On The Other Side Of The Aisle
The last post looked at an analysis of the likely Republican candidates for president in 2008. The Washington Post balanced that op-ed with one looking at the two presumptive front-runners in the Democratic party. Benjamin Wallace-Wells looks at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but really frames the entire thing in terms of racism and sexism. In other words, is America ready for a black candidate or a woman?
Their candidacies — coming after elections resulting in the presumed first female speaker of the House and the second black governor since Reconstruction — suggest that the next elections may play in ways that are more cultural and symbolic than tactical and political. Are Americans ready to put a black man or a woman in charge of the country? And does the hefty symbolism that Obama and Clinton would bring help one of them more than the other — in other words, is the country more racist or more sexist?
Democracies are awkward like this. Despite incessant polling, we really get only one moment every two years, at best, to measure how Americans feel about things, and these elections must stand as imperfect proxies for a mess of subjects: what we think about religion, whether we like being included in the international conversation, whether Northeast bluebloods would tolerate a Texan as their leader.
But when it comes to race and sex, this seems a slightly more legitimate game: The question that remains for black Americans and women isn't whether prejudice has diffused to the point that they can participate in the United States, it's whether they can legitimately hope to lead it.
Today, they may have reasons to be optimistic. Poll numbers for Clinton and Obama are among the strongest of any presidential hopefuls. It now seems nearly as common for political leaders in television shows and movies to be women or racial minorities as white men. Recent polls have found that the percentages of Americans who say they would not vote for a hypothetical black or female presidential candidate, long formidable, have dwindled into the single digits. And last Tuesday's elections put House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on the brink of becoming speaker and Democrat Deval Patrick, who is black, in the Massachusetts governorship.
Oddly, the author admits that the strongest contender to overcome any of these supposed biases is Condoleezza Rice, so I am not exactly how much of an issue this really will be in an election. This is almost more like setting up a storyline for why either of these two candidates may fail in the future. It makes no mention at all of the many other factors that will come into play as the campaigns progress.
By Arlo, Sunday, 12 November , 2006 @ 7:34 am
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton can’t make it through the primaries. The only place Hillary could get nominated for the Senate was New York and they had to clear the field for her to do that.
By MinorRipper, Sunday, 12 November , 2006 @ 6:45 pm
I think the 2008 election is the Democrats to lose UNLESS they nominate Hillary, who as we all know is toxic to about 50% of the electorate. It’s surprising that Al Gore is flying so quietly under everyone’s radar: He’s the guy who will ultimately stop the Hillary express. He was shafted in 2000, was right on Iraq, has the experience, and has been a true visionary and leader on the environment.
http://www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com
By mokus, Sunday, 12 November , 2006 @ 7:39 pm
AlGore is also the same guy who couldn’t carry his home state of Tennessee in 2000. That’s what cost him the White House, and contrary to your statement above, AlGore’s got a problem seeing himself.
Remember his “no controlling legal authority” excuse for violating fund raising regulations, or his ridiculous claim to have invented the Internet? Or, how about his whopper that “Love Story” was about him?
Now, I’ll grant you he’s got a heck of an imagination, but vision isn’t his strong suit. He’s the guy who went to a fund raiser in LA, raised a lot of cash while there, and later claimed he didn’t know the event was a fund raiser. That sound like a guy who can see beyond his own self-interest?
Here we have a career politician, son of a career politician, claiming he traveled across the country to attend a fund raising event and doesn’t know he’s at an event designed to raise funds. Now, that’s about as believable as a truck driver trying to tell you he doesn’t know what gas stations are for.
As for him getting shafted, Hillary did that to him for 8 years while she was second banana in Bill Clinton’s administration, and AlGore took it, like a little whipped dog.
Besides, didn’t you know that global warming is just a bunch of hot air?
By BubbaB, Monday, 13 November , 2006 @ 1:46 pm
Condi in ‘08!