Union leader's concern: Vote won't be colorblind

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1219898169179090.xml&coll=1

Thursday, August 28, 2008
BY BOB BRAUN
Star-Ledger Staff

DENVER -- New Jersey's delegates to the Democratic National Convention heard something rare yesterday morning: pessimism.

Two speakers, a union leader and a congressman, warned that Barack Obama could lose the election because of his race.

Open talk about racism also has been rare at the convention, where the emphasis has been on unifying the party behind the senator from Illinois.

Gerald McEntee, national president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, predicted that support for Obama's bid to become the nation's first African-American president could be tough among the very union members he represents.

"We're going to have to fight with our own members to get Obama elected," McEntee said at the state delegation breakfast.

Considering the widespread dissatisfaction with the current Republican administration, he repeatedly cautioned that Obama is not doing as well in public opinion polls as he should be. McEntee said Obama's choice of Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware as his running mate did not seem to have produced any "Biden bounce" in the polls.

"The race is too, too tight. He should be way ahead by now. Too many of our own workers are too close to John McCain," the union leader said.

FULL 2 page story at link.

If I do say so myself.