Are Americans Ready For A Black President?
One of the key questions about Barack Obama’s candidacy for the presidency is whether Americans are willing to elect a black man (or woman) to the highest office in the land. The issue is racism and just how deep and wide it runs through the nation’s electorate. Is it so widespread that no African-American can be elected, ever, or have Americans progressed to the point that the majority of voters would vote for a black candidate.
“A recent Gallup poll reveals that Americans are much more likely to elect a black man or a woman president than a Mormon or an old man.” The poll found that 94% of the voters surveyed would vote for a black candidate and 88% said they would vote for a woman. (outsidethebeltway.com, February 20, 2007). The question is, how reliable is such a survey? Most observers speculate that many people do not answer truthfully when they are asked if they would vote for a black candidate because they don’t want to be seen as prejudiced.
Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson both ran for president, and although they were probably motivated by reasons other than an expectation that they could win, they at least showed that it is possible for an African-American to seek the office. As distasteful and these two may be to many people, my sense is that Barrack Obama is benefiting from their trailblazing efforts, whatever their motivations.
I’m also reminded of the overwhelming support for Colin Powell as a potential Republican candidate to run against Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential election. Powell’s highly successful leadership of coalition forces during the Gulf War paved the way for him to run for president if he chose to do so. Although he declined, I am firmly convinced he could have won.
The flip side of the white vote is black solidarity at the polls. Although blacks are only about 13% of the U.S. population, they often vote as a block, which enables them to influence the outcome of certain elections, in spite of their minority status, especially in regional or local political contests. Ralph Brauer, author of “The Strange Death of Liberal America,” notes: “The African American candidates who have attained higher office all follow a similar pattern – they come from states that have significant numbers of African Americans, mostly in large cities such as Chicago or Boston, Illinois accounts for 40% of our African-American Senators and two-thirds since Reconstruction.”
Richard Thompson Ford, Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, recently observed, “Defeatists insist Obama cannot win because the average American will never be able to let go of racial prejudice. Yet he somehow speaks to overflowing houses, packed with enthusiastic voters from the American heartland.”
I don’t agree that the average American voter is as prejudiced as the “defeatists” claim, that they will be unable to “let go of racial prejudice” in the voting booth. Thomas Sowell, a highly regarded economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, who also happens to be African-American, commented: “No doubt it is only a matter of time before there is a black president…The issue is whether we want to reach that landmark so badly that we are willing to overlook how questionably that landmark is reached.”
If Barack Obama doesn’t win the general election, it won’t be because of white prejudice, it will be because of his qualifications, or lack thereof, and his policies. The nation is ready for a black president. It just may not be this candidate.
© 2008 Harris R. Sherline, All Rights Reserved
GUEST COMMENTARY
Hackneyed Hollywood
By Allan Erickson
If McCain is elected President, Susan Sarandon says she is moving to Canada,
or Italy, as if anyone cares. Susan is quick to add she has faith in the
American people (to vote in Obama) so she isn’t making any specific moving
plans.
Logic is a foreign concept to many people in Hollywood, but here goes
anyway. The mantra from the Left these days is: Bush is McCain, McCain is
Bush, Bush is McCain—Ohum.
If the American people voted Bush into the White House twice, why does Susan
have faith they will vote against McCain?
Perhaps she thinks people are sick of Bush and will be sick of McCain.
Maybe she thinks most people are so stupid they’ll not differentiate between
Bush and McCain. ‘I have faith the American people are sick and stupid.’
It could be Susan thinks the majority of Americans no longer care about
sovereignty and security and freedom and capitalism, that they’ve become,
overnight, amoral socialist hammerheads, like her.
‘I have faith the American people are sick, stupid, apathetic hammerheads.’
Maybe Susan has faith in the rest of us because she thinks we’ve come to
believe Bush stole both the 2000 and 2004 elections and it’s Republican
payback time.
(You know, for such a dumb guy, Bush was clever enough to beat legions of
Democrats to the punch, over and over, year and year.)
Perhaps Susan thinks Obama is such an obvious preference, even the moronic
masses will perceive and vote accordingly.
We sincerely hope Susan’s illogical faith somehow keeps her residing here in
the good ol’ USA, because if Obama is elected, and the Dems dominate the
Congress, we will demand tax increases on the rich, and most certainly, the
Dems will oblige, and Susan needs to be here to pay more than her fair
share. (You know, and we all know, Tim will squirrel away sufficient funds
offshore, far from the prying eyes of the IRS. They can then make the
sacrifice without sacrificing a thing!)
What is it about Hollywood people?
Do they take themselves so seriously they really believe the rest of us care
what they think, where they live, what they’ll do next week?
Are Hollywood folk so self-absorbed and out of touch they really think other
people lend them credence? Yup.
Remember in years gone by the likes of Smart-Alec Baldwin, Blah-Blah
Streisand, Robert Ego-Altman, Cher No Underwear, and Pierre Salinger all
promising an exit stage Left if Bush got elected.
Only Salinger kept his promise.
These people can’t even keep one promise, yet they insist they’re morally,
intellectually, politically and socially superior than all those bone-headed
fans who made them rich and famous in the first place.
If the American people do vote for McCain, what will we hear from Susan?
“Let the sick, stupid, lazy, malcontents eat cake!” (Nothing personal.)
Who Said It?
The following quotations don’t really need