This load of spin and pushing for a fight between Obama and Hillary by the media (lead by MSNBC) and the related narrative that Obama is not a fighter, doesn't want it, yada yada blah.....
Does not see the bigger picture. Yes, I am an Obama supporter but there is polling under the surface that points to the correct strategy to not fight with Hillary. I also think it is the righteous thing to do but lets focus on strategy and some interesting poll numbers.
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Despite the fact that the frontrunners in the Democratic Party are a woman and an African-American, 60% of voters believe that the Democrats will end up nominating a white male as their Presidential candidate in 2008.
This is a bizarre but historically understandable metric.
Obama's job is to end the campaigns of the white males. (Please don't take this as a race issue, although it might be.) He has to show to the 60% that Edwards, Biden, Dodd and even the not running Gore are not viable candidates.
Matthews keeps yelling that Obama has to move out of the way so Edwards can take second and take on Hillary. That is silly. He is camped out until it is a two person race. He won't have to do anything to draw distinctions between the two because you would have to be without a brain to not see the differences.
Hillary's support is capped. Obama is taking his time sucking the life out of all the other campaigns.
Update: I dug up another source from Zogby
Pollster John Zogby said, "Over my years of polling, I’ve learned that Americans tend to offer socially acceptable responses when questioned on their own views about race and prejudice. That’s why in this poll we predominantly asked people about "most Americans’" views on race and prejudice. We believe this provides a far more accurate window into how people really think about these issues. Americans are more forthcoming when discussing the problem in the context of their neighbors’ lives than in the context of their own lives."
In a report titled the Racist Lives Next Door
While 67% of respondents claimed to have no preference themselves between a white, black or Arab clerk in a convenience store, 71% said, "most Americans" would seek out the white clerk. Just 1% said Americans’ first choice would be to approach a black clerk, while less than 0.5% said the same for an Arab clerk. And yet, ironically, 55% of respondents said race relations have improved over the past 10 years. Other results on race (where respondents picked from among several races):
With along with other polls I have seen are all consistent. While the respondent would vote for a woman or a minority, they don't believe their neighbor would. This ultimately makes them less likely to actually vote for said minority because of the elect ability issue. Polls and scholarly research on survey theory shows this time and again.