Obama Mississippi Win Defined By Race; "Emerging racial divide" in Democratic Party

[DeepModem Mom]

TIME: Obama Win Defined By Race
By MICHAEL DUFFY
Wednesday, Mar. 12, 2008

Illinois Senator Barack Obama easily captured a majority of Mississippi's 33 Democratic delegates Tuesday as his one-on-one battle with Hillary Clinton race verged once again on deeper racial turmoil. With 90% of all precincts reporting, Obama led Clinton in Misissippi by a margin of nearly three to two.

Obama's win — his second in four days — came at the end of a day of cross-campaign, finger-pointing following comments by the party's 1984 Vice Presidential nominee, Geraldine Ferraro, a Clinton supporter who suggested that Obama's front-runner status owed more to his race than his talent or effort. Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod accused the Clinton campaign of quietly countenancing such divisive comments; later in the day, Hillary Clinton called Ferraro's comments "regrettable." Obama called Ferraro's remarks "absurd."

The steady erosion in relations between the Obama and Clinton camps — less than a week has passed since Obama's foreign policy adviser (and TIME columnist) Samatha Power called Clinton "a monster" — was almost certainly one reason why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared on Tuesday that the chances of a joint ticket between the two Democrats to now be impossible.

Broken down, the Mississippi vote had an unmistakable racial descant — and unmistakable limits for Obama. Exit polls revealed once again an emerging racial divide that has opened in the Democratic party between whites who tend by healthy margins to favor Clinton and blacks who overwhelmingly favor Obama. African Americans comprised nearly half of the Democratic vote in Mississippi — and 90% of those voters, according to exit polls, pulled the lever for Obama, his strongest showing yet among African Americans. But Obama did poorly among whites, winning only 30%, according to exit polls. While this split was visible in Alabama and the border state of Tennessee earlier this year, it was visible in Ohio's primary last week, too....

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1721494,00.html

[skipos]

1. What about Obama's win in WY, ID, KS, ME, DE, CT, WI, etc etc etc

What defined those?

[TwilightGardener]

2. It's NOT an emerging "divide", except in a very few states--JEEEZUS, they

are really trying to paint Obama as the Black Candidate who can't get white votes!! Hillary's campaign of division is working.

[woodsprite]

3. The divide is only in the minds of jerks who WISH there actually was one.

And they're gonna work to stir one up. That pisses me off.

I'm not divided much at all - and many that I know are not either. I'm a white female who's looking forward to casting her presidential ballot for Obama.

BUT if Clinton gets the nom, I'll be casting one for her. Although I will feel less sure in doing so.

Whoops! Forgot to add: I'm also a former Republican.

[DJ13]

4. The numbers of whites supporting Hillary were skewed by Republicans

24% of Hillary's total votes in Mississippi came from Republicans trying to help her become the candidate to face McCain in the GE.

Any questions what race those Republicans were?