Legal Commentary

How Obama Supporters Can Hurt Obama

By Big Tent Democrat

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

We at Talk Left have always really liked John Cole and his site Balloon Juice, even when he was still a Republican. But I think he and other Barack Obama supporters do Obama no favors with these type of statements:

Anyone who is remotely surprised by this has not been paying attention:

Looking down the road to May 13, Senator Hillary Clinton holds a huge lead over Senator Barack Obama in the West Virginia Presidential Primary. The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the race shows that Clinton attracts 55% of the Likely Democratic Primary Voters while Obama is supported by 27%. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure.

Now I don’t want to throw the state under the bus (since that is so fashionable these days) because I love it here so much, but anyone who is surprised by this simply is not paying attention. Racism is alive and well in central PA, SE Ohio, and much of WV. . . .

Cole protests that he was not saying that all Hillary Clinton supporters in West Virginia are racists:

I am not claiming that anyone who refuses to vote for Obama is a racist. I just am not. But there are a number of things working against Obama in WV, and chief among them is the presence of a number of people who will, under no circumstances, vote for a black man.

Indeed John. There are many. Many sexists too I would bet. Most of them vote Republican. That is why no Democrat will win in the South whether the nominee is an African American man or a white woman. West Virginia can be won by a Democrat, perhaps even by Barack Obama. I guess it is inconceivable to John that West Virginia Democrats support Hillary, as did most Democrats in ALMOST EVERY STATE. Maybe the insulting explanation is NOT the first one you should reach for John.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 20, 2008 (boomark / email).