Hilary and Obama Road Show Day 3

Here we are on the third day of the Ethnic Presidency blog blitz and the polls are showing an even split at 45%. Read the third excerpt from The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Affects the Race to the White House, by Earl Ofari Hutchinson.

There were also mixed signals if whether being a woman would help more than hurt Clinton even with women in a wide segment of America. In a Newsweek poll in July 2007, fewer voters said they would vote for a woman candidate for president than a black candidate. Hillary scored just as dismal when asked whether the country was ready for a female president. More said no to this question than said no for a black president. The gender reluctance by big chunks of voters was in part offset by the experience factor. Hillary scored big on this in the polls.

The Hillary distaste in part explained why in February 2007 Hollywood mogul David Geffen, a long time Clinton family cheerleader and campaign bankroller sucker punched Clinton with the knock that she would polarize voters. The implication was that she would be a disaster for the Democrats if she were to get the party presidential bid. Geffen rapped Clinton at the moment that he and some other Hollywood movie big shots pumped a reported cool million dollars into Obama’s campaign coffers.

At the same moment, a slew of conservative hit groups loudly announced they had sunk loads of cash into a pack of “stop Hillary” websites, muckraking pieces and scheduled attack ads on her. They vowed this was just the start of a freewheeling, no holds barred disinformation effort to sabotage her campaign.

For much more information about Earl Ofari Hutchinson and The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Affects the Race to the White House, visit his blog blitz homepage. To order your copy of the Ethnic Presidency, visit the author's website or Amazon .

Hilary and Obama Road Show Day Two

Are you following the Hilary and Obama Road Show? I am participating in a virtual book tour for the Ethic Presidency blog blitz. Read the second excerpt from author Earl Ofari Hutchinson and his book The Ethnic Presidency.

The ethic jockeying of Clinton and Obama was really only a side show in the Democratic primaries. If either one of them got the nomination, they had a lock on the black vote, perhaps even a record turnout and vote of blacks. The Latino and Asian vote was another matter. It was very much in play both in the Democratic primaries, and possibly in the general election as well. The dash to La Raza’s convention by Obama and Clinton, and to just about any other major Latino or Asian political or voter forum nationally was a mandatory stop that both had to make.

The scramble for leading endorsements from top Latino elected officials was vital.For the moment though, Clinton had the political juice to get the biggest of the big names among Latino politicians in her camp. She also showed that she was adept at thinking on her feet to head off a potential public relations disaster with Asian-American supporters. When several Asian foreign language reporters were blocked from entering a Clinton townhall event in San Francisco in February 2007, Hillary rushed back to the city to hold a special session with Asian journalists there and that prominently included the journalists snubbed earlier.


The trek to Miami and other Latino conferences, and rallies, was only part of Obama’s plan to stay in the hunt with Hillary for the Latino vote. In a campaign stop in San Antonio, Texas, in July, Obama brashly attempted to wrap himself in the mantle of Cesar Chavez, the revered 1960s Latino labor leader and civil rights icon. Being an unknown political quantity among Latinos was only one problem for Obama. The other was the latent tensions and at times low intensity warfare that raged between blacks and Latinos in some cities such as Los Angeles over jobs, and immigration, and at times exploded in gang and prison violence. This could severely damage Obama’s court of Latino voters in the nation’s biggest delegate state, California. In Los Angeles County, Latinos made up nearly one-third of the voters.

For much more information about Earl Ofari Hutchinson and The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Affects the Race to the White House, visit his blog blitz homepage - To order your copy of the Ethnic Presidency, visit Earl Ofari Hutchinson's website or Amazon here.