Last week, Colin Powell called Barack a “transformational candidate,” and yet it’s easy to hear those words and think they might simply be revealing the politician in Powell. After all, the GOP buttered the general’s bread for decades.1
And remember, we heard during the Democratic primaries — and even now — that Barack’s gonna have a hard time competing in the Appalachian corridor: Western Pennsylvania and Virginia, West Virginia, Eastern Ohio.
Of course, such predictions were and are not-so-subtle references to deep, deep racism.
But I read these things below and I scratch my head and think, “Holy fuck!”
From FiveThirtyEight last Friday:
So a canvasser goes to a woman’s door in Washington, Penn. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she’s planning to vote for. She isn’t sure, has to ask her husband who she’s voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, “We’re votin for the n***er!”
Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: “We’re voting for the n***er.”
In this economy, racism is officially a luxury. How is John McCain going to win if he can’t win those voters?
From The Politico’s Ben Smith a few days ago:
My wife and I did some canvasing for Obama this weekend here in Tampa, Florida. We’re both white and in our mid to late twenties. We were assigned to a mixed-income diverse neighborhood in South Tampa. First house we went to had a group of white, late 20 something males who answered the door. Tattoos, wife beaters, cigarettes, etc.
Nice enough guys though and told us they were voting for Obama. They said they were voting for him because they thought we needed change and because he seemed like he’d get stuff done.
Then, one of them asked us if we knew what Change stood for? He proceeded to tell us that it meant, “Come Help A N***er Get Elected.” He still said he was planning on voting for him though. Got to love America.
From FiveThirtyEight yesterday:
Last week, Julie Hensley made one of her thousands of phone calls on behalf of Barack Obama. A woman answered. As Hensley ran through her short script, the husband suddenly broke in impatiently.
“Ma’am, we’re voting for the n***er.” And hung up.
Hensley wasn’t having it. “I went and made a couple other calls but chafed over this absurdity,” she told us, “so I called them back, as I still had a couple questions for the wife.” This time the man answered, asked pointedly who she was, and when she replied he hung up again.
…
As for Hensley, her story ended with a twist. A couple hours later during a pause in her dials, her phone rang. She recognized the number. “This is going to be good,” she remembers thinking, getting ready to scrap.
It was the husband. He was calling for the woman on whom he’d hung up. She then got something she didn’t expect — an apology. Calmly, Hensley told the man she’d accept his apology on one condition — he had to tell her who he was voting for.
“Oh, I don’t normally talk about it but I feel like I owe you,” the man said. “I am voting for Senator Obama.” He asked if Hensley would like to speak to his wife, as he’d interrupted the original call. Hensley mentioned that she had been surprised when he’d called to apologize. Apparently the husband and wife had been talking the entire couple hours since the original call. “Did she get upset with you?” Hensley asked.
“What do you think?” the man replied.
Tags: 2008 Campaign, Barack Obama, Colin Powell, John McCain, Politics
Sphere: Related Content- I actually believe that Barack is a transformational candidate and I think that Powell thinks so, too. I’m just saying here. [⇑]
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Yikes. I think I lead a very sheltered life. But I’m glad that even some of the people who throw the “n word” around will still vote for Obama.
I think most people would be amazed to know what people act like and think like in various pockets of our culture. My time in the military gave me a view into people from all over the country and these attitudes don’t surprise me at all, although I admit I’m always still a bit amazed at how readily people will say the things they do on television and to strangers on the phone.
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