Obama v McCain?

Verity

Perhaps the commenter could tell us where he read that Obama's blackness and Hillary's being a woman have driven the voters out of the room screaming. Millions of white Dems will vote for Obama, if he's the candidate when the election rolls round, and millions of black voters will not. It will be the same in Hillary's case, if she is the candidate. They will all have their reasons. Those reasons will not be those festering in the perfervid imaginations of drooling British leftist America/American haters. The questions voters ask themselves in every democracy is, "Will this candidate be good for the country? Will this candidate be good for me and my family?"

dearieme

BO's success so far suggests that Americans don't suffer from racism, but rather ghettoism. It's not black men they object to, but the median (or sub-median) African-American.

verity

Dearieme - Obama is not properly defined as an African American because he has no black American heritage. His father was/is (?) from Kenya and his mother was a white American. He has absolutely nothing to do with the black American experience. This isn't a point against him. It's just that referring to him as an African American is not correct as the term is understood in the United States.

Ross

I wonder if that second commentator has considered how many countries have had as a serious candidate for leader someone of a different ethnic identity than the majority of the population. The USA is almost unique in this, the only other example that occurs to me President Fujimori of Peru.

Ross

Oh and I was going to add that the assumption by Martin Kettle and most other commentators that Obama will run a clean campaign is misjudged if Obama's record is anything to go by. When he ran for the Senate, his opponents private lives were raked over and insinuations made, this happened in both the Primary and the actual Senate race. Obama is every bit as vicious as Hillary when it comes to getting what he wants.

john begley canada

oh verity...verity verity verity... the troof is dear that massive numbers of voters will shie away from voting for barry for the very reason you (in yer ignorance and idealism)deny the existence of....it's called common sense... ..the least common of the senses if i may quote Clemens...

dearieme

Verity: I didn't call him an African-American - do read what I said again. As for mixed race "national leaders", we had Lord Liverpool and the two Pitts - all part Indian. And as an exotic "national leader", though not of mixed race, Disraeli. Compared to that record, the USA has been very restricted.