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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRove Counting On Breaking 'White Moderates' Support for Nation's First Black President
Karl Rove on the Defection of White DemocratsThe emerging demographics of this campaign are pretty clear: To win, Barack Obama is trying to assemble a coalition of minorities and just enough white voters -- particularly college-educated white women -- to get to 51 percent, while Mitt Romney is trying to assemble a coalition of the rest of the white voters, and just enough minorities. As Ron Brownstein has persuasively argued, Obama's path to victory lies in winning 80 percent of minorities, and 40 percent of whites; Mitt Romney's corresponding formula is to win 61 percent of whites, provided whites make up 74 percent of the vote.
The math is inexorable, and it points, as Brownstein wrote, "to the depth of racial polarization shadowing this election." This unsettling reality about our politics is often, strangely, left unexplored (with some notable exceptions) even as its effects are constantly discussed, and even celebrated, at least by political professionals. On Monday, in an interesting conversation with Politico's Mike Allen, Karl Rove observed that "Obama has no chance of carrying Indiana . . ."
To be clear: I'm not saying this is racist. I'm saying that it's striking how much we're talking about race in this campaign, without, you know, talking about race. Rove was speaking about racial politics clinically, astringently, the way political professionals do -- it is a shorthand that, as his audience's knowing laughter suggests, all these politicos comprehend. The same sort of analysis leads operatives of all stripes to make recommendations about how to energize target groups by exploiting race and class divides. That's the campaign we're all experiencing.
Speaking of which, if you watch the video, you'll see that while Rove didn't venture a theory for why whites have moved away from Obama in Indiana, he did propose one for a similar dynamic in North Carolina. There, he said, in 2008 "New South independents" (meaning, I think, white independents) who were "racial moderates, economic conservatives" had supported Obama in the belief that "this will be really good for the country -- let's put the issue of race behind us." But now they are disappointed in Obama because he's "done a lousy job on the economy, and he's not a fiscal conservative." This analysis tells a story that Obama was elected, in the first place, because of his race, but that whites now think this was a failed experiment. The echo is pretty hard to miss: We gave a guy a boost he didn't entirely deserve in order to correct a historic wrong; too bad he wasn't up to it. Are white voters ready to conclude that Obama is an affirmative-action president?
read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/karl-rove-on-the-defection-of-white-democrats/261642/
from April, 2008
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Rove Counting On Breaking 'White Moderates' Support for Nation's First Black President (Original Post)
bigtree
Aug 2012
OP
Have the reporters thanked Karl yet for delivering us the worst President in U.S. history?
BeyondGeography
Aug 2012
#2
His Platform, Sir: 'This Used To Be a White Man's Country --- What Are You Going To Do About It?'
The Magistrate
Aug 2012
#7
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)1. I conclude Karl Rove is a racist
and needs another 4 years of Obama because it bugs him as much as chimpy bugged me.
BeyondGeography
(39,384 posts)2. Have the reporters thanked Karl yet for delivering us the worst President in U.S. history?
rocktivity
(44,580 posts)3. Not without Mitt's tax returns, Rovie!
rocktivity
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)4. i`d say karl should have just sat this one out....
the machines and the supremes installed bush. dream on karl but the white bishop is`t going to attract white democratic men..
rocktivity
(44,580 posts)6. DING DING DING! Madrchsod, you're our grand prize winner!
...Dream on, Karl, but the white bishop isn't going to attract white democratic men...
Especially not if he continues to sit on his tax returns!
rocktivity
Especially not if he continues to sit on his tax returns!
rocktivity
mojo2012
(290 posts)5. Disgusting
And the Republicans are saying the Democrats are dividing the country? Really?
The Magistrate
(95,256 posts)7. His Platform, Sir: 'This Used To Be a White Man's Country --- What Are You Going To Do About It?'
Appeal to racism in whites is all they have now....
"Romney loves America like a tick loves a dog."
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)8. and expect him
to appeal to the Pumas, who are still mad that Hillary did not win.