20 October 2008 - 14H09
Racist Democrats abandon Obama for McCain
Barack Obama's skin colour is turning small-town America Democrat voters towards his Republican rival, despite efforts from the Obama team to portray him as an average American.
The biracial, Hawaii-born Barack Obama is really "one of us," the presidential hopeful's backers are arguing as they sell the Democrat to the white heartland a fortnight from election day.
In the closing stretch of Obama's hard-fought election campaign against Republican John McCain, his camp is stepping up a charm offensive to woo doubters who may still see the Democrat as too exotic for the White House.
The marketing drive can appear strained at times, as when Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell tells blue-collar voters that even if they have racist tendencies, they should still back Obama for their own economic good.
National and state surveys have Obama in the driving seat at a time of financial crisis, but pollsters fret that white voters may not always be honest when they proclaim their readiness to vote for a black candidate.
Obama himself has always maintained that outright bigotry will not be culpable if he should lose the election on November 4. Rather, he says, it will be because voters do not sufficiently identify with his unusual background.
Virginia Senator Jim Webb, a "blue dog" conservative Democrat who wears his Scots-Irish heritage proudly, went to new lengths to belay the doubters when he introduced Obama at a rally in the state's rural southwest on Friday.
"We know Barack Obama's father was born in Kenya," he said in Roanoke, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Kentucky and West Virginia. Webb added: "Barack Obama's mother was born in Kansas, by way of Kentucky.
"We're going to see the election of the 14th president whose ancestry goes back to the mountain areas of this area," he said. "Barack Obama understands you. Barack Obama is like you. He knows what it's like to struggle."
Unlike any Democrat since John F. Kennedy, whose Catholicism was held in deep suspicion by voters in the Protestant heartland, Obama is campaigning as much to assuage doubts about his identity as about his policy orientation.
He's had his work cut out. His middle name is "Hussein." He is, according to a false smear campaign, a secret Muslim. And now, according to McCain, Obama is a "socialist" bent on unpicking the very roots of free-market democracy.
The McCain campaign has not attacked Obama directly in racial terms, with the Arizona senator ruling out attacks on the Democrat's fiery former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
There has, however, been a concerted attempt to cast the Democrat as an alien "other" -- a strange and rare beast who does not share the values of "Joe the Plumber," hockey moms and other incarnations of "regular" America.
McCain's running mate Sarah Palin has led the charge, exaggerating Obama's ties to former 1960s militant William Ayers to argue the Illinois senator "is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."
At the weekend, Palin and other Republicans began drawing a contrast between the "real" America in Republican-leaning parts of North Carolina and Virginia to another, presumably disloyal America.
That provoked a scornful riposte from former secretary of state Colin Powell, another African-American who overcame prejudice to reach the pinnacle of the armed forces and US government.
Fresh from winning Powell's coveted endorsement, Obama took issue with the evolving offensive from the self-proclaimed "pitbull" Palin as he campaigned Sunday near North Carolina's giant army base at Fort Bragg.
"There are no real or fake parts of this country. We are not separated by the pro-America and anti-America parts of this nation -- we all love this country, no matter where we live or where we come from," he said.
There are few places that embody the "heartland" more than Kansas City, Missouri, just over the border from Kansas itself. But 75,000 supporters turned out to hear Obama speak there late Saturday, after an earlier rally in St Louis that attracted a monster crowd of 100,000 -- his biggest US audience yet.
"He was raised by Kansas women," Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius said in Kansas City. "He knows those heartland values."
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Comments
Obama black and white issue
I am so tired of hearing this stuff if you are white you are racist, but this works both ways. I have worked with blacks who discriminate against whites. Trying being the only white person in an office with all blacks and see the harassment you receive. I have a friend who is bi-racial (white mother black father). The black family will have nothing to do with this child because he is light skinned. The daddy even ignores him. He has other children by other women and they are all black but the light skinned one is the one that they discriminate against. I asked my little friend if I could go to a party with him and his reponse at 7 years old no he says you have to be black or my color. By the way I am white. Blacks are voting for Obama because he is black! If you are liberal you vote Democrat if you are conservative you vote Republican how simple can it be.
Speculation
It seems that Obama not getting votes because he is black is sheer speculation with little evidence to support it. He attracts an amazing number of people to his campaign who are primarily white. Of course there are some fringe elements who may not vote for him because he is black but, there appears to be little of them and it is debatable as to whether they would vote at all.
It also appears that Mr. Obama's african heritage shields him to some extent from the typical stereotypes of US politicians. Polls routinely show voters think he understands or empathizes with them more than McCain does.
It is interesting to note that Republicans were quite comfortable with Bush appointing the first two black US secretaries of state (Powell being the first). So Mr. Obama shouldn't worry about his chances of picking off some republicans to vote for him.
Blame Lazy White People
The bottom line as we, white people, are 100% to blame for all the blacks in America and all the white racists to boot.
If all of our ancestors weren't such Lazy, Deadbeat, askholes we would have never needed to import human labor. Our lazy good for nothing forefathers fathers fathers should have got out into the fields themselves.
by the way
Barack Obama is not black, he is of mixed race. His mother was white and his father was black. Not that it should matter at all. The people in this video (and I am not even sure that they should be called 'people' more like pigs) are just ignorant and pathetic.
response
These people in no way represent white Americans, they are a small percentage. Honestly, I hope that WHEN Obama becomes our next president, all of these racists move to another country...who wants them though...no one. The most ridiculous thing is that they claim to be Democrats, but will give up all of thier ideals and vote against their own belief systems simply because of the shade of someone's skin. It is like shooting yourself in the foot. The world would indeed be a better place without them. Racists are just hateful disgusting ignorant people who want to blame their own problems on someone else.
Racism
That is the first time I have heard someone saying they are NOT voting for Obama because of his skin color. I have heard many times people saying they are voting for him BECAUSE he is black.
Why is it ok for Blacks to even use the N word.. and others not? Talk about Double Standard.
Disgusting
White people here in America should be ashamed of themselves. What a waste of flesh.
Racist America
Will Americans practice the very things they profess? This is what the world is waiting to see. If a minor issue as racism succeeds in tarnishing the reputation of the United States of America, it would be morally wrong and unjustified for the US to nose into the business of others.
Rednecks in Oklahoma
Half-witted, pot-bellied okies are as repulsive to me as the half-witted, drug-addicted ghetto youth (black) that used to live in my NYC neighbourhood, who attacked hard-working Mexican pizza delivery guys and workers. AMericans breed racists, black and white, particularly. I hope Oklahoma secedes from the Union along with Texas and the rest of the dullard South. Hmm...they should take the South Bronx with them. THAT would be a great melting pot!
May God protect Obama!
Comparing the USA to France is comparing Apples and Oranges
Where does this guy from Washington get off comparing France to the USA? The USA had a Black population before its independence in 1783, France on the other hand did not have a Black population till after World War II. So where exactly does the spurious argument of France treating its minorities badly come from? I guess the dude from Washington is trying to justify RACISM in the good old USA, by denigrating France. Please use some logic when comparing the USA to France, because it is a vain attempt in ocomparing Apples to Oranges. Sorry dude your argument does not hold water. So please give it a bye.
Obama the best
The point here is how ignorant people are. They dare call an African a "NIGGER" what if they call them "PIG" I think people should vote for who is qualified. Palin is the most ignorant politician I've never seen, if republicans win, We should make everything to keep Mc Cain alive
Obama/McCain
Do you guys hear laughter? How hypocritical Americans are. We are very ancious to see how the "almighty" USA handles racism.
Racist Democrat is a redundancy
You could have had just as much fun asking this bunch what they think of Republican President Abraham Lincoln. Why do you think they’re Democrats?
US Presidential Election 2008
The concern of potential US white voters not being candid regarding who they will vote for because of their preconceived ideas of race is over-rated. That case may of been true fifteen to twenty years ago but the vast majority of people do not have a problem with voicing who they will vote for regardless of the background of the presidential candidate. Even unfortunately if they are still prejudice in this day and age.
The only thing I could think of potentially is that if there is a chance for manipulating this particular election that case may be brought up as to the excuse for the skewed results of the polls as to the election itself. Obviously that would be worthy of an investigation and to the motivation of the people would of been involved.
Smears againt obama-fox news
apparently the guy at fox who has been pushing the obama is a muslim slurs has a previous history of making antisemitic slurs.
Even If McCain manages to win by relying on redneck voters in the South it will turn out to be a pyrric victory as America has moved on in the 40 years since the civil rights act was passed.
Your racist headline
What a load of bunk, the headline has little to do with the story. Truth is, you are looking to justify your own country's blatant racism against blacks from Africa and the Middle Aast, and so you poke the US. When will France have a prominent black politician? When will France's much vaunted, but little seen "equality" be allowed in the political or even business arena? Maybe if you started hiring some of your minorities for real jobs based on education, rather than on racial reasons such as if the people are "real Frenchmen" (meaning white and born from generations of white Frenchmen before them) your country could also be as democratic as our country. Maybe your headline writers could also manage a less biased headline? Take a look around in your newsrooms and tell me how many non-white faces you see?
Obama unqualified
Who wrote this biased, one-sided nonsense about Obama's impending loss being due to "racism"!? His personal ties to a '60s-era leftist domestic terrorist, Bill Ayres, who planned and carried out a terror bombing of the Pentagon, as well as a bombing of a New York City Police building in which police officers DIED, as well as the bombing of a U.S. federal judge's house at 4:00 in the morning in 1971 that targeted the judge AND HIS FAMILY are very much a legitimate issue in this presidential campaign! How many other presidential candidates in recent memory have had personal associates who were COP KILLERS? Add to that Obama's 20-year membership in a "church" on Chicago's South Side that featured the rabid hate-spewing rantings of an anti-American anti-Semite like "Reverend" Wright, and the fact that the million-dollar Hyde Park mansion Obama lives in was partially paid for by a convicted political bagman currently in federal prison, and yes, Obama's personal affiliations with the kind of scum he has been associated with for the past two decades DOES INDEED DISQUALIFY HIM TO BE PRESIDENT! How typical of a left-wing joke like France 24 to characterize the raising of these issues as "racism"!!
election and conferences
The only ones talking about colour are the european media.Palin and macain have lost,their have nothing construvctive ,so they revert to the losing white man principles ,race .considering most americans came from europe ,who wanted to escape the priveleged way of life which the miniority enjoyed.,thats why it is a great nation today,their remember the tosspots whites in europe.and they liberty and freedom is unequal in the western world.
But.....
The final statement that he will loose 6 points for skin color alone should have been balanced by the fact that thousands of African-Americans are registering to vote for the first time and most are voting for him based solely on his skin color...there was a France 24 article not long ago about how blacks in Harlem didn't even know what Obama stood for nor his running mate...they were voting for him because he is black. So I think that in the end the "6 points" he will loose will probably be balanced by the many votes he will gain for being black. Also, why would he be pushing himself as biracial in these last days when he has presented himself as black the entire campaign?