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Black voters not yet sold on Obama – or Oprah
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With all the speculation about whether Oprah’s support will raise Barack Obama’s standing with voters, the truth is nobody knows. It’s not a done deal that America’s Motivation Queen can do for a presidential candidate what she’s done for books. That is, turn Obama, who is universally liked and admired, yet about whom doubts persist regarding his relative youth, inexperience and readiness, into someone who can clinch the Democratic nomination and win the election.
Blacks are among the most torn. Just two weeks ago, a poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies showed Hillary Clinton beating Obama 83 percent to 74 percent among blacks on an overall favorability rating. She also beat him among blacks on her positions on the war in Iraq, Social Security and health care.
So, will the Oprah factor have any impact on this campaign? A few hours at a black beauty shop, where political debates take place constantly, helps to put things in perspective. Here’s what I learned from talking with the male stylists and their female clients at Reubens: The Beauty Specialists in New York last week. Black people get indignant at the suggestion that they need Oprah to tell them whom to vote for. But her willingness to step up in an aggressive way for the first viable black presidential candidate we’ve seen could help some people overcome their reservations about Obama, and ask, “Why not?”
“Of course it wouldn’t influence me,” Dolores Coards, a retired schoolteacher from Washington Heights, N.Y., retorted when I asked her if Oprah’s endorsement of Obama would affect her vote. “It would be a sad day when that happens.”
Coards makes up her own mind about such things. She has no bad feelings toward Winfrey or Obama, and thinks Winfrey’s support for Obama is a good thing, since having a proudly black woman endorse him helps counter criticism that Obama isn’t “black enough.” But Coards is leaning toward Clinton, who she thinks is bright, sane and has the right instincts. And she’s not sure America “is ready for a black president,” she told me.
Eric Sample, 53, and Ruben Ellison, 57, co-owners of the beauty shop, and customer Helen Markland, a 42-year-old accountant, also dismissed the idea that Oprah’s endorsement will affect how they vote. Sample said issues that are important to Winfrey, the billionaire, may well be different from those that are important to him. Markland considers Obama too inexperienced to be president and favors Clinton because of her strength and intelligence. Sample and Ellison also seemed to be leaning toward Clinton.
It was noteworthy that all three said they wouldn’t want the country’s first black president to be responsible for cleaning up the huge mess the Bush administration has created. Meaning, the Iraq War, the troubled economy and the United States’ badly damaged relationships with other countries. Better a well-connected, politically sophisticated white woman to take on the job of mopping up after George W. Bush than the nation’s first black male president, they told me. It was the first time I had heard that argument. But it could well be in the back of other black voters’ minds.
However, Nola Whiteman, 69, a retired educational administrator and another customer at the shop, said she thought Oprah’s support for Obama could help voters change their way of thinking about who is qualified to be president.
“Had I not already decided to vote for him, Oprah’s endorsement would have influenced me,” she said.
She said she originally favored Clinton because she’s a woman and is married to Bill Clinton, whom Whiteman greatly admires, and because she considered Obama too young and inexperienced for the nation’s top job. “Then when I began to look at others who had sought the same office, I started thinking his lack of experience is not as important as his ideas and his zest. He has fervor and honesty. I said to myself, “Why not?”
As Whiteman pointed out, Winfrey’s huge impact on our culture stems not only from the fact that her concerns and interests transcend race, but also from the perception that she weighs her decisions very carefully. So, if Winfrey has mulled it over and concluded that Obama is qualified and ready to be president, others, and not just blacks, might open themselves up to the idea.
“People need to be ready to let go of the idea … that you have to have done step one, step two and step three before you’re ready,” Whiteman explained. “That’s not always true, and it doesn’t apply to everybody.”
I can’t say that Winfrey’s endorsement has influenced my feelings about this campaign so far. My main concern is which of the Democratic candidates has the best chance to win the nomination and the general election. Right now, that seems to be Clinton. But as the campaign goes on, and Winfrey and others like her keep asking, “Why not Obama?” who knows what could happen?
SHERYL MCCARTHY
Newsday (MCT)
