Yes, Barack Obama is America’s first Black President, and African Americans overwhelmingly voted for him. But this is nothing new. African Americans would have overwhelmingly voted for whoever the Democratic candidate was.

Obama received broad-based support from all of the traditionally Democrat-leaning groups. But where he really gained support was younger voters and Hispanics. Not that Hispanics weren’t already leaning Democratic in previous elections, but in this election they chose Obama over McCain by 67 to 31 percent.

Frankly I am surprised that Hispanics have not voted Democrat in similar proportions on a more regular basis. Democrats are generally more pro-immigration, pro-labor, pro-middle class, pro-diversity, and pro-social welfare programs. African Americans figured it out long ago, and typically support Democrats at a 2-1 ratio.

Hispanics are responsible for almost all of the population growth in the country over the past two censuses and this doesn’t appear to be likely to change anytime soon. This, coupled with higher voter participation and more Democratic voting tendencies does not bode well for the Republican party - or the American people.

One party rule is not necessarily a good thing if it leads to too much government and too much bureaucracy. What we need are choices. If the Democrats are too far left, and the Republicans too far right, how about a third party with moderate positions?

If Barack Obama gets elected next week, there are a lot of people who think this is proof positive that America is now color-blind, or at least that racial discrimination has been reduced to a minimal level.

While electing the first African American President would be ground-breaking progress in race relations, let’s not overreact. Should Obama win, he will have had to counter the roughly 6% of the public who would not in any circumstances vote for him because he is black. In comparing him with John McCain, it is amazing the race is even close.

Might the “Obama effect” lead to an end to affirmative action? I think this is very much a possibility. There are several examples of high-profile people of color in the Bush administration - Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Alberto Gonzales, Norman Mineta come to mind. If an African American is elected President, there will be significant pressure to abolish Affirmative Action programs under the mis-guided assumption that they are no longer needed. Several states have passed ballot initiatives prohibiting race conscious programs, and more are certain to try it if Obama is elected.

Just because there are a few high-profile minorities in positions of power does not mean racial discrimination does not exist in the workplace. Affirmative action programs exist to correct evidence of historical discrimination, and should be sun-setted when racial parity is achieved for the entire workforce, not just the top position.

When Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for President over the weekend, lots of folks assumed he did this because he is African American and wanted to support the first black candidate with a real chance of winning. Why is it so hard to believe that Powell actually thinks Obama would make a better President than John McCain?

Think of the political risks Powell is taking by making this endorsement. He has always been a loyal Republican foot soldier, taking a disproportional share of the blame for presenting faulty intelligence to the United Nations in the lead up to the Iraq war. He was essentially thrown out as the sacrificial lamb for Bush and Cheney - his career ended, reputation tarnished, and legacy questioned. If ever a guy could be excused for holding a grudge, this would be one of those situations. Yet Powell has scarcely criticized the Bush administration, and treated them with kid gloves in his published memoir.

So despite the fact that the majority of the American people feel Obama would make a better President than McCain for a whole host of reasons, Powell is being criticized for simply supporting a fellow African American. Why is it that the very people who insist race isn’t an issue are always the first to make it an issue?

If you read the recent press about this survey, which was designed to gauge public opinion about race, you would conclude that Obama has a huge mountain to climb to cancel out the racist vote. According to one of the AP stories, “one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them ‘lazy,’ ‘violent,’ responsible for their own troubles”.

First problem - the graph shows the percentage of white Democrats answering “lazy” to be 10%, and “violent” 13%. I wasn’t a math major, but both of these responses look to be far south of one-third.

Second problem - according to the survey, the answers from the black respondents (about 12%) don’t appear to be significantly different than all respondents. I suspect that if you asked the same question of whites, Hispanics, Asians, or Americans in general, you would probably get similar answers.

Clearly there are still race issues in this country that put Obama at a disadvantage. But in order to properly quantify it, we would first need to do a survey to assess the inherent bias against rich, old guys who don’t know how many homes they own.

I read that opinion polls show that 6 percent of the voters in the U.S. would not vote for a black person under any circumstances. Although racism is not as bad as it used to be, it is clearly not gone. What a shame.

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

 

‘We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,’ party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

 

State election rules allow parties to assign ‘election challengers’ to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they ‘have a good reason to believe’ that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a ‘true resident of the city or township.’

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WASHINGTON — On the night that Senator Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for president, Roderick J. Harrison plans to pop open a bottle of Champagne and sit riveted before the television with his wife and 12-year-old son.

Mr. Harrison, a demographer who is black, says he expects to feel chills when Mr. Obama becomes the first black presidential candidate to lead a major party ticket. But as the Democratic convention gets under way, Mr. Harrison’s anticipation is tempered by uneasiness as he wonders: Will Mr. Obama’s success further the notion that the long struggle for racial equality has finally been won?

Mr. Obama has received overwhelming support from black voters, many of whom believe he will help bridge the nation’s racial divide. But even as they cheer him on, some black scholars, bloggers and others who closely follow the race worry that Mr. Obama’s historic achievements might make it harder to rally support for policies intended to combat racial discrimination, racial inequities and urban poverty.

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The U.S. House of Representatives on July 30 passed a resolution honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander soldiers who fought in the Civil War, culminating a five-year battle to help correct the historical record.Historians have recently uncovered evidence that hundreds of soldiers of AAPI heritage fought on both the Union and Confederate sides, continuing a long tradition of significant AAPI contribu­tions to the history of the United States. House Resolution 415 posthumously honors Edward Day Cohota and Joseph L. Pierce, both of Chinese ancestry, as examples of this overlooked group of men.

“The history of America would be to­tally different without the contributions of Asian Americans. Asian Americans have been an integral part of making our country great,” said Rep. Mike Honda, who introduced the bill. “I am pleased that heroes such as Pierce and Cohota will finally take the place they deserve in our nation’s memory.”

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ORLANDO — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Saturday that his Republican opponent, John McCain, is running a cynical - but not racist - campaign.

“In no way do I think that John McCain’s campaign was being racist,” Obama said. “I think they’re cynical. I think they want to distract people from talking about the real issues.”

Obama tried to focus his two-day, five-city swing through Florida on economic issues - he called on Congress to issue immediately another round of tax rebates that he had suggested for next year - but the campaign repeatedly faced questions about accusations from McCain that the Illinois senator is “playing the race card.”

McCain’s campaign had said that Obama used race Wednesday when he said Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out that Obama “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

Obama was more direct during a Jacksonville fund-raiser in June, when he told supporters, “They’re going to try to make you afraid of me (by saying), ‘He’s young and inexperienced, and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?’”

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If Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama want to snag the young Hispanic vote, they might have to talk more about the Iraq war.

More than half of young Latinos registered to vote said the war was the most important issue, showed a poll taken by Democracia U.S.A., a nonpartisan group. The survey did not ask whether they supported or opposed the war.

The economy came in second as 42 percent of the 18-to-29-year-olds polled said that was the central issue for them.

The war is most important to a majority because there is a growing population of Hispanics serving in Iraq.

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