NYT: The transformation of "hard-working Americans, white Americans" in Levittown, Pennsylvania

[Cruzan]

Early on Election Day morning in the Philadelphia suburb of Levittown, Pa., Joe Sinitski, 48, stood in a long line inside a school gymnasium, inching his way toward three blue-curtained voting machines. He wore jeans, a sweatshirt and a National Rifle Association baseball cap. He said he would vote for Barack Obama, a choice that some months earlier he could not have imagined.

“I have to admit, his race made my decision harder,” he said. “I was brought up that way. And I don’t like his name. I’ll admit to that, too.”

[...]

A lot of people in Levittown needed the five months between the primary election and Tuesday to get used to a new idea. After Mrs. Clinton’s defeat, followed by a financial crisis that shook Americans to the core, they came to terms. If Mr. Obama’s race had been a factor, they eventually had to weigh it against other concerns.

“For a long time, I couldn’t ignore the fact that he was black, if you know what I mean,” Mr. Sinitski, the heating and air-conditioning technician, told me. “I’m not proud of that, but I was raised to think that there aren’t good black people out there. I could see that he was highly intelligent, and that matters to me, but my instinct was still to go with the white guy.”

Mr. Sinitski said what pushed him toward Mr. Obama, more than anything, was McCain’s vice-presidential choice of Mrs. Palin. “She might be a great person, but I had never heard of her before and I couldn’t see how such an unknown should be put one heartbeat from the presidency,” he said, “especially with all the problems we’ve got. I didn’t feel it spoke well for McCain. It didn’t demonstrate intelligence on McCain’s part and it just didn’t reflect well in general on him.”

[...]

She thinks some of those who argued with her and insisted till the bitter end that they would vote for Mr. McCain just stubbornly did not want to acknowledge they had changed their minds. In the end, she believes they ended up voting out of a different kind of fear — fear for their own economic survival. Self-interest trumped racism. “They had to ask themselves if they wanted a really smart young black guy, or a stodgy old white guy from the same crowd who put us in this hole,” she said.

Full Story

[ej510]

1. It is always best to vote your own economic interest.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Based on the last paragraph you excerpted, it would seem that in reality there was a reverse

Bradley Effect.

[Marsala]

3. In Pennsylvania, there may have been one

Obama outperformed most of the latest polls there, though not the ones from a week earlier that consistently had him up in double digits.

[Pirate Smile]

4. Very interesting article.

[bluestateguy]

5. Obama has convinced some racists that he is one of the "good blacks"

Some racists think this way: that is, that they view blacks in general with suspicion, but individual black persons who they meet or work with sometimes can overcome general feelings of prejudice. They earn their trust.

So they (the white persons with racist leanings) make an exception and accept this or that black person as one of the "good blacks", even as they maintain a general suspicion of virtually anyone else who is black.

I believe that Obama convinced many of these types of white folks that he was one of the "good blacks".

[Berry Cool]

6. I think you're right--and here's what was for me the most interesting part of the article:

The people I met in Levittown were not on Mr. Obama’s e-mail list or among his donors, but they may be more likely than his younger supporters and more affluent ones to give him what he most desperately needs: time and patience. Like characters from the songs of one of Mr. Obama’s celebrity endorsers, Bruce Springsteen, many Levittowners have been weathered by life. They haven’t benefited from a lot of quick fixes. Others of his supporters say they’ll be patient, but I sensed these people really mean it. They were harder to sell, but they could end up being pretty loyal.

The author may be on to something here. Those who quickly and easily gravitated to Obama as a savior may be just as quick to jettison him if they think he's not doing what they want him to do right away, with quick results. Especially if they're younger and don't know any better than to expect a 180-degree turnaround from the way things have been, on the spot.

These people, naturally cynical and beaten down by eight years of Bushononics, who came to Obama only after being slowly persuaded by time, familiarity and dire circumstances, may actually be more willing to be patient with him and give him time to get something going. After all, it took them a while to warm up to him; they may be more likely to give him some time and cut him some slack as he wades into the alligator swamp to drain it. They may be less likely to say "Dammit, he better kill all those alligators and drain that swamp RIGHT FUCKING NOW or he's dead to me and he can forget about my support in 2012" or "I told you so, we should've gone with Hillary/McCain/whoever." They're wise enough to know this crisis wasn't built in a day and it won't be ended in a day, either. But if, in four years, things are better at all than they are now, they will happily march back to the polls and vote for him to have four more years to finish the job.

[ecstatic]

12. "Those who quickly and easily gravitated to Obama as a savior "

Lookup NathanCummings for the perfect example. He came on here demanding an immediate college grant of $4,000 from Obama. (Nov 9, 2008 - Nov 9, 2008) :rofl:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7836631

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. I call it the "Cosby effect"

When Bill Cosby had his TV show on it became the top ranked show in America and his TV family was considered "All American" by many whites who tended not to be comfortable with Blacks in general. Colin Powell is another African American who simply became "American" to many wary whites. Obama is crossing that threshold now.

[Berry Cool]

8. I tend to agree.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the voters for Obama view him and his family as the real-life Huxtables. Two professional black parents with some truly adorable kids, just trying to do their best to raise their kids right.

[tabbycat31]

9. I was in Levittown tuesday

a bunch of us came over from NJ and were in Levittown/Bristol PA on Tuesday all day campaigning (I voted right after I got up) and we were on a bus (www.busforchange.com if you want a good place to donate to) waving at people on the streets. There were McCain people across the street from us. We gathered several onlookers from the streets and they did not.

I could see firsthand how enthusiastic Levittown was for Obama.

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. K&R

[ecstatic]

11. I wonder who Joe the Plumber voted for...

or did he vote for McCain thinking he will soon be making over 250k :rofl: