Can race still trump transformational Obama?

BY MAYANK CHHAYA

CHICAGO

Oct. 26: Barely 11 days away, America’s presidential elections appear increasingly likely to anoint a transformational, post-racial and young leader in Senator Barack Obama as its 44th President.

A decisive section of media pundits and many respected pollsters, both of whom have gone significantly wrong in the past, has more or less written off Mr Obama’s elderly rival, Senator John McCain. Mr Obama himself has taken the care not to project the air of a winner and remained content to be seen as an underdog. So has Mr McCain who has argued that he performs best when his tail is on fire.

Beyond the political posturing by the two men, it is becoming likely that Mr Obama could pull off a hugely history-making victory.

The 47-year-old Chicago politician’s rise to national prominence is as much a product of his self-belief as it is a consequence of the changing demographics.

The African American community that constitutes 12.8 per cent of the total US population, the Hispanic or Latino community that constitutes 14.8 per cent and Asian American, including Indian American, with 4.4 per cent, together make up 32 per cent of the 300 million plus Americans. While they are by no means a monolithic constituency, the eligible voters among them do have a tendency to vote for Mr Obama’s Democratic Party. Notwithstanding the well-known antipathies between the African American and Hispanic/Latino communities, the latter may choose Mr Obama.

Ironically, while Mr Obama has steadfastly eschewed projecting any race-specific attributes during his campaign, it is the African American voters, galvanised by the prospects of one of their own rising to the most powerful office in the world, who could vote as a single bloc. Mr Obama has been subtle in forging his image both as a modern, transcendental candidate who also happens to be of mixed heritage. What is baffling to an outsider is why the race has remained close even though America has experienced perhaps the most mishap-laden and inept administration in modern times under a Republican President.

—IANS