closetpuritan (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} closetpuritan) wrote,@ 2007-12-19 10:44:00 |
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Good news for Obama...
And not because of some new poll where he's ahead. Or at least, not that per se. According to this article, there's little to no Bradley effect any more.
Frankly, I think he's more electable (at least in the general election) than Clinton, who tops the list of people that Americans would vote against. Plus, he's taller. Bush is the only exception to the rule that the shorter candidate loses, and I won't rule out the possibility that he cheated.
On a side note, I can't help but wonder if the most lasting barrier women will face in politics is the fact that they're generally shorter than men.
And not because of some new poll where he's ahead. Or at least, not that per se. According to this article, there's little to no Bradley effect any more.
But it seems unlikely that this time around there will be an "Obama effect." A report by the Pew Research Center, which matched the polls to the results for five black candidates in statewide races during the 2006 midterms, found that they were highly accurate. "Fewer people are making judgments about candidates based solely, or even mostly, on race itself," concluded the Pew report. This change in voting patterns enables black candidates to make substantial rather than symbolic runs for state or even national office and therefore lends different potential priorities to black political possibilities. But to be successful they have to nurture a different base and create a different coalition of interests than their predecessors did.
"The civil rights generation saw politics as the next step in the struggle for civil rights," explains Salim Muwakkil, senior editor of In These Times. "Their aim was to get their agenda taken up by whoever won. But this new generation do not conceive politics as the next step but just as what it is--politics. Their aim is to win."Frankly, I think he's more electable (at least in the general election) than Clinton, who tops the list of people that Americans would vote against. Plus, he's taller. Bush is the only exception to the rule that the shorter candidate loses, and I won't rule out the possibility that he cheated.
On a side note, I can't help but wonder if the most lasting barrier women will face in politics is the fact that they're generally shorter than men.
