good diary, but i suspect that you are going to get flamed because when people on the other side bring up racial voting patterns on the other side they get called racists.

...but if we can't deal with it directly, we'll deal with it indirectly by marching forth with Obama as our nominee. A lot of people will have to come to terms with their prejudices between now and November. We can't control the conclusions they reach, but we can keep pushing our nominee toward the White House.

We always have to deal with tribalism and fear of the "other" no matter who or what that other represents.  

I know it sounds silly, but I think that the show "24" did a great favor to the country when they credibly and seriously depicted a black man as the president.  There have been other depictions of a female president, but I don't think they have occurred in a dramatic setting that transmits quite the same gravity as 24 (which is unfortunate, because I believe that would have helped Hillary even more.

I say it sounds silly, but I don't think that it really is silly.  Culture comes at us full bore through our television sets and consciously or unconsciously we become more open to the realities they depict.  Once we become emotionally involved, even on a vicarious level with the gay couple, the  Iraqi castaway, the black president, the mixed race couple, we gain a measure of empathy that might not have previously existed.

I think all the people who gleefully pilloried Geraldine Ferraro pretty much sacrificed their right to say "hey, let's have a reasonable discussion about race."

As for the 3 or 4 Obama supporters who didn't participate in that particular hatefest, if someone will introduce me to them, I'm sure we could have a very productive conversation.

I once heard a young boy say he couldn't be president because that's what white people do.

I began this primary season thinking it was really important we elect a person of color so that young children can look up and dream that they, too can be president.

Obama was my candidate. But then.

But then I learned he pressed the wrong button 6 times in the Illinois legislature. I learned at the Harvard Law Review he took few stands, and tried to be all things to all sides. He was the first Harvard Law Review Editor to not publish a single paper, so the next year the Review established a rule requiring each Editor do so. I learned he hadn't done his homework on a lot of issues, in fact on most of them. I listened to why he didn't want health insurance mandates in his health care plan and his answer was they are a good idea, but it was too hard to get them passed in congress. (No, we can't?) I learned the Nuclear Industry lobbyists were able to visit his office and water down his bill to the point that Obama a DEMOCRAT said oversight reporting should be VOLUNTARY. I heard him say Social Security is "in crisis" which set off alarm bells.

And I read about people who'd worked with or known Hillary for years and years and vouched for her character. I learned people who knew both Clintons actually liked her better in person. I saw she was so so solid in every debate performance, in every townhall she answered questions off-the-cuff and she was simply dazzling. I leanred New Yorkers who were initially skeptical were now simply crazy about her, she had delivered for them so well.

And I saw her in that little white dress and mary jane shoes in that 1950 photo and realized that girls, too do not think they can be president because "that's what boys do." In fact nobody even asks little girls if they want to be president someday. And a woman like Hillary would not come along again in my lifetime.

I think racism built this country...its only fitting that racism destroy it..ie nominating McCain who will only hammer the last nail in our national coffin..