excuse me, governor…
by Tom Carey
Published: February 29, 2008
As a native Pennsylvanian and a guy who’s dwelled just outside the city of Brotherly Love his entire life, I have always respected and been proud that Ed Rendell was my governor. In the current campaign, Rendell backs Hillary Clinton and polls in the state show that she indeed has a wide margin of support among Pennsylvania Democrats over Barack Obama. Just one week ago in a interview with the editorial board of the Pittsburg Post Gazette (a paper which repeatedly hounded Senator Rick Santorum, who was substantially voted out of office last fall by voters who finally rediscovered their powers of reason), Rendell stated that “You’ve got some conservatives, and I think that there are some whites, who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate.”
Before diving into the subplot around which Rendell’s comment revolves, let’s consider the current political landscape. In the coming weeks, Hillary must win significantly in Texas, Ohio and finally… PENNSYLVANIA! How shocking that the governor feels he needs to second guess Obama’s viability among white voters, a tactic that backfired on the Clinton’s in South Carolina. In a poor attempt to play the race card and drum up support for the so-called “Bradley Effect” (an electoral phenomenon wherein white voters claim racial impartiality to the pollsters but cast a different vote on election day), Rendell is trying to muddy the waters and place doubt in the minds of Pennsylvania voters.
Yet despite the despicable ploy, evidence suggests that Obama, indeed, is overcoming the racial divide in American politics. He has won the white vote by increasingly substantial margins with nearly each contest. In Virginia, a clearly southern state, Obama cleanly split the white vote with Clinton and won a majority of white men. Obama has now truly consolidated the African-American vote (he won 90% of it in Virginia) and it seems that his ability to capture the votes of white men and women is improving with each primary and caucus.
To the governor of my state, a respectable public servant who’s done a lot of good:
Put a sock in it!
I know that you work for the Clinton’s, but that doesn’t mean you need to be their hatchet man. If turning this campaign again towards race is the best strategy that Bill and Hill can think of, they need to think again. The fact is that the nominating battle will not be won over race; it will be won over ideas. Who has the best ideas and who can inspire Americans to roll up their sleeves and restore American greatness? The answer surely is not the candidate whose supporters raise the divisive issue of race. Such attempts have been soundly rejected by voters across the country and Pennsylvania will be no different.
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