Reaction Papers, Hillary and Obama

Reaction Paper

Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton are both very different from previous presidents of the United States of America. Barack Obama is African-American, and Hillary Clinton is a women. The United States has never had a women president or an African-American president in its history. Now, in the year 2008, both of those minorities are running for president. In other words, they will be the Chief of State, Chief Diplomat, Chief Executive, and many other “chiefs” of the United States. To know that both of these minorities are running for one of the highest powers in this country, and are succeeding at it, truly says that times have changed and that we are entering a new era.

So if times are truly changing, why are Obama and Clinton still worried about the types of voters that need their approval? As it says in the article, Obama says that he is unable to win important states, like Pennsylvania or Ohio, probably because he cannot win over the working-class or white voters. If times have truly changed, why is Obama worried that because of his race, he might not win in the election? It is strange to say, because it has been a long time since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and people should have gotten used to the idea of living in a world where people with different backgrounds and races work together and live together. Clinton is worried about the types of people that do not vote for her too. Obama has all of the voters that Clinton wants, and Clinton has all of the voters that Obama wants. Clinton has the older voters, and Obama is a new person to the American Public.

People have grown since the Civil Rights Act and the laws that gave women the same treatment that is given to men, so attitudes have changed. People are more willing to accept a minority president today than they did 30 years ago. Attitudes have not changed enough unfortunately, because some people say that the race of the candidates affects their decision in whom they are going to vote for. In fact, 18% of democrats said that race was an important factor to them in this election. That percentage is probably hard to believe because of the growth this country has gone since race was no longer allowed to be discriminated against. Hopefully more time will change that 18% to maybe 5%.

This article concentrates more on Obama, even though Clinton is affected also. The article talks about the problems that Obama faces with the American people. Discrimination because of his race is a problem, and how Republicans twist his words around so they can show the people that he is not like them and does not relate to them. Adding to his problems is that he lost the Pennsylvania and Ohio primaries to Clinton. Those states are very important to win during this election and the fact that he did not win is not good. The article states two other problems that Obama faces: Voters simply not liking him because he is black, and voters who are democrats but they believe that a black man cannot win in the general election.

But there is a reverse to this, if Clinton wins the nomination, people believe that African-American voters would not vote for her because they would possibly think that Obama losing is unfair. Although, in a poll, 69% of white democrats said that they would vote for Obama over McCain if they were both in the general election, and 73% of black democrats said that they would vote for Clinton over McCain if they were both in the general election. The real test, as it says in the article, is when the general election comes around and democratic and republican conventions are over with. Until then,