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
Media Bias: Is It Real, Left or Right?
Is the media biased? If so, do they favor Liberals or Conservatives? Either way, what difference does it make?
Columnist Cal Thomas recently commented, “In the never-ending contest for the minds (and votes) of those who still bother to think and vote, the disagreement over which side has the greatest influence in the media goes on, seemingly without end…Liberals have many outlets for their ideas. They have the three broadcast networks, (plus) PBS, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, and most of the big newspapers. (Only one conservative columnist is employed and regularly carried by The New York Times and he rarely challenges that newspaper’s liberal social agenda.)” (Media Matters – Doesn’t, by Cal Thomas, September 20, 2007).
A 2004 Pew Research survey reported that “While most of the journalists, like many Americans, describe themselves as ‘moderate,’ a far higher number are ‘liberal’ than in the general population”: 34% liberal, 12% conservative. At Web sites: 27% call themselves liberal, 13% conservatives.” (E&P Staff, Pew Survey Finds Moderates, Liberals Dominate News Outlets, May 23, 2004).
Pew also found that, although most journalists in the survey consider themselves “moderate,” liberals at national outlets increased from 22% to 34%, “while conservatives have only inched up from 5% to 7%.”
Furthermore, a 2005 study by UCLA political scientists reported that media bias is real: “…of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center…Yet another finding that contradicted conventional wisdom relates to National Public Radio, often cited by conservatives as an egregious example of a liberal news outlet. But…it ranked eighth most liberal of the 20 that the study examined.” (UCLA News, Office of Media Relations, Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist, by Meg Sullivan, 12/14/2005).
In a recent interview, Brent Bozell III, founder and president of the Media Research Center, made the following observations (among others):
I’ve always believed that every reporter is biased. Every human being who hasn’t been lobotomized is biased. The problem isn’t bias. The problem is not acknowledging the bias that you have. The problem with most liberals in the media is that they make no effort whatsoever to keep their biases in check.
National surveys…acknowledge the bias they have.
Biases can be found in many ways. It begins with story selection – what is news? That’s a subjective call. It is the direction that the news story takes. It is the lead. It is the opening paragraph. It is the conclusion. It is the people interviewed…
(Brent Bozell’s Sense of Balance, By Bill Steigerwald, Townhall.com, March 23, 2007).
“Even the vocabulary of media coverage is biased. Whenever government passes new legislation, we are told that America has taken a major step ‘forward.’ When it repeals legislation, we moved ‘backward.’ And when Washington doesn’t churn out the latest ‘reform,’ it fails to make ‘progress.’” (The Liberal Media’s Misguided Hero-Worship, By Jonah Goldberg, Townhall.com, June 15, 2007).
In his book, Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, (Regnery) Bernard Goldberg, who was a correspondent for CBS News for 28 years, said: “Many of them (correspondents) don’t consider that they’re leaning in any political direction. They really think they are simply mainstream. There is no other side of the argument except what you hear from a few right-wing nut cases. In their world, mainstream conservatism doesn’t exist.” (newsmax.com, CBS’ Goldberg Exposes Leftist Media Bias, Dec 4, 2001).
A national survey commissioned by the Gannett media organization in 1992 revealed that members of the press voted for Bill Clinton over George Bush by 89% to 7% and that they consider themselves to be Democrats over Republicans by 50% to 14%. In addition, 61% acknowledge that they are liberal as opposed to 2% who say they are conservative. (nationalrevueonline, Are The Media Liberal, February 5, 2003)
Yes, the media is biased – and heavily to the left, but does it matter whether the media is biased left or right? The answer: it depends.
I agree that everyone has biases, so it boils down to how people, such as journalists, allow their personal views to influence their work. Brent Bozell also tells us that journalists should be primarily interested in searching for the truth.
When reportage is allowed to become opinion in the guise of news, the result is neither accurate nor believable. It’s becomes propaganda. The current trend in loss of readership by many of the major newspapers and TV networks provides strong evidence to support this. People are catching on and tuning out, and the numbers prove it.
As one wag put it, “The media, in general, is thought about as highly as Congress, lawyers, used car salesmen, liars, thieves and con men, with very few exceptions.”
Doesn’t leave much room for doubt, left or right, does it?
© 2007 Harris R. Sherline, All Rights Reserved