“Very low,“ he said. “But they wouldn’t have had to nominate a man. They could have won with Hillary Clinton.” The pollster knows times aren't good and his party is deeply unpopular. Nevertheless, he thought McCain would win.
The reason? Because Barack Obama happens to be black. And that, he thinks, won’t fly with white, blue-collar, union workers.
“One guy told me straight out that he isn’t going to vote for an African-American,“ he said. By the way, neither the pollster nor the worker used the term African-American.
He said a lot of other blue-collar workers are more subtle about it; they say they don’t have any problems with Obama, or that their opposition to him is based on some policy difference.
But then they volunteer that they have plenty of friends who will never vote to put a black man in the White House.
Well, there clearly are people like that, though you could probably spend your whole life in Ann Arbor and not meet any.
However, I question whether those voters would be willing to vote for any Democrat these days. Four years ago, they were sneering at John Kerry because he was “too liberal” and “looked French.” And even my pollster friend said the one thing that could trump race in this election was the economy. I last talked to him before the Wall Street meltdown. And indeed, the polls seem to have swung towards Obama, both nationally and in Michigan, since the depths of the economic crisis began to sink in.
The one thing that surprises me a bit is that labor leaders haven’t been pointing out to the rank-and-file that the next president is likely to replace three Supreme Court justices in his first term.
Make that, three of the most liberal Supreme Court justices. So, who does labor want appointing the justices that will be ruling on, for example, proposed right-to-work legislation?
Who do they want interpreting the Constitution when it comes to issues surrounding their collective bargaining rights?
My guess is that the vast majority of labor will come home to Obama in the end. But the bigger issue is whether the labor movement will continue to be relevant in any major way.
Fewer than twenty percent of those working in Michigan today are union members. Worse, that membership is concentrated in public sector jobs, where there is no right to strike,
Less than eight percent of all private sector jobs are now unionized, and the number drops further every year. Mark Gaffney may be able to get his members out to vote. But labor leaders are doing far less well at getting them to join his unions.
And that’s a problem none of them seems to know how to solve.
Gaffney is ashamed of his union's racist members and truth is he does not want to provide any data on the amount of rednecks he represents..
Fact is the unions in our country have always had struggles with the racism with its ranks...
In one of the most threshold moments in USA Gaffney cannot deliver the UNION vote because of this racism so pervasive in the rank and file and from my vantage point in the executive layers of the unions..
Fact is the UNIONS conflicted positions on race within it's ranks and the failure of the leaders to confront it has created this potential for a UNION BlackOUT...
This one cannot be blamed on those nasty owners and anti-union types..
Posted by: Thrasher | September 25, 2008 at 03:06 PM
This one just makes me curious:
============
"The one thing that surprises me a bit is that labor leaders haven’t been pointing out to the rank-and-file that the next president is likely to replace three Supreme Court justices in his first term.
Make that, three of the most liberal Supreme Court justices. So, who does labor want appointing the justices that will be ruling on, for example, proposed right-to-work legislation?"
==========
Okay, I can sort of guess what Mr. Lessneberry is driving at. Justice John Paul Stevens is 88 years old. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is 75 and, in the age of the warped attack advertisements now being run against John McCain, it is probably acceptable to say, "She's a sick old broad who had cancer and a bunch of other
problems and she's probably going to die soon."
Indeed, the liberal ideology of those two Associate Justices is such that they'd probably both like to retire if Obama is elected, but might wish to keep their seats as long as possible if McCain is elected.
I have no idea which other Justice it is whom Mr. Lessenberry posits as "likely" to retire or expire in the next four years. He doesn't say.
What we do know about federal judicial appointments is this: in this Congress, John McCain was one of the bipartisan group of 14 Senators who tried to break the partisan logjam on the judicial confirmation process. Barack Obama, good foot soldier of the liberal wing that he has been, took no part in that group. Obama has voted in lockstep with his political Godfather and campaign chairman, the odious old-time Cook County dealmaker, Dick Durbin. Durbin sits on the Senate Judiciary and has been at the core of all of the judicial confirmation battles of the last seven years.
For independent voters who don't favor judicial ideologues on either side, that is something to consider.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 25, 2008 at 07:02 PM
Anonymous,
Durbin has never even resided in Cook County, IL. His home is in Springfield, in the middle of the state. He was in the U.S. House before becoming a Senator, representing a district that in included Springfield. If anything, Durbin keeps his hands out of Daleyland (aka Cook County).
Posted by: Rich | September 25, 2008 at 08:52 PM
I do think that Durbin has a Chicago residence, but no matter. I'll apologize for alleging that he was from Cook County. And that is all. Some Michigan Radio listeners might be unfamiliar with Senator Durbin, whom I shall go out of my way to again call, "odious."
Here is one account:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/nextjustice/?id=110007140
Naturally, one might wonder about Durbin and the abortion issue after an exchange like that, and so here is a second illuminating reference for the senior Senator from Illinois:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_/ai_n14877841
Nice to meet you, Senator Durbin.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 25, 2008 at 10:42 PM