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Obama’s win in Ohio not a breeze
Prior to the March primary and to Tuesday’s general election, the following question was asked in this space: Can a black presidential candidate win Ohio.
In the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton swept the state, posting a 9 percent win over Barack Obama. The U.S. senator from New York and wife of former President Bill Clinton won handily in the Democratic strongholds of Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
However, she lost the nomination, and so the general election featured Obama and Republican John McCain.
Thus the question about the prospects of a black candidate in a state that went for Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 and rejected a black Republican, then secretary of state and former state Treasurer J. Kenneth Blackwell, in the 2005 race for governor.
It was suggested here that Obama would face an uphill battle, not only statewide, but in this region.
Well, he won Ohio Tuesday night by 205,312 votes, but failed to get as many votes statewide as Democrat John Kerry did four years ago.
Indeed, Obama carried 19 of Ohio’s 88 counties. But the votes he received in the heavily populated areas, such as Cleveland, gave him the edge.
Even in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, Obama’s margin of victory over McCain was less than Kerry’s margin over Bush.
Winning coalition
The results make clear that although the U.S. senator from Illinois was able to put together a winning coalition of black, young white and college-educated voters, he was not able to garner the level of support from older, white, blue-collar Democrats who have been the mainstay of the party in Ohio.
They have comprised the Democratic base and have been a loyal voting block. Obama will have to find a way of winning them over before the next election.
Being president gives him a national bully pulpit from which he can lead a dialogue about the racial divide that still exists in this country — even with his being the first black president in U.S. history.
Not to be a killjoy in the midst of the national orgy of goodwill that has been going on since Tuesday night, but we aren’t suddenly living in a color blind society. To be sure, the divide has been narrowed, but it continues to exists — as voting in states such as Ohio showed.
However, President Obama will be in the best position of any of his predecessors to grab this highly charged issue by the horns. After he is sworn in Jan. 20, he can provide the leadership many Americans, especially older ones, need to work through their fears of those who are different.
Indeed, Obama can speak directly to the black community, which continues to be confronted with serious challenges, such as the break down of the family in the inner cities, high crime rates and joblessness.
White presidents, while acknowledging the federal government’s responsibility to help address the myriad problems, have been reluctant to offer the kind of straight talk that one of America’s leading entertainers and community activists, Bill Cosby, is known for publicly delivering.
Tim Russert interview
Last October, Cosby and Dr. Alvin Poussaint appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and spoke to host Tim Russert about their book “Come On, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors.” The book addresses issues such as the plight of the black family, black on black violence, high school dropout rates and the need for parental responsibility. Poussaint is a professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School.
Here’s what they wrote:
“For the last generation or two, as our communities dissolved and our parenting skills broke down, no one has suffered more than our young black men. There is one statistic that captures the bleakness. In 1950, five out of every six black children were born into two-parent homes. Today, the number is less than two out of six. In poor communities, that number is lower still.”
As president, Obama, a lawyer and a former community activist in Chicago, will be well positioned to address the systemic problems that have plagued the black community — without being accused of condescension.
He will have the power to engage the country in a national dialogue. That’s cause for celebration.