by Bud White
Recent polls show that approximately 30% of Hillary voters could defect to McCain if Obama is the nominee. That such a large swath of Democratic voters might defect should be disconcerting to superdelegates, to say the least. I've been reflecting for several weeks on my own unease with Obama, a man who was once my second choice for president.
Last month I attended a Passover dinner and the conversation predictably turned to politics. (For those who don't know, a Passover Seder is perhaps the first liberation theology ceremony, celebrating the Jewish people's Exodus from slavery in Egypt).
One of my dinner companions was a computer salesman from New Jersey and an avid Obama supporter. I told him that Obama's (largely) successful effort to paint the Clintons as racists had me doubting if I could vote for him if he were the nominee. He responded by saying that it was good politics and showed that Obama was willing to do whatever it took to win.
His acknowledging that Obama has been playing racial politics has me rethinking the idea of a racial dog-whistle, the notion that only African Americans, for example, understand that when Obama says "hoodwink, okie-doke, bamboozled," he means that the Clintons are treating them like fools, attempting to undermine the Clintons' hard-earned reputations as advocates for all Americans.
Most Americans who are paying attention, I suggest, understand Obama's use of race. Obama's problems with Bitter-gate and Rev. Wright underscore that Obama is not the uniter he claims to be, but rather a shrewd practitioner of identity politics.
I think most Americans are more culturally literate and less racist than the neo-liberals think (and perhaps as some neo-liberals are), regardless of their income bracket. Hillary voters understand that Obama, in cahoots with the Obamablogs and much of the media, has been willing to do whatever it takes to derail Hillary, and this includes smearing the Clintons as racists.
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