Joan Walsh: The Blackening of the President

[last_texas_dem]

>>>> When South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson screamed "You lie!" at President Obama Wednesday night, he dragged the paranoia and anti-Obama contempt that marked so many August "town hells" into the chambers of Congress. Wilson's shriek also served as an exclamation point on an undeniable trend: Obama steadily lost support among white voters during this long, hot summer of hate, with his white approval rating dropping by almost one-third, from 63 percent to 43 percent between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Of course Obama never had the support of whites like Joe Wilson, a solid son of the South who served as an aide to segregationist Strom Thurmond and who publicly doubted and derided Thurmond's biracial daughter, Essie Mae, when she went public about her dad's identity. Obama lost South Carolina to John McCain handily, just as he lost most of the rest of the region. No one expected anything different. Outside of the South, though, the 2008 election was remarkable for the minor role race seemed to play as the nation chose its first African-American president.

Despite attempts to find a "Bradley effect" in primary states Obama lost -- there wasn't one -- and cries of racism against Hillary Clinton's campaign (which look damn silly now that we've seen real anti-Obama racism), in the end Obama got elected with a larger share of the white vote than John Kerry pulled in 2004, 43 percent to Kerry's 41 percent. And after his win, his white approval rating soared, to a high of 63 percent in Gallup's weekly tracking polls on Inauguration Day.

But that approval has been in free fall since the end of May, winding up at 43 percent just three months later, at the end of August. The racially tinged debates over Obama's appointing the first Latina to the Supreme Court and his politically unwise foray into the Henry Louis Gates flap, combined with organized GOP opposition, seem to have done what Obama's political foes could never manage in 2008: They've blackened Obama, in both senses of the word -- simultaneously diminishing his support and emphasizing his ethnicity. Simply by raising consciousness about the president's race and associating him with radical identity politics, they've diminishing his standing among a large swath of the public. (Gabe Winant has more of the statistical detail here.)>>>>

http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/politics/2009/09/14/obama/index.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. Psst - Hey Joan - Birtherism started with Clinton supporters.

[tabatha]

2. ??

[BlooInBloo]

3. From a quick google...

http://www.examiner.com/x-14783-Law-and-Politics-Examiner~y2009m8d12-President-Obamas-birth-certificate-is-real-the-controversy-surrounding-it-is-fake-and-dangerous

Don't know anything about that particular source - I can take a few minutes to find a good one, if needed.


EDIT: This one seems to be more detailed: http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=4007

[billh58]

6. I don't really find

that surprising, considering all of the Republican support for Hillary during the 2008 Primaries:

http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/1054842.php?

The PUMA Democrats were particularly vicious towards Candidate Obama as well, and carried the "birther" banner as an excuse to vote for McCain. However, all's well that ends well, and thankfully the bitter Primary Elections are over. Now we Democrats can get back to what we do best: eating our young, and fighting over the scraps...;-)

[BlooInBloo]

9. True, Clinton supporters like pretending he wasn't a Democrat....

Not sure how many republican impostors actually give money to Democrats as part of their charade, however.

[billh58]

10. IIRC,

Rupert Murdoch was one of the most prominent right-wingers to donate to, and support, Hillary. Of course, there were several "anti-Bush" Republicans who supported Hillary because they thought that McCain would spend even more money than Dubya, and they absolutely hated Caribou Barbie.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Fascinating. Then I suppose Berg's 8-year-long history of donating to Democrats...

And none to republicans is really the ultimate cover.

His powers of prognostication are truly remarkable, donating to Democrats in 2000, to solidify his cover story for the eventual Obama run 8 years later.

Thanks for clarifying!

[billh58]

12. Berg?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/murd-m10.shtml

[billh58]

14. Well, duh

THAT Berg. I totally lost it there for a while, and didn't connect the tin-foil hat attorney with Hillary until I went back to re-read the link you provided. A "birther," AND a 9/11 CT fan. Democrat? Not so much...

[Mr Generic Other]

4. i think the diminished support for the president, that polls report

doesn't reflect a rejection by former supporters over the heightened attention the press has paid to the president's race as much as it reflects the disappointment that democrats are once again feeling at the failure of their party to follow through on campaign promises.
we voted for "change we could believe in" and we get more of the same.
the president has gone out of his way to protect the criminals on wall street and in the last administration. this is very disheartening.
and the president has sold us down the river on health care coverage.
i believe that these factors have much more to do with the president's loss of support than his ethnic identity.
i don't think we can blame this on race mr obama. it has more to do with your performance.

ed: word choice

[Berry Cool]

5. I think you speak too soon.

I defend your right to say it, but I think you speak too soon.

You are assuming there are lots and lots of other people like you who have already given up on Obama after eight months. What if there aren't?

[Mr Generic Other]

7. what if there are?

i am not young and i have an extensive network of democratic friends and acquaintances and every one of them does feel the way i do.
i admire your optimism but i do not think it does much that is positive in the real world. all it does is allow the party officials we elect to ignore or postpone dealing with important social and economic issues.
we can't afford to wait for them to do the right thing, we must insist they do it and not let up on the pressure until it is done.
or we can say to ourselves that obama's ethnic identity got in the way of a fair and affordable health care coverage proposal.
seems like a red herring to me.

[sabrina 1]

13. I agree with you completely

And Democrats need to pay attention to people like you because imo, this is the support he is losing and what is reflected in the polls. All the other excuses, 'it's because he's black' etc. He was black when his numbers were high. People didn't suddenly notice he wasn't white. It's about issues.

He never had the tea-bagger demographic, so their 'rejection' should not change the polls. And if race were the issue, he would not have won, as the OP states, he did not win in those states so those numbers should not have changed, unless they went up.

It is the base of the party he needs to get back to. They want him to succeed but stories of Rahm Emanuel, eg, screaming at Liberal groups, protecting the Blue Dogs, while dismissing that base of the party, these things are not helping Obama where he most needs help.

Whoever advised him that he need not worry about the base because 'they have nowhere to go and will be there in 2010 and 2012 doesn't get it.

On the healthcare issue, everyone EXCEPT progressives had a 'seat at the table'. This was another thing that lost him the enthusiastic support he had during the primaries, of the people he needs most.

Eg, where was the pushback to the tea-baggers in the Summer? I think a lot of people, while they support him, lost a lot of enthusiam because HE lost enthusiam for them and appeared to be more concerned about what Republicans want.

One more thing, Rahm Emanuel is one of Obama's biggest problems because he is virtually despised by the people Obama needs most right now. He had no problem being 'pragmatic' about Van Jones. He needs to apply the same pragmatism to his COS. The guy just turns people off and puts Obama's judgement in choosing him, in question.

Yet, he keeps going after Republican approval which, as Bill Maher and so many have told him, he will never get. I wish I could be as enthusiastic as I was. And Democrats can call people names for stating their reasons and ignore them, as they always ignore real progressives, but imo, this article is wrong. Obama's problem right now is he is losing his most important supporters by catering to the right-wing of the party and to Republicans. This was not what we worked for.

It's not too late, he could win back his supporters who would go to work for him tomorrow as they did in the primaries, but people cannot work against their own interests. We are not Republicans for a reasson. Rahm was wrong to think he could yell at Progressives to STFU. That, imo, is why the numbers are falling.

[Karenina]

16. The last 3 paragraphs of Joan's piece...

"It's worth noting that Obama's standing with white voters jumped 2 points last week, after he began to fight back and define his healthcare plan. It jumped again, with all voters (I couldn't find data for whites alone), after his feisty speech to Congress on Wednesday.

Rather than wring his hands over racism, Obama seems to be getting tough on his real opponents -- the corporate interests who want to see him fail -- telling CBS's Steve Kroft Sunday night that he won't sign a bad healthcare reform bill, because when it doesn't keep costs down, he'll be blamed for it. Maybe Obama has realized that genteel GOP "statesmen" like Sen. Chuck Grassley are bigger enemies to him than the small but vocal segment of frightened, uninformed voters whose racism is once again letting them be tricked into ignoring their own interests by leaders like Grassley.

Finally, Obama may never get a larger share of the white vote than he got last November (which was good enough, after all, for a comfortable win). But if he compromises with the Republicans who are out to get him, he risks losing the support of the multiracial base that put him in the White House. Sticking to his (metaphorical) guns is both good policy, and good politics. Besides, despite their stumbles, I still trust Obama and the folks around him to do the right thing. And that means making tough, progressive policy decisions that will make a lot of white Birthers, Deathers, Grassleys and Wilsons red in the face."

[Tansy_Gold]

8. criticism is not the same as abandoning

In some cases it may be, but I suspect people are simply disappointed that there has been, even after "only" eight months in office, little change to come from the Obama administration.

And the drop in support is probably coming mainly from those who, like me, are further to the left, as we watch Obama steer further and further to the right. Even if he isn't yet right of center (though I think he is) he's moving away from the Democratic base. It only make sense that some of them will fall away.

It doesn't mean they're throwing their support to the pukes. It just means they aren't as excited about Obama as they were 10 months ago.


TG

[Mr Generic Other]

15. thanks for the support sabrina and tansy.

you have both helped to clarify how i feel and what i meant to state.
the two party system does not offer voters real choice in american elections and since the democratic party has been influenced by the DLC it has not fielded candidates that represent working americans.
if race is playing any major role in obama's loss of popularity among voters it is likely that some, like me, while knowing he was center right thought he "looked" more liberal than he is.

[Tansy_Gold]

18. ". . . thought he 'looked' more liberal than he is."

LOL, but I'm not sure I know what a "liberal" looks like. (I, for one, don't look ANYTHING like Obama! ;-)) I do agree, however, that he sounded a lot more liberal, or maybe we just wanted him to.

And certainly in contrast to what we would have expected from the other ticket, Obama/Biden did look a lot more liberal.


TG

[Mr Generic Other]

19. :)

i knew that "looked" was a bad word choice, sounded would have been better but i was on my way out of the door for work. thank you for reading into my shorthand my true meaning.
obama doesn't look like me either but i am probably much more liberal than he.

[KoKo]

17. +1