Obama Banking on Black Voters Registering Across the South

COREY DADE and STEPHANIE CHEN write:

With the Super Tuesday primaries looming, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is banking on a wave of new voter registrations among African-Americans in the South to help him surge into a pivotal stand the following week, when Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia go to the polls.

Mr. Obama benefited immensely in his win in South Carolina last month from an upward spike in black registrations and a huge turnout of black voters. In recent weeks, African-Americans have registered at unprecedented rates across the South, where they make up a large portion, although not a majority, of the population in many states.

Black voting participation has steadily increased in the South over the past decade.

Hillary's Campaign Dismays African-Americans

Photo Credit: Corbis (Hillary in center at Wellesley College in mid 1960s)

The tone of the Clinton campaign deeply dismayed some African-Americans who had been close to the Clintons, including Eric Holder, a former top Justice Department official and Obama supporter. “It places their legacy at risk,” Mr. Holder said.

Even as the charged rhetoric of South Carolina subsides, race will no doubt persist as a theme for as long as Mr. Obama is running, the contest is close and emotions run raw. “I think everyone is trying to find their way, here,” Mrs. Clinton said.

A Handful of Them Odd

The myth of color blindness by CYNTHIA TUCKER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/20/08

After a recent column describing Barack Obama as "a presidential candidate who happens to be black — not a black presidential candidate," I received countless responses from readers, a handful of them odd. That odd handful declared they take no notice of superficial traits such as skin color, and they took me to task for making any reference to Obama's race.

"I thought of [Obama] as a person. I did not see black or white or Hispanic or that he was a man — I saw a person! If people really, truly want racial equality — then the first step has to be to STOP looking at skin color," wrote one reader.

"When I look at a person, the last thing I think about is skin color or heritage," wrote another.

Sorry, but I'm not buying it. While I am sympathetic to any desire to get past dated and useless habits of mind — especially the contentious politics of the color line — that's just nonsense. Not one of us, black, white or brown, is colorblind.

I think Ms. Tucker is incorrect. I know that there are many times that I do not notice the color of someone's skin just as I realize that I often miss that a person is in a wheelchair until after I have walked away from them. This color blindness or blindness to a superficial element may not be present each and every time I am with the person, but I know there are many times I do not notice the superficial, and that does include skin color. Sort of like not noticing someone's new haircut or glasses... yes, it is as simple as that.

A New Chapter in the South: Barack Obama

photo credit: Getty Images
CHARLES BABINGTON writes:

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Democrat Barack Obama said Sunday that his landslide win in South Carolina's presidential primary marks a turn in political history, showing that a black candidate can appeal to voters of all colors and in all regions.

The Illinois senator told a raucous crowd of more than 9,000 here that his big victory Saturday disproved the old notion "that if you get black votes, you can't get white votes," and vice versa.

"We're going to write a new chapter in the South, we're going to write a new chapter in American history," he said during his 64-minute speech to a capacity crowd at the University of Alabama at Birmingham basketball arena. The crowd was roughly two-thirds black and one-third white.

South Carolina Voters Will Look Beyond Race to the Issues

photo credit: Patrick Collard




JEFF ZELENY and JULIE BOSMAN write:

Voting took place against a backdrop of intense racial discussions. One poignant reminder of South Carolina’s historic racial divide, the Confederate flag, was swaying in the cool breeze on Saturday only a few yards from where supporters waved placards for Mr. Obama, who would become the nation’s first black president.

Some of Mr. Obama’s strategists worried that the discussions on race could influence the outcome here on Saturday and drive some white voters away from Mr. Obama’s candidacy, boosting the efforts of Mr. Edwards or Mrs. Clinton.

Rick Wade, a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, disagreed with the suggestion that support from white voters had decreased or that race would be a deciding factor in the primary’s outcome.

“At the end of the day, I believe that South Carolinians are going to look beyond the rhetoric and the conversations taking place and are more concerned about issues,” Mr. Wade said. “You have to build a broad coalition. It’s the only way you can win in this state.”

I couldn't agree more. Most people, despite the confederate flag on the statehouse grounds, are not as concerned with Barack's race as they are with their pocketbooks and the cost of gasoline, healthcare, and food.

Why Barack? 'The Color of My Skin, I Guess'

Photo Credit: Stephen Morton
SHAILA DEWAN writes from Orangeburg, SC:

On Thursday, on a dirt road near the small town of Bowman, Townsend Pelzer sat in his truck with his two lap dogs while his beagle chased rabbits in the woods. Mr. Pelzer, 83 and black, a retired maintenance worker for the state highway patrol, said he was going to vote for Mr. Obama.

Asked why, Mr. Pelzer shrugged, smiled and pointed to his face, saying, “Color of my skin, I guess.”

Scott Mattingly, 22, a white economics teacher at a virtually all-white private school in Bowman, said that many of his fellow volunteers at the Obama campaign office were “ignorant of the issues and are far more excited about the concept of a black leader.”

Although it makes perfect sense that Mr. Pelzer, at 83, would vote for Barack because their skin colors match, it makes less sense to me that volunteers at Barack's headquarters would be ignorant of the issues.

Earl Hutchinson Claims Race Is Always An Issue in Presidential Politics

JAMIE RENO writes:

...racial issues are starting to simmer along the campaign trail, and the flames could be turned up as the pols head deeper into the Southern and Southwestern states. The candidates quickly tried to tone down any discussion of race and gender, but political analyst and author Earl Hutchinson, whose latest book, "The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House," comes out next month, suggests that race is always an issue in presidential politics, be it covert or overt, and that there's a much more significant racial subtext to the current race than many may realize.

Hutchinson, who believes the shortage of white votes for Barack Obama in Nevada is more indicative of what will happen in the fall than the support he got from whites in Iowa, cites the "Bradley Effect," the label for the alleged penchant of many white voters to lie to pollsters when they tell them that race isn't a consideration when they vote. The term derives from the 1982 election involving former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, which showed that a smaller percentage of white voters actually voted for Bradley, an African-American, than had said they planned to vote for him.

Hutchinson believes this effect is even more pronounced among Hispanics. He writes at length in his new book that the tensions in this country between blacks and Latinos are alive and well.

Mr. Hutchinson's hypothesis that white voters lie to pollsters about the race of a candidate not being an issue is disturbing. I imagine the voter is actually lying to him or herself rather than to the pollster. Knowing oneself is a challenge, as is recognizing one's own prejudices or outright bigotries. Still, I hope Mr. Hutchinson is wrong.

A Record Turnout Predicted in South Carolina Democratic Primary

Associated Press reports:

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Democrats headed to the polls in South Carolina Saturday in an unusual contest that pitted Barack Obama against two Clintons. Race was a persistent subtext in the first primary to feature a large number of black voters.

So, now Barack is running against two Clintons, presumably Hillary and Bill. Not only that, but the press is again stating that this Democratic primary race is about race and gender.

South Carolina became a "must win" state for Obama, whose momentum from his victory in the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3 began to fade after he lost contests in Nevada and New Hampshire to Hillary Clinton. A victory could help reinforce Obama's co-frontrunner status with Clinton, while a loss would severely imperil his candidacy.

So, now Barack has lost momentum and must win South Carolina or, sheesh, he'll be out of the running for the presidency.

Polls showed Obama favored to win the state in large part due to his strong support among black voters, who are expected to comprise more than 50 percent of the electorate. The Illinois senator is running to be the first black president.

No kidding. But, don't forget that white voters support Barack, too.

The state Democratic Party chairwoman, Carol Fowler, predicted a record turnout.
Obama has made a direct appeal to blacks here after rarely mentioning race throughout the campaign. He'll continue that strategy going forward.

Of Course! Black Female Voters in South Carolina Will Vote the Issues

Holly Walker, a professor at the University of South Carolina, writes eloquently on why African-American women will vote on the issues to decide between Hillary and Barack, not on the fact that one is a white woman and the other a black man

Black Voters Are Realizing Whites Will Vote For Barack Obama

Voice of America's JEFF SWICORD writes:

Scott Huffman is a professor of southern politics at Winthrop University in Rock Hill South Carolina. He says race and gender will play a significant role on primary day. "African-Americans make up about 30 percent of South Carolina's overall population but they will make up to about 50 percent of the Democratic primary vote on election day."

Early opinion polls show Senator Hillary Clinton had a significant lead in South Carolina prior to the Iowa caucuses. Both she and husband, former President Bill Clinton, have strong ties to African-American leaders across the country.

Professor Huffman says African-American support began to change in South Carolina when Senator Barack Obama won Iowa, a state with a 2.5 percent black population. "The black voters in South Carolina realized white voters will vote for Barack Obama. That caused a trickle of soft supporters of Hillary Clinton to begin moving over to Barack Obama. And his lead in the African-American community has been growing ever since."

The Spat Over Race: Barack and Hillary

RON FOURNIER writes:

As for Obama and Clinton, racially tinged remarks were slipped into their stump speeches like so many stale bread crumbs. On Friday, the New York senator praised New York Rep. Charles Rangel as a man who rise to power without "leapfrogging" — a term that any thinking member of her predominantly black audience understood to apply to the precocious Obama.

The Illinois senator, following a strategic template that his top adviser, David Axelrod, has deployed to elect other young black politicians, waited until as late as possible in the campaign to start overtly identifying with the black community. He did so in South Carolina, where blacks make up half or more of the Democratic electorate.

"I need you to grab Cousin Pookie to vote," Obama said, playfully breaking out the black vernacular in Kingstree, S.C., on Thursday. "I need you to get Ray-Ray to vote."

David Smith, 36, a black voter backing Obama, shook his head in disgust as he discussed the spat over race while awaiting for Obama to speak in Sumpter, S.C.

"They both ought to knock it off," he said of Obama and Clinton. "It's not becoming of a past or future president."

A black man who identified himself as a pastor told Bill Clinton at an event in Kingstree, S.C., that black voters should rally behind his wife to keep Republicans out of the White House. Of white Americans, he said: "They're not ready for a black president."

Several black audience members nodded and said, "That's right."

"I have to tell you I hope you're not right," Bill Clinton responded.