Fifth Decade

Have you noticed how in the US you sometimes find Black Americans complaining that “Yes, there will be some racism with some white people not voting for Barack Obama” while at the same time they completely miss the fact that they themselves as a group are voting almost overwhelmingly along racial lines and avoiding voting for Hillary Clinton?

If you look at any breakdown of voting in the Democratic Primaries, you’ll see that the Black vote goes en masse to Obama, the white vote and the female vote are more evenly split between the two candidates. In North Carolina for instance, the Black vote went with Obama 9 to 1; the non-Black vote went 58% to Hillary.

Now, is that comment from a Black politician about racism in white voters hypocrisy or racism itself?

Democrat’s are in an unenviable position right now. Two excellent candidates, either one of which would make a great President. But both pretty equally matched in the delegate hunt right now. So, which one do voters like the best?

But perhaps the question really should be which one is most likely to win against the Republican nominee?

Currently, it seems Obama gets about 80% of the African-American vote, which gives him a significant advantage in the Democrat Primaries as African Americans are more highly represented in this Party than in the country at large. Most African-Americans vote Democrat. But Nationally, across the US they only make up 18% of the entire vote. This creates a challenge.

The Democrat nominee will need to appeal to more than just their special interest group to get elected when confronting the GOP and the supporters of John McCain. Voting for Obama may be counter-productive in the race for the White House. In the Primaries, his African-American supporters give him an advantage that will be much diluted in the National Vote. And rumour has it that Evangelicals (who usually vote Republican) are voting in Democrat Primaries to skew the results to favour a Republican win next time - making it a two stage election process: Round 1, make sure you get the weakest National candidate elected; Round 2 when the election proper arrives, switch back to your natural party and win.

If you don’t believe me, look at Ohio. This State is supposed to be representative of the wider country, and here Clinton beat Obama 60 to 40. That should send out a few alarm bells. Obama may be the best at winning the Primaries, but may be the worst bet to win the Presidency. And that could let the Republicans in - again.

Does any Democrat supporter seriously want that?