[DEBATE] : Gary Younge's excellent take on Obama

[Doug Henwood]

On Jun 10, 2008, at 3:05 PM, Sean Jacobs quoted Gary Younge:

> The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,

What an odd comparison for Obama. Lula came out of a socialist party,  
and was presumably a socialist himself. Obama comes out of the  
Democratic Party, and has an agenda that's a hybrid of hedge fund and  
elite nonprofit/NGO.

> Of the 10 blackest states, he won nine; of the 10 whitest, he won  
> seven.

This is an interesting point. In the heavily black states, he got a  
lot of votes from black people. In the heavily white states, he got  
lots of votes from white people. What he couldn't do in mixed states  
is get enough votes from white people to offset the lack of black  
people. It's as if white people in very white states aren't as averse  
to voting for a black guy as those in less white states.

Doug