Barack Obama has had a Jeremiah Wright problem in North Carolina long before the pastor, of his own volition, inserted himself back into the larger dynamic of Obama's presidential race. Even on the day of the Pennsylvania primary, walking through the Charlotte, NC airport, I heard snippets of Wright conversation. Over the past week, on and off the North Carolina campaign trail, Carolinians have been talking to me about the Reverend Jeremiah.
Down here the original Wright controversy has never gone away. Not nearly as many people saw or heard or read Senator Obama's race speech in Philadelphia as saw or heard or read a minute of Wright. In this culture, chewing over pastors and sermons is a pastime; therefore, some of the Wright conversation is to be expected. Beyond the Southern predilection for church chat, however, is the question of how much Wright has hurt Obama's prospects.
It doesn't look good. Last Wednesday at a Bill Clinton rally in Elon College, NC, Sandra, an older Democrat said, "His [Obama's] being black hasn't had much to do with it here. He hasn't had a problem until the Church business. It's a pivotal point in his campaign. It's really hurt him. You can't plead ignorance of something you heard for twenty years--not if you're a politically-minded person."
Sandra's incredulity I found at every NC campaign event before Wright made his appearance with Bill Moyers on PBS Friday, before Wright's Detroit NAACP address and National Press Club appearance. At a Hillary Clinton rally Sunday on the Wilmington riverfront, for example, Pierce, a younger woman, an undecided voter, said she would hear Senator Obama on Monday before making up her mind. But she went on to ask, "Why was he [Obama] around him [Wright] for so long?" The unanswerable question bothered not only her but also some of her husband's colleagues--all professors at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Richard Rooks and his neighbor Joan Lopez, both Democrats, both taking in the beautiful evening and the rally on the Cape Fear River, echoed Pierce's observation. "Reverend Wright will be the deciding factor for 'undecideds' in North Carolina," Richard said. Again it is worth noting that Rooks made this observation before Wright's appearance at the National Press Club Monday. Also, Rooks was unaware of Wright's remarks to the Detroit NAACP earlier Sunday.
Eight days out from the primary, North Carolina no longer looks like such an easy win for Barack Obama because ten percent of voters are still undecided. Yes, Obama has the black vote (38% of NC Democrats, until this year) and most of the Democratic youth vote. With the surge of newly-registered voters (178,000+), however, there's no way of knowing what final percentage this double demographic will give Senator Obama. If Hillary Clinton has always had the lion's share of the white Democratic vote, the saving grace for Barack Obama is that most white folk in North Carolina are Republicans. Since the Democrats, whoever the nominee, have little chance of winning North Carolina in November, the Democratic presidential primary is a nine-day wonder here. The real political fighting is down-ballot; therefore, local strategies are influencing the national race rather than vice versa.
Long before it was scheduled to air, the North Carolina Republican Party television ad linking Wright/Obama to the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidates played all last week as part of the "story" of the controversy. (Curiously, the political spot blanketing the NC airwaves is an anti-McCain ad from the DNC--the same DNC, presumably, bleating poverty in daily emails.) Anyway, the backstory here is that both parties are fielding large and relatively weak gubernatorial rosters. The North Carolina Republican Party has determined to wound the two leading Democrats early--particularly since none of their own candidates look like winners. These two Dems, State Treas. Richard Moore and Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue, have themselves already introduced race into the race.
Moore has been tarring Perdue with racism because her family's Georgia convenience stores sell Confederate souvenirs. Could this accusation be a counterpunch to native son Andy Griffith's endorsement of Perdue? For both Democrats and Republicans, this is how low North Carolina gubernatorial poltics '08 has sunk. As Bill, a retiree from Hardin County ("Obama Territory in a county that has a right strong Republican presence") said at a Hillary Clinton town hall meeting in Fayetteville last Thursday, "Jesse Helms was such a force in this state for so long and some of that is still lingering."
The Helms legacy and the resonance of Wright show that the same undercurrent of racism I saw in the Texas and Pennsylvania campaigns also runs through North Carolina. Until now, that racism has seemed residual--a waning and almost-spent force still strong enough only for a point or two for or against a candidate. But the Reverend Wright, like Bill Clinton, has stoked mistrust and resentment. Certainly, the Obama Campaign thinks so. At an Obama event with Kweisi Mfume at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst Saturday, Fred Lloyd, a devoted Obama supporter, said that he had planned a presentation for the upcoming Moore County Obama picnic on "the sympathetic Reverend Wright" (based on the PBS appearance) but the Moore field organizer said in no uncertain terms "absolutely not!" And, again, this vehemence was before Wright's damaging appearances on Sunday and Monday.
The one truly depressing aspect of the Democratic contest out on the road now is the demographic entrenchment. On Sunday evening, 5000 people showed up to hear Hillary Clinton on the Wilmington riverfront. Almost all of them--90%--were white. On Monday morning, 5000 people showed up to hear Barack Obama at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Almost all of them--80%--were black. Clips of the Obama Wilmington event played frequently on Monday cable news, but because the field organizers now arrange spectators in the backdrop as carefully as a flower bouquet, a TV viewer wouldn't see from the clips that the Wilmington event was overwhelmingly black. Senator Obama is trying to reach out to white rural and blue-collar voters. But Wilmington was just never going to provide that opportunity. In many ways, Barack Obama is now a prisoner of his success and charisma, in that the people who already love him turn out in force and overwhelm his events. As for the white folk who came to UNCW, one gentleman, laughing, told me, "We're all college professors and alternative lifestyle people."
Friday Steve Hildebrand, the Obama Deputy Campaign Manager, said in a conference call with reporters that North Carolina will be "decided by single digits." Undoubtedly, he is right. And the Super Delegates will be searching for the middle and lower middle class white vote in those digits. Kweisi Mfume said at Sandhills what many before him have observed: "There is something different about this [Obama's] campaign. . . . This is a campaign about good and lasting change." Only two months ago, "change" looked like an easy choice. Now, if Senator Obama clinches the nomination, his success will be an act of faith by naturally cautious politicos. Perhaps, in the end, this is the way an important choice should be: difficult. Nevertheless, in writing about Wright in North Carolina I should've been referring playfully to a rally at Kitty Hawk. The fact that I'm not is a commentary on what this contest has become.
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Dear Mayhill,
It's time you shed the pretense of being an Obama supporter. And you're not much of a writer, either.
I think we need to get over the Wright issue......he is nothing but a spectacle, like the sideshow at a carnival. I am really amazed how far some folks are willing to take this "guilt-by-association" montra~!! Then if that's not all...in order to legitamize their self-righteous disdain for Rev. Wright, or their non support for Obama...it is easier to explain it by saying they don't undersatnd why he stayed in the church for 20 yrs. That is a lame assertion. We do not know how many times Obama and his family actually went to mass when Wright was giving those sermons... and it's curious to note that if all these sermons that Wright gave in the tenure of service to this church...why not bring them forth as well, instead we get snippets of the most controversial language looped together to seem worse...which generally happens when things are taken out of context. Did Wright talk like this when he was marrying the Obamas or baptizing their daughters.....? I think not. I think we need to be careful, when we talk about Obama being a member of this church for 20 years, then we would have to question our own churches and our own pastors or priests. Running for President should not be a magnet for litmus tests......Are we going to vote on what we throw down the kitchen garbage disposal, or what we put on our kitchen tables?
The question to ask Hillary Clinton is: "Why do you stay so long in your marriage with a husband like Bill?". Once Hillary answers that, you will know why whe is in this race: her AMBITION to become the first woman president. Nothing, nothing at all, including the humiliation, the lie, the cheat, the intimidation, the spin prevent her to do as long as she can achieve her ambition. That is why she rather goes on to destroy the party 's chance to win this November than accept the inrefutable true that she can't catch up now.
Anyone else wonder why Mayhill follows Obama around and not Clinton? I think someone has a crus!
Howdy Mayhill! How you doing, girl? Love your posts!
DO NOT RESPOND TO Mayhill Fowler POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP NOW, SHE IS BAD NEWSSSSSSSSSSSS
OMG she's back.! Why? why? why?
yes, we are all painfully aware of the fact that some people will never vote for Obama
Some will come right out and say it - the reason
Others will search for anything to hold onto which acquits them of their reality
Here's the thing:
let's think about how many people will never vote for Clinton
stirring the pot and legitimizing racism as though it is common place and excusable due to geography
is really not helpful or wise.
what's to stop someone else from legitimizing and excusing sexism?
oh, yeah, it's "normal" for all these groups of people to refuse to vote for a WOMAN
it's not OK
and we should not pretend otherwise
Why are any of you bashing Obama or Clinton? Are there NO unifiers that post here?
Mayhill does. She's a unifier. She's unify-lightful, unify-licious. unify-lovely!
Why is Huffington Post still accepting printing stuff from this woman?
It has me baffled as well. This woman's misleading hit piece on Obama still disgusts me.
White, middle-aged NC resident; entire family has already voted for Obama.
I attended the Obama rally in Chapel Hill, NC on Monday night. There were 18,000 people there in the best organized political event I've ever attended. The crowd was about 60 percent white, 40 percent black, young and old. The vibe there was wonderful.
Mayhill is accurately describing one segment of the population, but seems to be conveniently ignoring the state's shifting demographics, which have changed dramatically since Helms' last Senate race in 1996. Myopia--put your glasses on if you want to call yourself a "reporter".
Barack will win North Carolina. The legacy of Jesse Helms does lurch in the background, but the state is not exactly proud of that legacy. Barack has a chance to carry NC in the general election. The Clinton campaign on the other hand has done a lot of damage to the Democratic Party. If she managed to steal the nomination, the Democratic Party is over as we know it. Imagine that, realignment in an unexpected way.
I'm happy to see that you no longer disguise yourself as an Obama supporter, since clearly you are NOT and never have been!
always kissing up to Hillary and bashing Obama. What a balanced journalist.,maybe you should work for Fox News!
Hate to burst your bubble, but I'm a white 54 yr old male living in NC and I'm voting for Obama. So is my 76 yr old white mom, and my 56 yr old white sister. Oh yeah, my 75 yr old white cousin is voting for him also. As for the rest of my family, I haven't asked them, but my guess would be they would be leaning towards someone who can actually help this country. That person would be OBAMA.
Nice. Some cherry-picked anti-Obama remarks cobbled together for a thoroughly depressing and dismal piece. I wouldn't expect anything more from Ms. Fowler. Mayhill, you are crushing the spirit and soul of this primary. Is this any kind of climate for Hillary to win (read: *steal*) the nomination, and help unify the party?
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Posted April 28, 2008 | 10:05 PM (EST)