Eleven By: shep

"Just 52 percent of self-identifying Clinton supporters say they are backing Obama while 21 percent are siding with John McCain and 27 percent are undecided or are looking for some other candidate to support.".

When asked “[i]f you honestly assessed yourself, is that something with which you're entirely comfortable, somewhat comfortable, somewhat uncomfortable or entirely uncomfortable,” 11% of respondents in a recent Washington Post/ABC poll reported that they would be at least somewhat uncomfortable that Barack Obama would be the first African-American president.

Now I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that the 11-percenters aren’t uncomfortable with the fact that it is Barack Obama who would be the first African-American president, rather the some other black candidate, and that the number of people willing to admit outright that they’re racists is probably somewhat smaller than the number of actual racists who would never vote for a black man to be president.

Is there some way I can stress to you the importance that these people, being psychologically incapable to vote for Barack Obama, be discouraged from voting for John McCain? Has there ever been such a miserable zero-sum game?

If those throwbacks who couldn’t be comfortable voting for someone who holds virtually the same experience, policies and views as their chosen candidate and would choose instead someone who embodies the antithesis of those policies and views, because of the former candidate’s skin color, that seems to me a perfectly reasonable basis for removing said throwbacks’ right to vote in perpetuity (as well as, perhaps, additional social disapproval). Failing that, rational citizens who care about the actual temperament, judgment and competence of the person who runs this ever-more monarchical country should marshal every argument to nullify the throwbacks’ race-based alternative choice: John McCain.

So at least 11% of voters who are undecided or think that McCain is an alternative to Clinton need to be convinced that John McCain should never, ever be given the keys to our military and foreign policy. Based just upon McCain’s public record, and the Obama campaign’s willingness to tell the public what they should know, that shouldn’t be too very hard.

[Cross-posted at E Pluribus Unum]