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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Jim Webb on the coolness of working-class whites toward Barack Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clearly, throughout this presidential election, candidates, journalists and, yes, even bloggers will be talking much about race, feeling for new boundaries with our toes without actually stepping over the precipice.
This morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) had his toe out — carefully describing the cool feelings of the white working class toward Barack Obama, the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
Keep in mind that Webb, like everyone else in the world, has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Obama.
Click on the frame to listen, but the interesting stuff starts just before the five minute mark. Webb is responding to a question from former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan.
Says Webb:
”This is a very powerful cultural group that’s always underestimated, and it’s not simply in the Appalachian Mountains. But that original settlement that I wrote about began in Pennsylvania, went into Pennsylvania, went down the Appalachian Mountains into northern Georgia, northern Alabama, then spilled west.
“They formed sort of the core group in terms of value systems of working class white America, and we shouldn’t be surprised at the way that they’re voting right now.
“And the reason I would say that is — black America and Scots-Irish America are like tortured siblings. They both have long history and they both missed the boat when it came to all of the larger benefits that a lot of other people were able to receive. There’s a saying in the Appalachian mountains that they say to one another, and it’s, “if you’re poor and white, you’re out of sight.”
“The fact that they would line up and vote this way is not so much a comment on Barrack. I think Barack is saying a lot of good things that will appeal to this cultural group in time.
“When I hear people say this is racism, my back gets up a little bit, because that’s my cultural group. This isn’t Selma, 1965.
This is the result of how affirmative action, which was basically a justifiable concept when it applied to African Americans, expanded to every single ethnic group in America that was not white, and these were the people who had not received benefits and were not getting anything out of it. And they’re basically saying, hey, let’s pay attention to what has happened to this cultural group in terms of opportunities.
“…If this cultural group could get at the same table as black America you could rechange populist American politics. Because they have so much in common in terms of what they need out of government.”
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Barr could put Georgia in play, and the Obama campaign knows it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Signs are popping up all over that Georgia could have a front row seat in the November race for president — thanks to Bob Barr, if he remains the Libertarian in the race.
Late yesterday, Matt Towery and his InsiderAdvantage unveiled a statewide poll, with a 3.6 percent margin of error, that — presuming Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee, and Barr as the Libertarian choice — had the following horse-race figures:
— John McCain, Republican, at 45%
— Barack Obama, Democrat, at 35%
— Bob Barr, Libertarian, at 8%
For now, pay no attention to those two top lines, which could be kind of soft. Stick with Barr, whose presence in Georgia and metro Atlanta goes back two decades and more.
No one knows what he’ll do in the rest of the nation. That depends on cash and organization. But in his home state, Barr is a known quantity.
“That 8 percent in Georgia could in fact hold — it could go down, but it’s enough to make the state competitive,” Towery said today.
Right now, Barr’s polling mimics the performance of Ross Perot and his Reform Party candidacies in 1992 and 1996. In his first run, Perot won nearly 14 percent of the vote in Georgia. In his second, he dropped to 6 percent.
But in each case, Bill Clinton was the beneficiary. In ‘92, Clinton won Georgia. In ‘96, he came within 1.2 percent of taking the state.
Don’t think that the Obama campaign isn’t watching every move that Barr makes. Should he become the Libertarian candidate, how Barr does in Georgia — worth 15 electoral votes — becomes especially important.
The Obama campaign has identified more than a dozen swing states where foot soldiers are already on the ground, preparing for November. In the South, North Carolina is one of those states. Georgia is another.
In Atlanta, eight full-time Obama workers are quietly putting together get-out-the-vote plans and setting up voter registration rallies.
To have an operation up and running, more than five months before the vote, bespeaks some serious ambition.
Many of you have also noticed that, as if to punctuate the above, RealClearPolitics has added Georgia to its list of battleground states.
This is what Noah Millman of the American Scene is saying:
Bob Barr is from Georgia. In general, Obama is going to have a tough time in the deep South - even if he gets record African-American turnout in states like Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina, overwhelming white support for the GOP will make an Obama victory impossible.
But if Barr gets a significant vote in his home state, and Obama can generate historic levels of African-American support, there may be a window for Obama to contest Georgia, which would otherwise be out of reach.
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Bush vetoes farm bill; Chambliss calls president’s advisors ‘imprudent’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As promised, President Bush has just vetoed the $300 billion farm bill, supported by Georgia’s two Republican senators and two of seven Republican House members.
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss isn’t hesitating in his defense of legislation that many fiscal conservatives among Republicans oppose. Within minutes of the president’s action, Chambliss’ campaign put out this YouTube clip from last weekend’s state GOP convention, in which the senator promises to work for an override.
Chambliss’ office has also issued the following statement:
“I am deeply disappointed that the President has accepted the imprudent counsel of his advisors and has rejected the farm bill which Congress approved by unprecedented margins. In any bill of this magnitude all parties must accept some compromise. Not only does our plan move in the direction of what the Administration requested, but it also contains many provisions they proposed last spring.
“Unfortunately, the veto will prevent the implementation of all the improvements and reforms included in this farm bill. Conditions have dramatically changed since the passage of the 2002 farm bill and our nation can not afford to operate under an extension of current law for another year. We have crafted a bipartisan and fiscally responsible farm bill and it should become law. Our farmers and ranchers have waited too long for a new farm bill and I will urge my colleagues to over ride the veto.”
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Bloggers of the ‘afrosphere’ think they’ve been shut out of the Democratic National Convention
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, bloggers found out which of them have been awarded credentials to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
About one blog per state was permitted — a total of 55. In Georgia, that means Jon Flack’s Tondee’s Tavern can book its plane tickets. And other blogs may have to resign themselves to cable TV.
Flack says advocacy for Democratic causes was a factor in the DNC selection process.
Tondee’s Tavern is a community blog, operated by several “bartenders.” Flack is a candidate for the Forsyth County commission. Going with him to Denver, under the blog auspices, will be contributor Amy Morton of Macon, who has her own site, Georgia Women Vote. Morton, too, is active in Democratic politics.
Both are white. And many of the objections about the blog selection process are coming from web sites operated by African-Americans.
Says the Dallas Morning News:
[S]ome members of the self-titled “afrosphere” — blogs written or published by African Americans — are angry that the “State Blogger Corps” appears to be mostly white, particularly since the party appears poise to nominate a black candidate, Barack Obama, for president.
“OK, folks, black bloggers to the back of the bus,” read the headline on the African American Political Pundit blog.
Party leaders said the factors in determining state bloggers were readership, Internet ratings and focus on local and state politics, not race…
A second round of blog credentials will be announced before the end of the month, party leaders said, and minority bloggers will be purposely included in that selection.
Andre Walker at Georgia Politics Unfiltered has a posting entitled “Jim Crow raises his ugly head…at the Democratic Convention?”
Says Walker, whose site is a one-man operation:
It wouldn’t surprise me if some state blogs more critical of the Democratic Party were passed over for other blogs who portray Democrats in a more favorable light, but I’m not going to dispute that one way or the other because I don’t know if it’s true or not.
However, there is a bigger issue here that minority bloggers from across the nation are beginning to pick up on. It seems, at first glance, that there is a significant absence of color among the DNCC’s State Blogger Corps.
Several blogs who received credentials expressed concern to Democratic National chairman Howard Dean about the lack of transparency in the selection process.
In the letter, dated May 19, the bloggers wrote:
As long-time progressive state bloggers, we have now witnessed many of our well-respected colleagues from crucial states be passed over. In many states, it appears that parochial politics and hurt egos played a role in these decisions. These concerns run counter to our shared goals of using programs like the state blogger pool to “tear down the walls” in Denver — and better connect the American people with the events on the ground.
The Democratic Party endangers its own long-term viability when it makes fealty a criterion for inclusion. Instead, the Party should act to ensure that it includes its ideological media allies, even if those allies are occasional tactical or strategic critics.
We, the undersigned, have been included in the state credentials pool, despite our own history of criticism of local Democratic actors. This speaks well to the character of our own local parties. But while our peers in other states are being excluded, we’d be remiss in staying silent.
Jon Flack of Tondee’s Tavern is among the signers.
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