Someone's already posted on this, and his blog made the Rec list.

Since the latest WSJ Poll has Obama 19 points ahead among all women, I don't think this is gonna be a problem......

I see these white women coming home to the Democratic Party. What issues is McCain with them on ? I can't think of one.

Why on earth would they vote for McCain.

That would be like someone whose horse
finished second in the Derby, taking out their frustration by shooting their entire stable of horses, and burning down the barns.

McCain has already promised to stack the Supreme Court with Scalia clones.

I wonder why Tim didn't write this to white working class men, the one demo Barack has consistently lost and which polls are still showing him struggling for, as opposed to white women. Seems to me that white workingclass men have a sad recent (last 30 years) history of actually voting against their self and family interests. But whoa, you can't have women, particularly white ones, showing any sort of petulance without slapping them down. That needs to be addressed quickly - who do they think they are? They don't have the right to make bad judgments. (!)

Don't get me wrong; I think not voting for someone based on race is fundamentally broken. But I also wonder - no, really I don't wonder that long - why the retribution for bad judgment comes so quickly for women, esp. white ones. And yes, public insult and shaming really does wonders for an argument in a country with secret ballots.

Have we not had enough posts from white people telling other white people how white they are? We get it; you're not a racist and everyone else in your neighborhood, your mom and dad, teachers, little league coaches, well they're all racists particularly if they didn't support Obama. Anyone else see this movie before; the young and the self-righteous, or the old and inexcusably self-righteous?

What patent nonsense. Here's a fundamental truth from someone who will vote for Senator Obama in November. Anyone who thinks that anyone else is a racist simply because he or she decides to vote for John McCain this year is nothing but, by definition, as racist as they come.

Progressive my ass. Post-racial? Give me a break.

That article is ridiculous. I plan to vote for Obama, but I know some women who preferred Hillary (as I did) who are threatening not to. Believe me, the color of his skin is not even on the radar for these feminist women. They really just don't like the man. My mother is one of these people and so is one of my closest friends. Personally, Obama has always made my skin crawl. But I am a pragmatist. If I had thought he would be the most electable candidate, I would have supported him. Now that he is the nominee, I have no choice. There is no alternative and I certainly support most of his views even if I don't care for the container (and again not about race, but rather all those smarmy vacuous platitudes—and I would feel the same way regardless of who uttered them). Articles like this one just further divide the party and reveal volumes about the pettiness and narcissism of Obama's supporters. He may very well win and win big, but that is because John McCain is such a terrible campaigner and generally repulsive human being.

The thing is, if Obama were a scintilla more progressive than Dukakis, Kerry, Gore or Clinton, he might have an argument. As it is, Obama has run an alarmingly center-right campaign that worries me. He has said "everything is on the table" with Social Security Reform. He has declared health care mandates off limits, using rightwing talking points. He supports the faith-based initiative slushfund for bigots, he support eviscerating public education with vouchers, he supports more - not less- religion in government. I could go on, but my hackles are rising. I have to not think about this list to be able to vote for him, because when I do, I get infuriated with the racist caricature that must be infecting so many of his supporters assuming that because he is black, he must be liberal. Talk about the whiteness showing.

I like Tim Wise. I have recommended him for seminars and convenings. I love his books, but he's fallen into the same trap of thinking black=liberal. Grow up, Tim. You know better.

I think I saw, in appalachia, white men vote for a woman....even if voting for a woman was the last thing they thought they would do.
They normally would have been flocking to Obama (if he was white).

This told me that racism trumped sexism. They would rather vote for a white woman than a black man. I saw the interviews, I heard what they said. Yes, they were right in HRC's wheelhouse and she had much better name recognition. I am not saying EVERYONE in appalachia...but where BHO should have done a lot better and from the comments these voters were making....plenty of white dems could not pull the lever for a black man. And anti-feminist white men would vote for white woman before they would vote for a black man.

I am also sure anti-feminist black men would more likely vote for a black woman, than a white person.
These are blatant generalizations, but statistically there MUST be people out there that would vote more strongly based on race rather than gender.

I know white people right in my hometown, who I thought were very left. They hated buush. Been ranting now for years. But now that BHO is the nominee they are suddenly at a loss, and a few even blurted out that they can't vote for a black guy. One shilly-shallied and said he didn't think he could trust him, and muttered and sputtered back into silence. I knew what he was thinking.

I think a WHOLE LOT of fervor and late HRC support was coming from people who did not want to be confronted by the narrowing of our candidates down to one - who is black.

Whatever racism that I harbor, it never even slowed me down in getting behind BHO. I guess I worried over elect-ability and the same racism I know exists amongst a sizable percent of the white voters...but I personally have no qualms about pulling the lever for him. I would as willingly pull the lever for a woman, it's just that HRC is a neocon in sheeps clothing. She is a corporatist. Wholly beholden to big money interests, and she wasted her 8 years in the senate, didn't do a damn thing for anybody except buush.

So I think the article about Your White Is Showing has some merit. It certainly doesn't describe ALL women HRC hold-outs. I understand and empathize with women voters who really had their chips "all-in" for HRC. But I know that a small but important % of them would rather not vote for a black man. Understandable.

Perhaps the MAN part was also galling them. Understandable.
Wanting to smack your child is also understandable. Doesn't mean it's your best course of action.

I have to say, I'm surprised this has gotten so much attention. Someone else had already posted a similar post which made the top 10 rec'd. ...Hm.

I was for Hillary until: I heard Bill say the "fairytale" comment, then the S.C. "Jessie Jackson" comment, then the "I landed under fire" comment, then the Hillary campaign using the altered photo of Obama, then the "McCain is qualified, but Obama has a speech he made two years ago" comment, the "he says he's not a muslim" comment, the "hard working white people" comment, her asinine changing of the metrics(superdelegates/states/big states/total votes( (with MI & FL included)) everyday so she could claim that she is ahead.

It just became too much to bear. She then started blaming the media because Obama was beating her. You probably think that the media gave Obama a break--give me a break on that one. Obama got slammed more in the media for bowling a 39, than Hillary did for saying McCain is more qualified for president than Obama.

When I first heard someone say that Hillary wanted Obama to lose to McCain so she could run in 2012. I initially thought it was b.s. Then as she continued, and continued, and continued. I started to believe that they were right. The female dems that will vote for McCain or sit out, are either not thinking straight or are repugs working for Rove. Either way you get what you deserve. You lost. She lost. Get over it. If you wanna become a rethuglican, they'll be happy to have your vote and reproductive control of your body.

I am confuse! Are elections about getting the right person to do a good job? There was always this Clinton's supporters will vote for McCain on the news. If voting decisions are made on people instead of issues, those people don't address issues. If you say McCain is the same as Bush when Clinton is running but now you flip flop to McCain. Your vote is for the person not the administration of issues. You know, don't wonder about the extreme weather. The 360 degrees changes would cause the tornadoes.

1) Tim Wise was writing this letter to Harriet Christian and those Clinton supporters who would agree with her.

2) As far as such Clinton supporters are concerned, Wise is absolutely correct.

3) Voting for John McCain is not a prima facie sign of racism.

But...

Harriet Christian is taking a minority position and this is one of those times when being right is, perhaps, less important than being unified. Most white women seem to be getting over their disappointment at the outcome of the primaries and switching to support Obama. Those who aren't really do need to examine why McCain deserves their support over the democrat they would normally vote for. While it is true that Obama is an unknown quantity, we know John McCain all too well. We know precisely what type of disaster we smell cooking in the McCain kitchen.

And we may not like what Wise has to say in much of his piece but we have to ask why it seems to be so acceptable to some white women to vote for the Republican rather than doing what most women always do and vote for the democrat while holding our noses? The democratic party is a coalition party. That means that most of us are ultimately disappointed in the Presidential nominee. But we show up and vote for the person anyway.

Nobody should violate their conscience with the vote they cast in November. And the wonderful thing about this election is the opportunity it provides all of us to free our minds and vote on our true convictions and best interests and to clarify what those are in our own minds.

Time Wise may have offended some readers. It was unfortunate. But the confrontation helps people to figure out what they DO believe and what really does matter to them in voting for a president.