There is quite a fire-storm over Hillary's comments about "white Americans". I think my opinion is much different than many here. To put it simply:
"Like a fish out of water, she is flopping around. Don't poke at her. Don't get enraged. Don't take it personally. Simply wait it out and she will stop."
Unlike many here, I don't think her comments were pre-meditated race baiting. Instead, I think it was something much more simple: she is trying grasping for any straw, any demographic possible that could give her a compelling case for the nomination. A small silver of the voting population, namely white families in the lower-middle and middle-middle class, have shown favor to her. She is simply trying to elevate this group above all others and increase its importance. Her desperation came out as race baiting. If the black working class favored her, that would be the group that she was promoting. She is not, nor has she ever been, racist. She is simply 100% pro-Hillary. If the black population favored her by nine to one margins, and she was struggling with the "white working class vote", she would be talking about the essential need of the black vote and "her breadth of support" with these people.
Instead of playing into this divisive politics, lets rise above it. My parents fit neatly into the "white working class" bin, yet I convinced them to vote for Obama. I'm probably what Begala would call an egghead, but that doesn't invalidate my vote. The politics of division must stop -- each of us are more than a simple demographic. (My apologies to the soccer moms...)
Obama and his supporters will be judged in the general election by the way they treated Hillary and her supporters in the coming days and weeks. Instead of feeling angry by her remarks, rise above them. Let's each find a Hillary supporter and, on their terms and in their time, convince them that Obama is great hope for this race.
I was at a dinner party with a Hillary supporter last week, who said to me she worried that Barrack couldn't win the white working class voters in the key swing states. Instead of getting mad, Obama supporters need to address the facts:
- Obama expands the map. Colorado and Virginia (in addition to other mountain states, North Carolina, etc.) may now be in play. Ohio and Florida are not necessarily the eternal swing states.
- Those "white working class" voters have to go somewhere. If Hillary is their first choice, but she is not the nominee, they can either vote for Obama, vote for McCain, or stay home. If they prefer Hillary and say they'd vote for McCain over Obama, they may simply be posturing. I know for a fact if a pollster called me asking if I'd choose Hillary or McCain, I would probably choose McCain. Come the actual election, there is no way in hell I'd vote for old "Bom-bom-bom-Iran."
The point of this semi-coherent rambling is that we should ignore this posturing and move on. Instead of Hillary-hating, let's focus our energy on the great the Obama can do. I, for one, have been compiling a list of on-the-fence friends and family who will be getting the full-court press to vote for Obama this fall.
Take your anger with Hillary's remarks...
Take your impatience with this never-ending primary...
Take your deepest desire to Obama elected...
...and turn it into something positive. Take the time to convert a Hillary supporter.
Yes we can!