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Some thoughts on the "minority" race to the White House



For the first time in history there are three "minority" candidates with some real steam behind them in the Presidential race. Barack Obama announced first, the ubiquitous Hillary Clinton made it official next and now Bill Richardson has made his intentions clear. In constrast to the GOP offerings of McCain, Romney, Brownback and Giuliani (so far), the Dems have a truly diverse slate that speak to their base in a meaningful way. I just wish they were more electable...

Debra Dickerson makes some interesting points about Obama at Salon.com (sign in required). I don't buy off on her rationale for calling Obama "not black," but I understand what she's saying. She also shares my concerns about his relative inexperience and other niggling little details that could derail him.

DailyKos has some stats on the nearly worthless "hypothetical match-up polling. Clinton and Obama actually look pretty good here, but either/or polling this early in the game is only good for extending news cycles.

DailyKos also announces that New Mexico Governor, former Congressman, former Secretary of Energy AND UN Ambassador Bill Richardson tosses his hat in the Presidential ring. Richardson doesn't have the "freight train" of support driving Obama now, but he's Latino in a country that's tending Hispanic in some of our biggest states (his website is noticeably bilingual). He's got TONS of experience at several levels of government AND credibility on energy policy (pretty important given our nation's consumption patterns).

This is what I want my Black and Female candidates to look like on paper. Latinos are hardly a homogenous political bloc, but it's hard to see how Obama or Clinton get a lot of grassroots Latino support with Richardson in the primaries. We'll see how Bill Richardson plays on the national stage (it's possible that none of the Dem "frontrunners" have a real chance), but he's a much better candidate than Obama or Clinton, IMHO.

Comments

ProblemWithCaring said…
I have an interesting poston this as well...

http://problemwithcaring.blogspot.com/2007/03/march-5-2007-yes-you-already-know-this.html

Check it out...
1:57 PM
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