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Black Voters Fret Over Obama
The Wall Street Journal ^ | September 12, 2008 | GARY FIELDS and JONATHAN KAUFMAN

Posted on 09/12/2008 8:32:29 AM PDT by forkinsocket

An anxious murmur is rising among black voters as the presidential race tightens: What if Barack Obama loses?

Black talk-show hosts and black-themed Web sites are being flooded with callers and bloggers reflecting a nervousness -- and anger -- over the campaign. Bev Smith, a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host, devoted her entire three-hour show Monday night to the question: "If Obama doesn't win, what will you think?"

"My audience is upset," she said in an interview. "Some people said they would be so angry it would be reminiscent of the [1960s] riots -- that is how despondent they would be."

Warren Ballentine, another nationally syndicated talk-show host, said: "Once Sarah Palin was picked and African-Americans saw the Republicans ignited again, they got worried. We are scared now."

The worries aren't universal. New York Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, acknowledged the concerns about race. "I am hearing those jitters," he said. But he said many Democratic candidates have lost the presidential race in recent decades and "they were white candidates. African-Americans need to remember that."

Black nervousness could help Sen. Obama, the first African-American to head a major-party ticket, by boosting black turnout in November. One caller to Ms. Smith's show Monday said she was so worried that she planned to go to her church to begin working on a voter-registration drive.

If Sen. Obama loses, "African-Americans could be disappointed to the point of not engaging in the process anymore," or consider forming a third political party, said Richard McIntire, communications director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; africanamericans; blackvote; cw2; extortion; obama; obamabiden; palin; racism
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

And, blacks should be comforted by the fact that a white man with Obama’s background and qualifications would never have gotten to the Senate, much less the nomination for President. Here he is, within striking distance of winning, only BECAUSE he is black.


81 posted on 09/12/2008 9:08:33 AM PDT by Defiant (I prefer a Lewinsky in the White House to an Alinsky. The first blows, but the latter really sucks.)
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To: conservativeinferno
Didn’t MLK say judge a man by the “CONTENT OF HIS CHARACTER, NOT THE COLOR OF HIS SKIN”?

We have the media-elites attempting to push this clown down our throats for months and on the 45th anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" Speech we were told to accept a candidate basd on the color of his skin, not on the content of his (deeply flawed) character.

Vote Character over Pigment!

82 posted on 09/12/2008 9:09:35 AM PDT by Prov1322 (Enjoy my wife's incredible artwork at www.watercolorARTwork.com! (This space no longer for rent))
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To: forkinsocket

After the Ferraro fiasco, the NOW Nags tried forming their own party and running their own candidate - to predictably hilarious results.

(But that didn’t stop the Baltimore Sun from running a puff piece on the candidate - treating her like a legit choice).


83 posted on 09/12/2008 9:10:52 AM PDT by pollwatcher (Palin was put on this earth to do two things: kill caribou and kick butt. She's all out of caribou.")
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To: Sig Sauer P220

Yes, please form your own party, then you will have the success you have in Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Memphis and all those other Blue Utopias. CW2 may be coming alert.


84 posted on 09/12/2008 9:12:24 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: ModelBreaker
Well Mr. Robert Gordon, maybe you can vote for Barack Hussein Obama but many Americans are gonna have a hard time with it. I understand his skin color is similar to yours but is his heritage? His culture? His upbringing?

Is it possible the Baptist white guy with the military family who fought in Nam or the Assembly of God white woman with the 5 kids whose husband is a high school educated man who works with his hands has more in common with you?

No I see the black skinned guy who grew up in Hawaii and went to Yale to become a lawyer has more in common.

85 posted on 09/12/2008 9:13:24 AM PDT by normy (Don't take it personally, just take it seriously.)
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To: Vasilli22

JC was conflicted about Obama, last I heard. Ken Blackwell and Michael Steele were possible candidates, but they both lost their last races. It could have been Colin Powell if he hadn’t turned squishy after Reagan. There is a black candidate for Congress who looks like the real deal. He is an Iraq war vet. I don’t recall the name, but someone here wil surely remind us. Someone like that, born and raised her, who loves America with all her faults and who understands economics and military policy, and who doesn’t wear their race on their sleeve.


86 posted on 09/12/2008 9:13:47 AM PDT by Defiant (I prefer a Lewinsky in the White House to an Alinsky. The first blows, but the latter really sucks.)
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To: Defiant

You know. I do feel bad for the good black people who have chosen to make something of their lives. Who have worked hard, abided by the rules, and really tried to better themselves. On top of that, they had to do it while other black people were chastising them for being sellouts to the white man, Uncle Tom’s, etc. We should remember that these people do exist, and some of them frequent this message board. They should be admired and commended for not expecting handouts, entitlements and such, when they could have gone that route.


87 posted on 09/12/2008 9:14:08 AM PDT by Sig Sauer P220 (Conceal carry - Don't leave home without it.)
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To: forkinsocket

Glad I’m clinging to my religion and guns. Because if riots happen, and you even think about doing anything to me or my property, God help you when you’re in my crosshairs.


88 posted on 09/12/2008 9:14:55 AM PDT by rintense (Palin 2012 for President!)
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To: forkinsocket
From the article: "If he loses, it will shake the very ground that we stand on mentally as far as what we need to be to succeed," said Robert Gordon, a 48-year-old engineering surveyor from Dallas. "From day one, we've been told to be a certain way, to be neat, intellectual, speak clearly. He is the symbol of what we were told to be by our parents and by society as a whole. If this doesn't work, what does that do to our psyche? What do I tell my sons?"

Well, #1, for somebody who supposedly "speaks clearly" he sure does stammer a lot minus a teleprompter...But aside from that small observation...
#2 So....being "neat, intellectual, and speaking clearly" are now the sole or primary qualifications for POTUS?
#3 Could you imagine a parent of an athlete saying, "From day one, we've been told to be a certain way on the playing field, to be play by the rules, athletic, show teamwork by communicating clearly with teammates. Our best athlete is the symbol of what we were told to be by our coaches and by society as a whole. If this doesn't work, and we lose the game, what does that do to our psyche? What do I tell my sons?"
The implication here is that if you don't win by putting your best foot forward, including teamwork, hard work, playing by the rules, etc., that maybe, just maybe the temptation will be to circumvent one of the above.

89 posted on 09/12/2008 9:15:48 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: ModelBreaker

We, he could remind his sons of the success achieved by Justice Clarence Thomas, National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Sec. of State Colin Powell, National Security Advisor and Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice, Lt. Governor Michael Steele, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, and U.S. SENATOR Barack Obama.


90 posted on 09/12/2008 9:16:12 AM PDT by Cecily
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To: Sig Sauer P220
You know. I do feel bad for the good black people who have chosen to make something of their lives. Who have worked hard, abided by the rules, and really tried to better themselves. On top of that, they had to do it while other black people were chastising them for being sellouts to the white man, Uncle Tom’s, etc. We should remember that these people do exist, and some of them frequent this message board. They should be admired and commended for not expecting handouts, entitlements and such, when they could have gone that route.

One more thing. The one's that refer to themselves as AMERICANS, not African-Americans.
91 posted on 09/12/2008 9:18:33 AM PDT by Sig Sauer P220 (Conceal carry - Don't leave home without it.)
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To: Names Ash Housewares
The media has worked people up into a FRENZY that Obama WILL win. And if it doesn’t happen? After all the years of Gore and Kerry-ites claiming they really won?

I remember the derangement among Dems in general over Bush/Gore 2000. I remember the black reaction to the Rodney King verdict. I remember the elation over the OJ verdict.

If the Obama campaign implodes in late October, and everybody sees he's going to lose big, and well ahead of time, then the Dems are going to be resigned to the inevitable on Nov 4.

But if it's a squeaker, and there's chants of fraud and the rabble-rousers get people riled up, then yes I can see a repeat of the 1968 riots.

92 posted on 09/12/2008 9:21:52 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell)
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To: forkinsocket

Riot if you will. But you will die at my property line.


93 posted on 09/12/2008 9:22:01 AM PDT by devistate one four (H I V Homophobia Is Vindicated)
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Comment #94 Removed by Moderator

To: forkinsocket
Black nervousness could help Sen. Obama, the first African-American

African-American my @ss! First Mulatto!

95 posted on 09/12/2008 9:23:12 AM PDT by Bommer
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Comment #96 Removed by Moderator

To: Nea Wood
Every Presidential race this country has ever had, some white guy has LOST.

And almost all of them much better qualified to be President than Barack Obama, who would have been treated with as much respect as Mike Gravel if he had been white, given his resume.

97 posted on 09/12/2008 9:23:21 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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Comment #98 Removed by Moderator

To: smokinleroy
This ultra-conservative did just that with Alan Keyes in the 2000 presidential primaries.

I did too.

99 posted on 09/12/2008 9:29:29 AM PDT by GoLightly
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To: lovesdogs

Thanks for sharing that. I need to go over that stuff with my wife, too.


100 posted on 09/12/2008 9:29:56 AM PDT by Bosco (Remember how you felt on September 11?)
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