Alter should be altered

In the latest Newsweek, J. Alter puts forth his theoretical view of Why McCain Won. According to Alter, it was racism, racism, racism. Mr. Alter, your view is pure crap. If McCain pulls off an upset and wins, it will be because of the flaws of Obama the candidate. The Obama campaign has run a technically brilliant campaign. First, Obama got the nomination over Hillary because his camapaign prepared in depth for the caucuses and primaries that followed Super Tuesday while the Clinton folks worked on the assumption that Super Tuesday would end the campaign. By winning the string of states in February that followed Super Tuesday, Obama wrapped up the nomination. When Hillary began to compete in earnest after three bad weeks, it was too late to overcome Obama's lead. Similarly, for the general election, Obama's decision to ignore his earlier pledge to use public finanacing and to go with private donations has given him a substantial monetary edge over the McCain campaign. Even more so, the Obama campaign's decision to take all contributions whether or not legal has allowed him to amass many millions more -- while knowing that any punishment will be a minor slap on the wrist once Obama has already won.

Obama's problem is his message, not his campaign. If Obama loses, it will be because he plans to raise taxes and "spread the wealth around". Many millions of Americans will not accept that message -- and that has nothing to do with racism. The truth is that Obama has been helped, not hurt, by his race. Certainly, his level of support among blacks is higher than Kerry or Gore had. More important, many others are voting for him just to be able to say that they voted for the first black president. Strangely, no one ever polls on this question. After 25 polls on whether or not people are voting against Obama due to his race (in various forms), one would think that there might be a poll going the other way. But no. The pollsters all remember what happened to poor Geraldine Ferraro when she had the gall to say that Obama would not be where he was if he were not black. She was a racist! While that attack on Ferraro was clearly bogus, it was sufficient to ward off any polls that might help elucidate the real effect of race in the election.