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28 Aug 2008 05:44 pm
How Race Matters
A shrewd essay by John B. Judis. Money quote:
Stanley Greenberg and Democracy Corps make a similar mistake in what is otherwise a brilliant study
of how voters in Macomb County, a white working class area north of
Detroit, plan to vote this fall. Greenberg found Obama trailing McCain
by 46 to 39 percent in this bellwether county, which Bill Clinton won
in 1996 and John Kerry lost in 2004. Greenberg found that a third of
Macomb voters were worried that Obama "will put the interests of black
Americans ahead of other Americans," but concluded that Macomb's voters
"do not seem to be voting predominately on race." Instead, he contended
that Macomb voters are more worried about Obama raising taxes.
Concerns
about Obama's race and his being a tax-and-spend liberal, however, are
intricately related. Psychological studies showing that white voters
will judge a black candidate to be less competent also show that they
will judge a black candidate with the same views as a white one to be
less moderate and more leftwing. Worries about race reinforce worries
about taxing and spending.
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