… BUT it is true that they tend to be less educated than Barack Obama supporters. This came to bear last night in West Virginia, a state with a 95 percent white and largely uneducated electorate who handed Hillary Clinton a symbolic if not lopsided victory.
Drowned out by Clinton’s incredible crowing and the pundits who are calling the exit poll results a warning sign for Obama is this question: What does it say that Clinton plays so well among people who don’t have degrees and don’t earn much money?
According to an article on MSNBC.com:
Interviews with West Virginians leaving their polling places suggested Clinton’s victory could be as overwhelming as any she has gained to date, delivered by an electorate that was 95 percent white and was composed of the kinds of voters who favored her in past primaries. Nearly a quarter were 60 or older, and a similar number had no education beyond high school. More than half were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less.
Also:
Three-fourths of whites without college degrees were backing Clinton. They’ve favored the former first lady all year and were crucial Tuesday because they were nearly two-thirds of the state’s voters.
These are the people who going to elect the next president of the United States? According to Clinton, yes. If the current president is any indication, she’s right.
That’s a problem, and not just for Obama. It’s a problem for everyone who doesn’t want a third term for President Bush in the form of John McCain. Clinton, to her discredit, has exploited the politics of bigotry to her advantage.
Though he would never say as much explicitly, Obama understands why he wasn’t supposed to win West Virginia. He has an unnervingly keen appreciation of the sensibilities of uneducated, disaffected whites who, with their deeply ingrained prejudices, can’t bring themselves to accept the idea of a black man as president of the United States–even if there’s little substantive difference between his and Clinton’s platform, and even if the alternative to Obama is a man who has pledged to continue treating America like an infant treats a diaper.
In most contexts outside of coal mining and perhaps college athletics, West Virginia would be an afterthought. Unfortunately, Obama needs states like West Virginia, which was at one time a safe bet for Democrats, if he is to have any chance of beating John McCain.
I find interesting the absence of an in-depth analysis of education levels among blacks who support Clinton or Obama. Being left to guess, I’d reckon that most blacks who support Clinton have at least some college education, but that a greater number of black Obama supporters are at least college graduates. This isn’t to say that book sense, which can’t be measured accurately by a college degree, delineates the two sides.
But I don’t believe that discerning blacks who have an understanding of the machinations of politics were swept off of their feet by the Bill Clinton (and by extension Hillary) loves black people hysteria that blew through the African American community during and after his presidency.
They understand that for whatever similarities President Clinton shares with blacks who were raised by poor, single mothers, he was not and is not a ‘brotha.’ They understand that it isn’t the president’s job to help black people or any single group of people, but to be a good steward of the union. They also harbour the often wordless knowledge that it isn’t just important to have a qualified black man as president of the United States and leader of the free world. It’s time.
There are discerning blacks who support Hillary Clinton, but for the life of me I can’t understand why. And they’ve yet to articulate their reasons outside of whingeing and invective. How fitting.
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