Legal Commentary

A Nit

By Big Tent Democrat

Not the biggest deal but I hate silly stupid stuff whether its the Media or the blogs. In this case it is a twofer. Both the normally solid NYTimes reporter John Harwood and MYDD blogger Todd Beeton forward the idea that Barack Obama is outperforming Bill Clinton among white voters. Harwood writes:

In last week's New York Times/CBS News poll, Mr. Obama drew 44 percent support among whites -- a higher proportion than Bill Clinton captured in his general election victories.

More . . .

Beeton further cites the unreliable Q pollster Peter Brown who says "Sen. Obama appears headed for the best showing of any Democratic candidate among white voters in a generation, going back at least to Jimmy Carter in 1976 and perhaps even to Lyndon Johnson in 1964 . . " This is, in a word, ridiculous. Let's assume for the sake of argument, the high end Times poll (the one that had Obama winning by 13) is correct and Obama gets 44% of the white vote - it still will not compare to Bill Clinton's 1996 performance since Clinton ran only 3 points behind Bob Dole among white voters (Perot took 9% of the white vote.) Clinton won Georgia, Arkansas and Louisiana (Obama will win none of these.) Look, Obama has run a great general election campaign (watching him talk about his grandmother was especially moving just now) - we do not need to hype his work with silly nonsense. Obama is helping to create a new Democratic majority, winning younger white voters as well as Latinos and African Americans in record numbers. No need to misstate facts to praise him.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).