Why Obama can win
Last night, Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses for the Democrats and Huckabee for the Republicans. Some are concerned about Obama’s electability, partly because of his skin color. I think it won’t be much of a problem for the following reasons:
1. He sounds like a white person. He doesn’t come to the podium shouting “Yo, wuzzup home boyz!!!” Noticing the lack of an Ebonics accent, American whites might be able to convince themselves, “Hey, this Obama guy is kinda like me!”
2. He’s a light-skinned black. Think about a lot of the popular black celebrities. Beyonce’s considered hot. Actors like Will Smith and Denzel Washington are popular. Tiger Woods has endorsements out the wazoo (yes, I know he’s more Thai than black; he counts as black in this country). What do they have in common? They could all get into a paper bag party.
Dark-skinned black athletes can squirm into the “popular black” category, but that’s because we don’t have much of a choice of who’s a talented athlete.
Besides, if you squint your eyes and turn your head sideways, you can almost convince yourself Obama’s white.
3. In fact, he’s not even 100% black. His father was a black Kenyan, his mother a white American.
These factors lead me to believe that Obama can help the United States ease into being comfortable with a non-white president.
Let me put this a different way: he’s electable because white people who don’t consider themselves racists but are alienated by/afraid of actual black people can vote for him and say, “See? That proves it once and for all - I’m not a racist.”
Comment by Kate Dino | 4 January 2008
Elegantly put.
Notice how Obama’s considered to be black, even though he’s half and half?
Comment by Donnie | 4 January 2008
I just hope if he does win the primaries and becomes the front runner, that he can survive the spin machine of the republicans.
Too bad Gore won’t come back to (political) life.
Comment by Blunderprone | 4 January 2008
Gore is now a Rockstar so he isn’t coming back. Although I like Obama, I see Edwards winning the Democratic nomination and Romney on the Republican side.
Nice points Donnie.
Comment by wang | 4 January 2008
Obama having a relatively lesser known body of work, he’ll be a smaller, harder-to-hit target for the GOP than his rivals. People’s waning faith in the GOP will provide the Dem candidate some free insulation as well.
Al Gore…is better suited in his current role. That may be the only diplomatic way I can put that.
I don’t believe Edwards has any serious winning chances, but have no feel to how the GOP side will come out.
Comment by Donnie | 5 January 2008
It would be cool if this weren’t an issue, but it is. Maybe if he wins it’ll be less of an issue in the future. Such are the baby steps of progress in society.
I thought Chris Rock’s recent quote about H. Clinton was funny. “Yes I think the country is ready for a woman president. But does it have to be that woman?”
Comment by Derek Slater | 6 January 2008
Re: Rock on Hillary. Yes, quite funny. Many in this country would agree with that, and include me in there.
Comment by Donnie | 7 January 2008
I know this is a totally unintelligent and irrelevant remark but that photo of barack kinda looks like you donnie
nice move on hillary’s part in tinging her speech with just the right teaspoon of emotion.
Comment by annie | 7 January 2008
Are you saying I could be president?
I wonder how many people assumed Hillary’s tear up was for show.
Comment by Donnie | 8 January 2008