Reply #51: You've made it very plain [View All]

[EffieBlack]

You are saying that a significant number of voters will go out of their way to go out and vote against a woman or a black man, but won't if McCain is running against a white man - and that the number is significant enough to make a difference in the election. You may be right, but I don't think you are.

I do think, however, that this may be one of the reasons that Edwards did so poorly in South Carolina. He consistently says that he is the only one who can beat McCain - or any other Republican. Of course, he's not going to come out and say it, but implicit in that argument is an understanding that the reason he supposedly is the only one who can do this is that voters will not vote for a black or female candidate (or they will come out to vote against them, which has the same result).

In other words, whether he intends to or not, he is essentially urging voters to vote for him because he is a white male.

Southern votes - especially black Southern voters - have very sensitive antenna and it rubs many of them the wrong way to hear a white man say, suggest or even just assume that he has a built-in advantage solely because he's a white man. Whether he does it intentionally or not - and I have no reason to think that Edwards has done this intentionaly - it is a form of playing "the race card."

I've seen many DUers complain that Obama and his supporters are saying that people should vote for him "just because he's black." I have not heard him say any such thing, but I agree that such an entreaty would be wrong and would clearly be "playing the race card."

By the same token, a white candidate's suggestion, whether tacit or explicit - even if completely unintentional - that people should vote for him because he's a white man, is just as offensive. And that's just the point that is being made when it is argued that Edwards is the only one who can win because voters won't vote for a black or female candidate..

I really believe that Edwards and his supporters, by pushing the argument that he's the ONLY one of the three who can beat McCain, yet not offering any substantive reason other than broad assertions that voters won't come out to vote for Obama and Hillary or will come out to vote against them (but never specifying why), leads to the impression that he is "playing the race card" and has actually hurt Edwards among a large segment of voters.