American voters proved earlier this year they’re not ready to elect a woman as president. They might prove in November that they’re not ready for a black president.
At least that’s the storyline we’ll hear if John McCain wins the presidential race. This forum featured a prediction of that storyline as early as May 2007.
Now Newsweek devotes a page to the topic “What If Obama Loses?” Typical of the story’s basic theme is this passage:
Racism, naturally, plays a part in the conversation. “I’ve never forgotten that he is a smart, articulate black man with a smart, articulate black wife,” says Linda Wright, 34, a nurse’s assistant from Houston. “You think white people were just going to turn over the keys to the most important job in the land without a fight?”
Beyond the fact that a major national political party ? including a lot of white people ? is pushing for Barack Obama’s election, Mrs. Wright’s comment completely ignores the importance of issues in presidential races.
Voters who would be perfectly happy to see a black president (I’m thinking of the conservatives who sweated through a summer rally to hear Michael Steele speak in Raleigh) might reject Obama because of his collectivist approach to particular political problems.
