No question about several things.
One is that there will be people who do not vote for Obama because of his race, but I wonder how many of them would vote for any left of center democrat, hence his net loss may not be that great. Moreover if he can mobilize enough blacks to regoster to vote and get out there and actually vote, he can neutralize the racists. African Americans comprise a large minority in this country, but as a rule they do not turn up and vote. They way out number Jewish people, but the Jewish Vote is critical because they come out at some outrageous rate like 90%.
Two is this post partem depression the Clinton feminists are suffering (not to bemysoginistic) will wane. It is not unusual after a hard fought inter-party primary for the losers to have hurt feelings and claim they will stay home or vote for McCain.
On so called women's issues like right to choose and the formation of the courts which rule on that and on sexual harassment claims, they will come home t the democratic party once they see where McCain stands(BTW I am against abortion, but I do not believe either the government or I have any right to get involved in a moral decision only a pregnant woman can make, thus I am pro choice. I am against the death penalty for one reason. I work in the legal system and I know how screwed up it is. I can almost guarantee if I were to go out and kill someone in cold blood and be convicted, I would end up with a life sentence because I have no prior record, I would have clients, lawyers, shrinks and judges lined up to testify about what a great guy I was, and how I must have just "snapped," etc etc. Some guy who is a "street person" would not get the same deal).
Three. Go to CNN, MSNBC, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and your favrite local daily. Gather all the information you can on what the conventional wisdom is. Once you have done that you can safely assume the conventional wisdom is wrong.
Four. Neither candidate is going to want to get really specific on what he will do once he is president. This is where we really need to press them hard. All we can count on the media doing is spculating about lapel pins, Obama's new fist bumping thing, McCain telling off the cuff jokes, and droning on endlessly about the horse race.
