October 7, 2008 10:47:12 PM CDT
(Newser) – Barack Obama’s milestone speech on race today covered a lot of ground, and first reactions vary from laudatory on the left to unsatisfied on the right:
Sources: Talking Points Memo, Daily Dish (The Atlantic), National Review blogs
Oct 3, 08 12:15 PM CDT The ugly tactic of “push polling” has resurfaced in key swing states, as fake pollsters seek to influence voters with scam questions that present an unfavorable view of Barack Obama, the Guardian reports. On one call, a Jewish voter in Pennsylvania says, she was asked if she would vote for Obama if she knew he was supported by the militant organization Hamas. "It is scare tactics," she said. "It is terribly underhand." More »
Sep 29, 08 3:40 PM CDT Barack Obama’s revolutionary candidacy is in trouble, and the very things that make him a breath of fresh air are to blame, James Carroll writes in the Boston Globe. “Race, gender, and class define American identity, but Obama, just by being who he is, directly challenges the core assumptions that undergird each,” Carroll writes. And that makes voters, and supporters, nervous. More »
Sep 24, 08 10:52 AM CDT This election’s smear campaigns are precision strikes flying under the radar, unlike the publicity assault from the Swift Boat attacks last time around, the New York Times reports. An independent group has run cable ads heavy on racial overtones in Detroit’s suburbs, linking Barack Obama to controversial black figures such as his former pastor, Detroit’s disgraced mayor and, in a coming ad, Kenya’s prime minister. More »
Sep 6, 08 11:14 AM CDT Michigan has gone blue in four out of the past five presidential elections, but the crucial state is anything but a lock for Barack Obama this year. The Wall Street Journal assesses a slew of factors—the state's highly charged racial politics, John McCain's good standing among GOP moderates and independents, Obama’s absence from the state primary, and his association with the disgraced mayor—and finds that the bellwether state's 17 electoral votes are very much in play. More »
Aug 29, 08 7:27 AM CDT Barack Obama's rise to the top of the Democratic Party has a special resonance for one group: African-American business leaders who, like the candidate, were among the first blacks to enter into all-white industries. As the New York Times reports, black lawyers, bankers, and corporate titans see in Obama an echo of their own climbs—and are expressing their excitement by raising millions for the campaign. More »
Barack Obama • race • Jeremiah Wright
