008
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