> O's campaign has shown that White Americans
> have come along some compared with 20 years
> ago, but not enough. There is still too much
> racism in too many of 'em.
Most often than not, fatalism reinforces the status quo. Things may turn out this way, of course. But it's too soon to tell. People are in motion and, to paraphrase Babe Ruth, in politics anything can happen. Nobody knows for sure whether Obama will get the nomination. But if he does, the Republican coalition has enough divisions for a smart campaign to exploit, hopefully fostering greater class unity. The war is still a big issue. And the economy has grown as an issue in people's minds. David Laibman persuaded me that Obama would be in a position to fracture the Republican coalition, specifically taking away chunks of the "pro-government/populist conservative" and "religious/socially conservative" blocs (to use Pew's typology) that tend to lean more towards progressive domestic economic policies (distrustful of corporations, for safety net, environmental protection, etc.). That's a real possibility, I think.