Limbaugh: Obama/Clinton Ticket Doesn’t Have a Prayer
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Gender, RaceRush Limbaugh has said the so-called dream ticket featuring Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton doesn’t stand a chance because it would include both an African American and a woman. Let’s set aside the gut instinct to call Limbaugh a class A bigot and ask, does he have a point? America might be ready for a black president and it might be ready for a woman president but is it ready for a ticket completely absent of a white male?
The answer: it doesn’t matter. Sexism and racism still exist in this country both in the overt and latent forms. But, in my mind, there would be no greater act of bigotry than for the Democrats to run away from their dream ticket because they feel they need a white male VP to win. What does that say to the rest of the country – that even the party that claims the mantra of progressiveness is, at its core, frightened to disrupt the status quo? That even years after the civil rights movement and the women’s liberation movement, white men still get an automatic seat at the table because of their race and gender?
One could make the argument that there are politicians who happen to be white men that are more qualified for the VP slot than either Clinton or Obama. In Clinton’s case, she might prefer to reach for someone with greater economic experience. Obama might prefer someone with a longer history of foreign policy experience or someone with strong executive experience. But those would be decisions based on policy and governance needs. Choosing a white male simply to appease the nation’s bigots would not only be useless (bigots aren’t going to vote for Clinton or Obama regardless of who’s #2) it would be a betrayal of the very principles for which the Democrats claim to stand.
Limbaugh’s assertion is worthy of debate but it’s not worthy of action. I may not be planning on supporting either Obama or Clinton but I reject the idea that they should be afraid to team up on a ticket. I’m glad to live in a country where a great many people can rise to the highest levels. The only way to continue increasing opportunities is to continue shattering the softly bigoted preconceptions of people like Limbaugh.
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Gender, Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 6th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Honestly, that may be too much for some Americans to handle. I hate to say it about my country, but there are still a lot of ignorance out there.
However, I don’t think sexism or racism is why they shouldn’t team up. I just think Clinton has too much baggage and would hinder Obama. If she were a different Senator with a different past and she happened to be a woman, she may very well be a great pick for Obama. But she’s not. She’s Hillary, and as such she brings along Bill and all the other stuff.
HOWEVER, she needs him in a bad way. The swing vote Republicans who REALLY want Obama may go with her because of the promise of an Obama presidency. If she doesn’t have him, expect Republicans to come out in droves to vote against her.
March 6th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Sure, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to think this “dream ticket” wouldn’t work. But the bigotry angle is an insidious one. They shouldn’t make a decision based on what they think America can or cannot handle but on what would make the best possible executive team.
As for Clinton needing Obama, I don’t know if that will be enough to hold onto swing vote Republicans. But it would be enough to keep swing vote Democrats home.