Full results here. It’s generally good news. He leads Clinton by 1o percentage points among Democratic primary voters, and beats McCain by 6 points in a hypothetical general election match up.
Despite the best efforts of Fox News to yet again distract from the issues, the Wright videos seem to have little impact on Obama’s support. This is because his response to the controversy was applauded by his supporters, and even won a favorable response from a significant number of those backing Clinton and McCain. This is good news, a milestone even. It shows that we might finally be getting past the gotcha-soundbyte politics epitomized by Fox News and the boorish talk radio subculture– a subculture that has dominated US politics since at least the mid 1990s. Could this herald the return of substance? Will politicians be once again admired for quoting Aeschylus? Maybe I’m being a little too optimistic here!
But there is a darker side to the poll results. Unfortunately, the race issue is not going away, which I think explains his low levels of support among older people, and among Asians and Hispanics:
“..Certain social beliefs and attitudes among older, white, working-class Democratic voters are associated with his lower levels of support among this group. In particular, white Democrats who hold unfavorable views of Obama are much more likely than those who have favorable opinions of him to say that equal rights for minorities have been pushed too far; they also are more likely to disapprove of interracial dating, and are more concerned about the threat that immigrants may pose to American values. In addition, nearly a quarter of white Democrats (23%) who hold a negative view of Obama believe he is a Muslim.”
I don’t know how Obama is going to overcome this lingering prejudice from an older generation, the generation that responded so well to Willy Horton and welfare queen provocations. But it’s clear that he needs to build his credibility with the white working class Democrats. How can be do that? Well, how about picking this guy as his vice president? A long shot, perhaps, but this whole campaign is based on hope!
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