Sorry, Joe, but that vaunted South Carolina firewall you were counting on (based on taking African American voters for granted) just provided an explosive demonstration of spontaneous combustion.
In 2008, African Americans in South Carolina overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton. That is, before the first primary contests actually began. Sure, they loved Obama and dreamed of a black president, but they did not support Obama because they did not believe that the white majority of Americans would vote for an African American.
But when Obama won in lily-white Iowa and Hillary came in THIRD, all of a sudden it looked like whites WOULD vote for a black president, African Americans in South Carolina were energized, and Obama took the state handily.
In like vein, the only appeal Biden (the author of a crime bill that target African Americans) had was his supposed “electability,” but after dismal results in Iowa (fourth place) and New Hampshire (fifth place), along with Biden’s emotional outbursts and really offensive insults to VOTERS, that aura of “electability” has been shattered. It remains to be seen who can pick up the pieces.
With troubled histories on race from Bernie, Buttigieg (fired his city’s first black police chief for investigating racism and oversaw race relations deteriorating in his small city) and Klobuchar (troubled record of aggressively prosecuting blacks, including an eleven-year-old), it remains to be seen who can pick up the minority votes in the upcoming Nevada caucus and South Carolina primary before Super Tuesday on March 3.
Sorry, Joe, but that vaunted South Carolina firewall you were counting on (based on taking African American voters for granted) just provided an explosive demonstration of spontaneous combustion.
In 2008, African Americans in South Carolina overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton. That is, before the first primary contests actually began. Sure, they loved Obama and dreamed of a black president, but they did not support Obama because they did not believe that the white majority of Americans would vote for an African American.
But when Obama won in lily-white Iowa and Hillary came in THIRD, all of a sudden it looked like whites WOULD vote for a black president, African Americans in South Carolina were energized, and Obama took the state handily.
In like vein, the only appeal Biden (the author of a crime bill that target African Americans) had was his supposed “electability,” but after dismal results in Iowa (fourth place) and New Hampshire (fifth place), along with Biden’s emotional outbursts and really offensive insults to VOTERS, that aura of “electability” has been shattered. It remains to be seen who can pick up the pieces.
With troubled histories on race from Bernie, Buttigieg (fired his city’s first black police chief for investigating racism and oversaw race relations deteriorating in his small city) and Klobuchar (troubled record of aggressively prosecuting blacks, including an eleven-year-old), it remains to be seen who can pick up the minority votes in the upcoming Nevada caucus and South Carolina primary before Super Tuesday on March 3.