Without A Clue

Gwen Ifill of PBS on the May 25, 2008 edition of Meet The Press:

And the other thing those numbers kind of explode is the notion that black voters were always on board for the black candidate out of race pride. Black voters got on board for Barack Obama after it looked like he could win. It was really very simple, and it was pretty much the same. Maybe there was some race pride that kicked in later, but in all of the analysis, we, we tend to say, "Oh, well, we know black voters were always going to vote for Barack Obama," and that's not--just not true.

So before the very first vote- Iowa- of the campaign season, black voters, doubtful that a black person could be elected president of the United States of America, preferred the wife of "the first black President." Then when Obama won the Iowa caucus- remember, the first vote of the campaign- and the black candidate was on a par with the white candidate(s) with both having a chance to win, blacks began to rally around Barack Obama. And for Gwen Ifill, this means what- that this "kind of explode(s) the notion that black voters (acted) out of race pride?" Does this make any kind of sense? Obviously not. It would be better to argue that, yes, blacks have been voting for a qualified, viable black candidate partly because he is black and, given the context of America's racial past, that is understandable. Except.... then with the majority of white voters passing over Obama in favor of Hillary Clinton, it would be tough to accuse these individuals of racism. And we wouldn't want that to happen, would we?