Presidential Racism Review

In my sociology class I was recently asked to find three articles dealing with the issue of race, then to review and analyze them.

Who’s playing the Race Card?

By: Charles Krauthammer

Krauthammer writes: Barrack Obama has played the race card against McCain many times, threatening to say he’s done it too much. In fact McCain hasn’t really played any race cards. Obama is falsely accusing McCain that he’s a racist, even on one occasion Obama was told he was going to be insulted by Bush and McCain; saying Obama doesn’t look like any president on the dollar bills; even Obama has a funny name. In fact, Obama’s campaign has been asked many times to give proof or incident were McCain has done such a thing…Obama’s campaign couldn’t give any. I think this is very unfair to throw up a race card to McCain, don’t make it about race. If you want a fair and honest run for the presidency, stop being childish about it and just be an adult and run for it.
Active Link to the Article

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/finding_racism_where_it_doesnt.html


Does Race Really Matter?

By: Michael A. Cohen

Cohen’s writes: Barrack Obama seemed to be ahead in poll standing and in the average Americans eyes. But, recently that doesn’t seem to be the case, Democrats and Republicans alike are starting to realize white Americans really aren’t ready to vote a black president into office. A current poll says “56 percent of Democrats believe that many people will not vote for Mr. Obama because he is black.” This could also be a positive; due to Americans being “closet racist”; and voting would show their own racism. Also, the Black turnout rate became higher due to the fact Obama is black. But, Obama is also a Democrat, and most working class Americans vote Republican. This is my opinion: Honestly, race shouldn’t matter will it yes! Most Americans aren’t subject or like change, so when Obama became the Democratic nominee heads turned. Obama has some great ideas, but can the American public get beyond his race and see that.

Active Link to the Article

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/does-race-really-matter/?ref=opinion

Obama’s Race May Be as much a Plus as a Minus

By: Frank Newport

Obama’s votes are going to have a total loss of about 6% due to his race. But, McCain is going to have a loss of votes at the same percentage, but maybe not the same reason. 85% of voters say they don’t care about Obama’s race and will vote accordingly. McCain has people saying basically the same thing. With no whites there is a net difference of about 11 percentage points. Which if the corresponding information above this graph shows. McCain being slightly different with the white votes to non white votes from Obama. Pretty much what I’m trying to summarize and show you is that even though it’s a black against a white, race only has a small impact on votes. It’s mostly on how you run and the party you are running for. This is an important election, one of the most important in history...a black presidential nominee vs. a white nominee. But, the way we should see as is, a Democrat vs. a Republican not the other way around. I know I state about a graph in the article, well I had some technical difficulties...but you can see the graphs using the active link at the bottom.


Active Link to the Article

http://www.gallup.com/poll/111049/Obamas-Race-May-Much-Plus-Minus.aspx