In the past few primaries, pollsters have spliced the numbers so we could see to what extent white voters said race was an important factor in their vote. Below, the first number is the percent of white voters who said race was important; the second number is Obama’s margin of victory or defeat:
Oregon: 7% -- Obama +16
North Carolina: 8% -- Obama +14
Indiana: 10% -- Obama -2
Kentucky: 18% -- Obama -35
West Virginia: 21% -- Obama -41
The more white voters who think the candidate’s race matters, the better Clinton does. Sometimes it's not that complicated.
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Where are the polls for gender as a factor?
If you do this with the "was gender an important factor in your vote," there is a similar pattern hurting Obama. exit polls: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21226003 Clinton is clearly the one being helped by identity politics, which is of course what's been behind her whole strategy of trying to marginalize Obama as "The Black Candidate" while playing the victim and frequently emphasizing her gender. It's actually hilarious how we've gotten to this point where there is a generally accepted notion that Obama's race has helped him and Clinton's gender has hurt her. Almost 60% of Democratic Primary voters are women and about 15% are black.
In fact, libarbarian, Obama now trumps Clinton with Hispanics.
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/the_party_coalesces_around_oba.php
Denny - you're not alone. Same for me, but there is MUCH more to it than that. I truelly like the guy and find him impressive. Also, what better way for America to apologize to the rest of the world than to turn over a new leaf. All those racist can thank Bush for making it all possible.
As a person of White, Hispanic, and Black heritage living near Austin, Texas, and as someone who can tell you precisely what the terms "passing for White" and "not Black enough" mean in the twenty-first century, here's what I am hearing.
The so-very-fair 74-year-old woman who cuts my hair would never admit to racism. Every time I come into her shop, however, she has a new and completely confabulous story of some horrible scandal that's always just about to break on Senator Obama. She would never admit to being a racist. It's much easier to believe lies that would disqualify him from office if they were true.
A lifetime friend in his 50's who's a Democratic Party precinct chairman and a Mexican-American similarly has reservations about Obama, and lists some cultural differences between Black and non-Black Hispanic that I find valid but I do not believe would be helpful to list here. He hasn't looked at the policy differences between Obama and Clinton in any depth, assuming as so many did, they are essentially the same.
And a younger Black friend of mine, a minister, simply commented "Hallelujah. Maybe we can finally get beyond race." And to that I retorted, "Amen."
I suggest that if you aren't a professional poll-taker or you don't at least have friends and associates with whom you can discuss politics, you don't know what "they" think. And if you don't, get to know some people of those other races and find out!
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