Hillary, Obama, and White Voters

I wanted to let this post go unwritten. I suppose others will write on this better than I will. Eugene Robinson did so in today's Washington Post. This is about Hillary Clinton holding forth on the AP article. Robinson writes:

Let's examine those premises. These are white Democrats we're talking about, voters who generally share the party's philosophy. So why would these Democrats refuse to vote for a nominee running on Democratic principles against a self-described conservative Republican? The answer, which Clinton implies but doesn't quite come out and say, is that Obama is black -- and that white people who are not wealthy are irredeemably racist.

I had thought that Clinton's further pursuit of the presidency was a bit loony with the arrogance that Mr. Robinsion writes about but that this was why we had all these primaries. Now I worry that Mrs. Clinton prefers to bring the roof down on all of us if she cannot be President. Or to use the metaphor I have in mind for her campaign now: she will wreck The Pequod and sink all its crew in pursuit of the white whale. Mr. Robinson correctly states one premise contained in Mrs. Clinton's statement. It is a bit scary to think of the mindset, the willingness to manipulate for the sake of success, contained in Senator Clinton's statement.

I am white, far from wealthy, and I voted for Obama. I could care less about his race. I do care about his ideas. As a Democrat, I think Obama has a better chance of being a benefit to the races further down the ticket (we need more of a majority in the House and Senate). After all these years of Republican rule and electioneering, I like his style of not treating we of the electorate as drooling idiots ripe for humbuggery and manipulation. For the first time since 1996, I have a chance to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate without holding my nose. Not that I believe he can walk on water or he has attained some sort of temporal perfection, he is flawed but he is quite willing to admit his flaws. How unlike the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

If you are a Democrat but unwilling to vote for an African-American because of his race, why stick with the party?

If it is not more important to have a Democratic President, why vote for McCain over Obama?

I hope that Mrs. Clinton "clarifies" her statement to where the uglier implications are explained away. I hope that this clarification means she realizes she stands on the verge of ruin - hers, the Democratic Party's, and our own.