Obama's candidacy is transforming how Americans view themselves and others and challenging us to redefine our sense of what is presidential. Obama is clearly inspiring black Americans, 80% of whom vote for him. This is an incredibly positive thing. So why do we uphold the myth that Obama 'transcends' race?

It is a tool of persuasion aimed at white voters who want to believe that they can transcend racism. It's also a way of casting doubt and shame on white women who support Hillary. It's not evil, but neither is it an honest approach to the race and gender issues in this campaign.

Dickerson, the MSNBC crew and many other journalists have abused race in order to tear down Hillary Clinton's campaign.

If Clinton is Tracy Flick, is Dickerson Jim McAllister? Maybe it's not such a bad analogy after all.

lol @ sour grapes. Good analogy re: Jim McAllister though.

I agree. It is not Hillary Clinton who played the race card. It is the media that used the Bradley Effect logic to expalain the Obama loss in New Hampshire. They had prepared the Hillary obituary and were disappointed when they had to dump it. Remember the Zogby poll that predicted a Obama win in California by ten points.

Every word Hillary & Bill Clinton said have been analyzed ad nauseum. I have been watching the primaries in South Carolina for decades. Nobody talked about the African American makeup of the electrorate until this year. It is a tragedy that the media trashes Hillary like this.

Where are the sour grapes?

The democratic nomination is still prized, and Hillary supporters still hope she gets it.

Hillary didn't have to play the race card. Bill did it for her. *He* was the one who, in South Carolina, downplayed expectations by pointing out there was a large black population. ln the odious political mind of a Clinton, there's no such thing as a citizen; just a colored body that will vote with the rest of its block. They're disgusting.

Haven't you been reading the press? Obama is going to win! lol

And I'll support Obama if he does.

I won't stop criticizing bad journalism, though.

OH PUH-LEEZE.

America is only 12% African American. There are even more Latinos in America than blacks, and you're trying to say that 80% of these 12% is the reason why he's winning these states by overwhelming margins? Wake up and do the math.

At my school, which is predominantly white, everyone voted for Obama. Also there is the phenomena of Obama Republicans (traditional) that registered as democrats so that they can vote in the MD primary for Obama. My friends have whole families united towards voting for one candidate (Obama), which has never happened before. They happen to be white.

My point is that Obama does transcend race, and it's dangerous that people are begining to believe the media rhetoric that it's the black vote that has brought Obama this far. HOGWASH to the 1000th power.

If you actually read the above posts, you'd realize that no one's saying Obama will win because of the black vote.

Yeah, it's a good thing Obama got all those black votes in Iowa and Washington State. . . Oh wait.

Check the exit polls for the Potomac Primary. Obama is now beating Hillary among both Latinos and Whites now. If he wins Wisconsin (which he probably will - again, a hugely white state) and either Ohio or Texas, it's over.

I agree, analysis is spot on.

Although I don't think Obama's winning just because of the black vote, it should be pointed out the the percentage of black folks in Virginia, Maryland, and DC is (sometimes much) higher than the national average. In VA it's over 20&, In MD it's closer to 30%, and in DC it's over 60%.

The opposite is also true. Obama has won in states that have a percentage of black voters that is lower than the national average (IA, ME, WA). The Clinton's tried to minimize Obama's wins by saying he's only winning in high minority states. That was a stupid strategy from a campaign that started this race believing that they had a lock on the minority vote. Remember the polls last year that said Obama's biggest problem was that he wasn't "black enough"? That Hillary had MORE support from black voters?

You've completely missed the point of this post.

It's also a way of casting doubt and shame on white women who support Hillary.

Are you kidding me? I'm a white woman, and I've heard nothing but "women: you *better* support Hillary!" coming from her supporters. Like I'm supposed to be ashamed for supporting Obama. Good thing I'm not.

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