A Damaged Country

Senator Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary by roughly ten percentage points. In the April 23rd op-ed article, the New York Times wrote that the primary “produced yet another inconclusive result.”[i] The New York Times is wrong. The results of the Pennsylvania primary produced a conclusive result. Senator Barack Obama will not win the general election in November. He is a damaged candidate.

There are several reasons Senator Obama lost the Pennsylvania primary. First, it was a closed primary. Republicans and independents were not able to participate in the Pennsylvania primary. Only registered Democrats could vote. The “state Democratic Party has added a remarkable 300,000 voters since January. Nearly half of these Democrats, according to the state board of elections, are new or previously unregistered voters lured by the excitement of the Clinton-Obama race. The other half are former Republicans and independents who switched to vote in the Democratic primary.”[ii] The majority of the new Democrats voted for Senator Obama. However, the new voters were only able to reduce Senator Clinton’s margin of victory.

Second, Senator Obama performed poorly during a televised Democratic debate in Philadelphia. Granted, some of the questions were ridiculous. The former communications director of the Clinton Administration and current moderator of This Week with George Stephanopoulos asked the Illinois Senator if he thought his former pastor Jeremiah Wright “loves America as much as you do,” and is the Reverend “as patriotic as you are.” Mr. Stephanopoulos also asked Senator Obama if he believed “Senator Clinton was honest about her past.”[iii]

Mr. Stephanopoulos wanted to ask Senator Obama what type of tree he would choose to be and why, but he thought the question would not generate controversy.

The former Clinton Administration hack was not the only person who asked stupid questions. ABC News tracked down a voter who was offended by Senator Obama’s inability to accessorize. “I want to know if you believe in the American flag. I am not questioning your patriotism, but all our servicemen, policemen and EMS wear the flag,” said Nash McCabe from Latrobe, Pennsylvania. “I want to know why you don’t?”[iv]

ABC News was able to locate a person who would have asked Senator Obama why does he hate America, but doctors would not guarantee Charles Manson would take his anti psychotic medication before the debate.

Prompted by disingenuous Fox News personality Sean Hannity, Mr. Stephanopoulos asked Senator Obama a question regarding “the general theme of patriotism in your relationships. A gentleman named William Ayers, he was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970’s… Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem?”[v]

Mr. Stephanopoulos asked if Senator Obama agreed with the menacing rap group Public Enemy’s assertion that 911 is indeed a joke, but the question and answer were edited from the debate.

Parenthetically, this was the first presidential debate on free TV. The prior debates were on cable television. Free TV suggests more exposure. People who are bitter and cling to guns and religion are too poor to afford cable TV, therefore were denied the facility to witness prior debates.

The stupid questions point to a greater problem Senator Obama addressed during the debate in Philadelphia. The politics of distraction contaminated the Democratic presidential campaign.

The presidential campaign dragged interminably. The media ran out of stories to cover, therefore the Mediacracy started to focus and draw conclusions from juvenile issues, such as Senator Obama bad bowling performance. He can’t bowl, he is not a regular guy, therefore he is not qualified to be president.

On April 6, Senator Obama made a comment during a fundraiser in San Francisco. He tried to explain some of the challenges of his presidential campaign in “former coal and steel towns” and rural Pennsylvania. “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and… the jobs have been gone now for twenty five years, and nothing has replaced them. It’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,”[vi] said Senator Obama. This comment reinforced the Mediacracy’s latest narrative of Senator Obama being an arrogant, condescending politician.

During the April 10th edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews, the loquacious host spoke with disgraced MSNBC correspondent David Shuster about Senator Obama’s inability to connect with average Americans. Senator Obama “ is not that good at that – handshaking in a diner… Barack doesn’t seem to know how to do that right,” said Mr. Matthews. “He (Obama) doesn’t do that well,” said Mr. Shuster. Predictably, Mr. Matthews interrupted Mr. Shuster. “What’s so hard about doing a diner? I don’t get it. Why doesn’t he go in there and say, ‘Did you see the papers today? What do you think about that team? How did we do last night? Just some regular connection,”[vii] said Mr. Matthews.

Furthermore, Mr. Matthews and Mr. Shuster talked about Senator Obama’s perilous adventure in a diner while he campaigned in Indiana. Mr. Shuster described the scene to the motormouth host. Senator Obama was offered coffee. He declined the offer. Instead he asked for orange juice. “No,” said Mr. Matthews. The political talk show host was aghast. Mr. Shuster assured Mr. Matthews it was a true story, not an urban legend. “And it’s just one of those sort of weird things. You know, when the owner of the diner says, ‘Here, have some coffee,’ you say, ‘Yes, thank you,’ and, ‘Oh, can I also please have some orange juice, in addition to this?’ You don’t just say, ‘No, I'll take orange juice,’ and then turn away and start shaking hands,” said Mr. Shuster. “You don’t ask for a substitute on the menu,”[viii] said Mr. Matthews.

Had Mr. Obama attended the Finishing School in Le Institut Villa Pierrefeu or Le Institut Alpin Videmanette in Switzerland as a young black man and learned the proper way to shake hands, or the art of ordering a beverage at a public establishment, or mastered the ability to knock down phallic pins at commercial sporting venue, or learned how to accessorize his wardrobe, or learned how to engage in conversation with the idle, ordinary, pedestrian folk from the heartland of America, then the Mediacracy would have labeled Senator Obama effete. Sometimes a black man just can’t win in America.

The Mainstream Media (MSM) labeled Senator Obama an elitist, someone who inherently cannot understand the problems of average Americans. Senator Obama is arrogant. He is condescending like the former governor of the ultra liberal state of Massachusetts and failed presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. Coincidently, both have un-American sounding names.

Like a four-year-old child with a new toy, Mr. Matthews clutched the elitist accusation. Mr. Matthews was interviewing the presumptive Republican nominee Senator McCain during the April 15th edition of Hardball. “We’ve had enough softball, Senator,” implying he was going to ask him a tough question. “It’s time for the show to start here… Let me ask you a tough one here… Is Barack Obama an elitist?,” asked Mr. Matthews. Senator McCain was grateful he was not asked to identify five differences between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. “No. But I do believe that his statements were elitist,” said Senator McCain.

Initially, Senator Clinton was a victim of the Mainstream Media. She was portrayed as someone who was unlikable. People hate the way she talks, laughs, and the pantsuits she wears. Public opinion polls were used as evidence against her. The Mediacracy ridiculed her after she lost the Iowa Caucus. The Mainstream Media looked forward to writing her political obituary after the New Hampshire primary, but the Senator from New York by way of Arkansas managed to survive despite the attacks from the media.

Senator Clinton attempted to exploit Senator Obama’s inexperience and association with Reverend Jeremiah Wright during the presidential campaign. It affected her poll numbers, reducing her approval ratings below 40%. However, the elitism issue allowed Senator Clinton to demonize Senator Obama as someone who is “elitist, out of touch and, frankly, patronizing.”[ix]

Senator Clinton is questioning Senator Obama’s toughness. “Considering his financial advantage, the question ought to be, why can’t he close the deal?” Mrs. Clinton said outside a polling place in a northern suburb of Philadelphia. “Why can’t he win in a state like this?”[x]

Senator Obama is unable to get votes from Senator Clinton’s core constituency. Her convincing primary victory was due to “women, older voters and less affluent and less educated voters; among white union members with no college education, she won almost three quarters of the vote, polling showed.”[xi] Senator Obama is unable to get sufficient support from Catholic voters.

The Clinton campaign and her surrogates have portrayed Senator Obama’s supporters as “the Gucci-wearing latte-drinking self-centered egotistical people.”[xii] Apparently, there are not enough of those people in Pennsylvania.

Senator Clinton recast herself as the granddaughter of a Pennsylvania factory worker. As a child, her grandfather taught her how to use a weapon, and she enjoys hunting. While campaigning in a bar, Senator Clinton drank a shot glass full of whisky with a beer chaser in order to appear ordinary.

Senator Obama attempted to remind voters that Senator Clinton was also labeled an elitist, but she is trying to portray herself as an average person, “talking like she’s Annie Oakley. Hillary Clinton’s out there like she’s on the duck blind every Sunday. She’s packing a six-shooter. Come on, she knows better.”[xiii] The Democratic presidential campaign has degraded into which candidate is most like the average voter.

The issue of race was always lurking in the background, but none of the prior primary contests offered any evidence of racism. Pennsylvania changed that. A math geek who studies exit polls would have “found stark evidence that Mr. Obama’s race could be a problem in the general election. Sixteen percent of white voters said race mattered in deciding who they voted for, and just 54 percent of those voters said they would support Mr. Obama in a general election; 27 percent of them would vote for Mr. McCain if Mr. Obama was the Democratic nominee, and 16 percent said they would not vote at all.”[xiv]

In February, Pennsylvania Governor and Clinton super delegate Ed Rendell spoke about the Pennsylvania primary during an interview with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. “You’ve got some conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African American candidate,”said Mr. Rendell.[xv]

Usually voters will not admit to pollsters they are racists. However, their answers may indicate a predisposition towards racism. A Pew Poll indicated “white Democrats who don’t favor him are much more likely… to believe interracial dating is wrong, that immigrants pose a threat to American values and that equal rights for minorities have been pushed too far.”[xvi]

Furthermore, “one in four white Democrats with a negative opinon of [Senator Obama] believes he is a Muslim.”[xvii]

Senator Obama campaigned in Pennsylvania for six weeks. He was behind by 19 points in the opinion polls prior to the primary. The charismatic Illinois Senator outspent Senator Clinton by a margin of 2 to 1. But Senator Obama was able to reduce Senator Clinton’s lead to ten percent in six weeks. Given ample time and sufficient resources, the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination was unable to convince Pennsylvanians he is a better candidate for president than Senator Clinton. “Clinton and Obama have virtually identical stances on the issues, but it still has the power to divide voters along the lines of race.”[xviii]

Race becoming an issue is not a surprise. After the New York primary, I talked with my father about the presidential campaign. He spoke of a community center he frequents and meets with other Hispanics and they were talking about the Senator Obama. The majority of the people at the community center said they would never vote for a black man for president. They were not the stereotypical white, southern bigots who get angry at mentioning civil rights. They were minorities, immigrants in the United States who resent Barack Obama’s candidacy. My father was disappointed and so was I.

Senator Obama’s enthusiastic support for president made me believe race was not an issue and the United States finally grasped Dr Martin Luther King’s dream of a better America, but the enthusiasm made me forget how deep the issue of racism penetrates the fabric of our country. Reminded that people from my own ethnic background are racists was demoralizing. It was like finding out there was no such thing as Santa Claus and hope is futile.

On second thought, Senator Obama is not a damaged candidate. The United States is a damaged country.


[i] “The Low Road to Victory,” The New York Times, April 23, 2008.
[ii] Ari Berman, “Pennsylvania’s Obamicans,” The Nation, May 5, 2008.
[iii] Transcript Democratic Presidential Debate in Philadelphia, The New York Times, April 16, 2008.
[iv] Transcript Democratic Presidential Debate in Philadelphia, The New York Times, April 16, 2008.
[v] Transcript Democratic Presidential Debate in Philadelphia, The New York Times, April 16, 2008.
[vi] Gaiutra Bahadur, “The Keys to the Keystone State,” The Nation, May 5, 2008.
[vii] “On Hardball, Matthews and Shuster Critiqued Obama’s Weird Beverage Selection at Indiana Diner,” Media Matters for America, April, 11, 2008.
[viii] “On Hardball, Matthews and Shuster Critiqued Obama’s Weird Beverage Selection at Indiana Diner,” Media Matters for America, April, 11, 2008.
[ix] John M Broder, “Democrats Wrangle Over Words and Beliefs,” The New York Times, April 14, 2008.
[x] Adam Nagourney, “The Bruising Will Go On for the Party, Too,” The New York Times, April 23, 2008.
[xi] Patrick Healy, “Clinton Clearly Outduels Obama in Pennsylvania,” The New York Times, April 23, 2008.
[xii] Countdown with Keith Olbermann, April 30, 2008.
[xiii] John M Broder, “Democrats Wrangle Over Words and Beliefs,” The New York Times, April 14, 2008.
[xiv] Adam Nagourney, “The Bruising Will Go On for the Party, Too,” The New York Times, April 23, 2008.
[xv] Gaiutra Bahadur, “The Keys to the Keystone State,” The Nation, May 5, 2008.
[xvi] Gaiutra Bahadur, “The Keys to the Keystone State,” The Nation, May 5, 2008.
[xvii] Gaiutra Bahadur, “The Keys to the Keystone State,” The Nation, May 5, 2008.
[xviii] Gaiutra Bahadur, “The Keys to the Keystone State,” The Nation, May 5, 2008.