Fifty
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spoiler :
Blue-Collar Distrust of Obama in the Rust Belt
By Cordula Meyer in Reading, Pennsylvania
From the start, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wanted to avoid the subject of race. But it has caught up with him -- and may make the looming Pennsylvania primary more difficult than he had hoped.
His arms crossed, Jim Miller, a 53-year-old bus mechanic, is leaning against the back wall of a gymnasium in Reading, Pennsylvania. The speaker up on the stage is Bill Clinton, funny and charming as ever, encouraging his audience to vote for his wife as the Democratic nominee for president. The voters, says the former president, will have to decide whether they prefer "a feeling of change" or "facts of change" -- a clear dig at Hillary Clinton's opponent Barack Obama. Real change, he adds, is especially important here in Pennsylvania.
He doesn't mention race directly. But it is the elephant in the room.
Barack Obama has been talking more about race than he wanted to in this campaign.
AFP
Barack Obama has been talking more about race than he wanted to in this campaign.
Jim Miller listens carefully. He isn't sure yet how he should cast his vote: for the white woman or the black man. An aging provincial Lothario, wearing sweatpants, a T-shirt and a baseball cap over his unkempt hair, he isn't exactly thrilled about the selection. "Obama is contradicting himself," says Miller. "That's what I got out of it. First he says race is not important anymore. And now this," he says, referring to the ongoing storm surrounding Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright, who has been accused of radicalizing the race issue in the US. "For most people, that is not going to sit well."
Miller smiles awkwardly and says something that many here in Reading are extremely reluctant to admit: "There is still racism here." He points to the crowd in the gymnasium and says: "Many, many racists."
One of America's Losers
Reading is a city of 81,000 inhabitants in the heart of Pennsylvania, a moderately large state with significant social problems. With the race between Obama and Clinton still neck-and-neck, Democrats there will go to the primary polls on April 22 in a contest that, should Hillary win, would make the choice facing the Democratic Party that much more difficult: Who should run against Republican nominee John McCain in the November presidential election?
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Pennsylvania, like Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, was once one of the country's industrial powerhouse states. But today, the landscape in cities like Reading is no longer shaped by factories, but by discount chains like Wal-Mart and a generous smattering of fast-food outlets. The city's crowded row-house neighborhoods look run-down -- with well-paying jobs a rarity, many homeowners cannot afford repairs and upkeep. Reading is one of America's losers.
In his now-famous speech on race relations in America, Democratic contender Barack Obama talked about many issues that strike a sensitive note in a city like Reading. He said that, when whites suffering from unemployment and poverty blame blacks for their misery, they are not necessarily racist. Conversely, he also said that discrimination doesnt just exist in the imagination of blacks.
The speech "opened Pandora's Box," says John Forester, the news editor for the local paper, the Reading Eagle. Forester is convinced that the speech put race squarely in the center of the campaign, and he considers cities like Reading to be accurate test cases on whether a black candidate can prevail. He is not optimistic. Obama's inspiring speech, says Forester, was "political suicide."
Hillary-Land
For blue-collar whites in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania, the slow-motion collapse of the steel and manufacturing industries -- which accelerated in the early 1990s with plunging steel prices -- have meant tough times, rising unemployment and growing anger. Old resentments have resurfaced, especially with the chances of a return to the good old days close to zero.
But if Obama is to beat Hillary Clinton in the primaries and McCain in the general election, he will have to win over cities like Reading. That, though, appears unlikely. People in Reading see themselves as Democrats, says Forester. But "a Democrat here is a Republican everywhere else." They have a low opinion of the welfare state, they're opposed to tighter gun control and they favor protectionism. "Reading is Hillary-land," says Forester.
The problem with talking about hope all the time is that these are not hopeful lands," Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant who specializes in economically ailing states, told the New York Times recently. Hillary Clinton, ironically, tends to be popular in poor places like Reading, despite being a millionaire many times over.
They are the kinds of people who frequent "Maxie's," a restaurant in Stony Creek Mills, a Reading suburb. Ronald Gaskiewicz, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, sits in front of a beer and a glass of vodka. He worked as a technician for telephone corporation AT&T for 31 years, a job he began after finishing high school. "It used to be: you start at 18, you stop at 65. That's gone," he says. "Young people now, they only have service oriented jobs. That's . .. .. .. .. No pensions. No benefits."
The Middle of White America
Gaskiewicz, along with thousands of others, was laid off in 2003 when his company shut down. Today, he works as a plumber, and washes trucks on the side to make ends meet. He can't remember a time when he didn't vote for the Democrats. And this time? "The question," he says, "is what is America more likely to elect? A black man or a woman? I think they go for a woman first." He orders another vodka, leans forward and says: "There is no way a black man is gonna win Pennsylvania. This is the middle of white America."
Reading is apparently proof positive for what Obama described in his speech. Racism is often mistrust between two groups who have been left behind by the American Dream.
The average annual household income in Reading is $27,000 (17,000) -- not exactly enough to pay for an extravagant lifestyle. In fact, about a third of residents live below the poverty line. The city's rival gangs battle over the drugs that make the misery of life here bearable. "In Reading, there is a shooting every day, even if the police deny it," says Michael Reist, a white pastor.
His congregation is in Stony Creek Mills, Reading's poorest suburb. Many of his regular churchgoers live in crowded trailer parks, the epitome of white poverty in America. Friends of the pastor's at his country club unabashedly refer to blacks as "niggers," a term that is studiously avoided in America's politically correct mainstream.
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Pastor Robert Brookins is a representative of the black establishment in Reading. He believes that although the members of his congregation love Obama's ideas, they have no fondness for the candidate himself, because they do not see him as one of them. Brookins has been the pastor at his church, one of the poorest in Reading's blighted downtown, for 29 years.
A Conspiracy?
Today he sits on a leather chair in his cluttered office and insists that Obama's vision for the nation, of a truly United States of America, is a pipe dream. Brookins is convinced that there are those wielding behind-the-scenes power who have made sure that prison sentences for possession of crack, a drug of the poor, are much more severe than for possession of cocaine, a drug of the rich. As far as he is concerned, these puppet masters have only one thing in mind: to keep as many black men behind bars for as long as possible. "That is a conspiracy," he says quietly. There is a similar undercurrent of anger in the portrayal of the status quo one hears from Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, whose church is on Chicago's poorer South Side.
Clinton is likely to win the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania next week. Indeed, she will have to if she hopes to remain in the running. And Obama? According to a survey, close to 30 percent of Democratic Hillary supporters would rather vote for Republican candidate McCain than for a black candidate.
She'Quora King is black and an Obama supporter. She is optimistic, she says, which is why she believes that her idol does stand a chance in a city like Reading. But she also asks herself whether she should even want to see him in the White House. "If he's put in office, he's gonna be assassinated," she says. "There are too many people that don't want to see a black man in that chair."
SOURCE
By Cordula Meyer in Reading, Pennsylvania
From the start, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wanted to avoid the subject of race. But it has caught up with him -- and may make the looming Pennsylvania primary more difficult than he had hoped.
His arms crossed, Jim Miller, a 53-year-old bus mechanic, is leaning against the back wall of a gymnasium in Reading, Pennsylvania. The speaker up on the stage is Bill Clinton, funny and charming as ever, encouraging his audience to vote for his wife as the Democratic nominee for president. The voters, says the former president, will have to decide whether they prefer "a feeling of change" or "facts of change" -- a clear dig at Hillary Clinton's opponent Barack Obama. Real change, he adds, is especially important here in Pennsylvania.
He doesn't mention race directly. But it is the elephant in the room.
Barack Obama has been talking more about race than he wanted to in this campaign.
AFP
Barack Obama has been talking more about race than he wanted to in this campaign.
Jim Miller listens carefully. He isn't sure yet how he should cast his vote: for the white woman or the black man. An aging provincial Lothario, wearing sweatpants, a T-shirt and a baseball cap over his unkempt hair, he isn't exactly thrilled about the selection. "Obama is contradicting himself," says Miller. "That's what I got out of it. First he says race is not important anymore. And now this," he says, referring to the ongoing storm surrounding Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright, who has been accused of radicalizing the race issue in the US. "For most people, that is not going to sit well."
Miller smiles awkwardly and says something that many here in Reading are extremely reluctant to admit: "There is still racism here." He points to the crowd in the gymnasium and says: "Many, many racists."
One of America's Losers
Reading is a city of 81,000 inhabitants in the heart of Pennsylvania, a moderately large state with significant social problems. With the race between Obama and Clinton still neck-and-neck, Democrats there will go to the primary polls on April 22 in a contest that, should Hillary win, would make the choice facing the Democratic Party that much more difficult: Who should run against Republican nominee John McCain in the November presidential election?
FROM THE MAGAZINE
Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your publication.
Pennsylvania, like Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, was once one of the country's industrial powerhouse states. But today, the landscape in cities like Reading is no longer shaped by factories, but by discount chains like Wal-Mart and a generous smattering of fast-food outlets. The city's crowded row-house neighborhoods look run-down -- with well-paying jobs a rarity, many homeowners cannot afford repairs and upkeep. Reading is one of America's losers.
In his now-famous speech on race relations in America, Democratic contender Barack Obama talked about many issues that strike a sensitive note in a city like Reading. He said that, when whites suffering from unemployment and poverty blame blacks for their misery, they are not necessarily racist. Conversely, he also said that discrimination doesnt just exist in the imagination of blacks.
The speech "opened Pandora's Box," says John Forester, the news editor for the local paper, the Reading Eagle. Forester is convinced that the speech put race squarely in the center of the campaign, and he considers cities like Reading to be accurate test cases on whether a black candidate can prevail. He is not optimistic. Obama's inspiring speech, says Forester, was "political suicide."
Hillary-Land
For blue-collar whites in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania, the slow-motion collapse of the steel and manufacturing industries -- which accelerated in the early 1990s with plunging steel prices -- have meant tough times, rising unemployment and growing anger. Old resentments have resurfaced, especially with the chances of a return to the good old days close to zero.
But if Obama is to beat Hillary Clinton in the primaries and McCain in the general election, he will have to win over cities like Reading. That, though, appears unlikely. People in Reading see themselves as Democrats, says Forester. But "a Democrat here is a Republican everywhere else." They have a low opinion of the welfare state, they're opposed to tighter gun control and they favor protectionism. "Reading is Hillary-land," says Forester.
The problem with talking about hope all the time is that these are not hopeful lands," Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant who specializes in economically ailing states, told the New York Times recently. Hillary Clinton, ironically, tends to be popular in poor places like Reading, despite being a millionaire many times over.
They are the kinds of people who frequent "Maxie's," a restaurant in Stony Creek Mills, a Reading suburb. Ronald Gaskiewicz, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, sits in front of a beer and a glass of vodka. He worked as a technician for telephone corporation AT&T for 31 years, a job he began after finishing high school. "It used to be: you start at 18, you stop at 65. That's gone," he says. "Young people now, they only have service oriented jobs. That's . .. .. .. .. No pensions. No benefits."
The Middle of White America
Gaskiewicz, along with thousands of others, was laid off in 2003 when his company shut down. Today, he works as a plumber, and washes trucks on the side to make ends meet. He can't remember a time when he didn't vote for the Democrats. And this time? "The question," he says, "is what is America more likely to elect? A black man or a woman? I think they go for a woman first." He orders another vodka, leans forward and says: "There is no way a black man is gonna win Pennsylvania. This is the middle of white America."
Reading is apparently proof positive for what Obama described in his speech. Racism is often mistrust between two groups who have been left behind by the American Dream.
The average annual household income in Reading is $27,000 (17,000) -- not exactly enough to pay for an extravagant lifestyle. In fact, about a third of residents live below the poverty line. The city's rival gangs battle over the drugs that make the misery of life here bearable. "In Reading, there is a shooting every day, even if the police deny it," says Michael Reist, a white pastor.
His congregation is in Stony Creek Mills, Reading's poorest suburb. Many of his regular churchgoers live in crowded trailer parks, the epitome of white poverty in America. Friends of the pastor's at his country club unabashedly refer to blacks as "niggers," a term that is studiously avoided in America's politically correct mainstream.
NEWSLETTER
Sign up for Spiegel Online's daily newsletter and get the best of Der Spiegel's and Spiegel Online's international coverage in your In- Box everyday.
Pastor Robert Brookins is a representative of the black establishment in Reading. He believes that although the members of his congregation love Obama's ideas, they have no fondness for the candidate himself, because they do not see him as one of them. Brookins has been the pastor at his church, one of the poorest in Reading's blighted downtown, for 29 years.
A Conspiracy?
Today he sits on a leather chair in his cluttered office and insists that Obama's vision for the nation, of a truly United States of America, is a pipe dream. Brookins is convinced that there are those wielding behind-the-scenes power who have made sure that prison sentences for possession of crack, a drug of the poor, are much more severe than for possession of cocaine, a drug of the rich. As far as he is concerned, these puppet masters have only one thing in mind: to keep as many black men behind bars for as long as possible. "That is a conspiracy," he says quietly. There is a similar undercurrent of anger in the portrayal of the status quo one hears from Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, whose church is on Chicago's poorer South Side.
Clinton is likely to win the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania next week. Indeed, she will have to if she hopes to remain in the running. And Obama? According to a survey, close to 30 percent of Democratic Hillary supporters would rather vote for Republican candidate McCain than for a black candidate.
She'Quora King is black and an Obama supporter. She is optimistic, she says, which is why she believes that her idol does stand a chance in a city like Reading. But she also asks herself whether she should even want to see him in the White House. "If he's put in office, he's gonna be assassinated," she says. "There are too many people that don't want to see a black man in that chair."
SOURCE
So what do you guys think? Obama may have support in the white collar platinum belt, but last time I checked SanFran libs (blessedly) don't constitute a majority of this great nation. Some people might call this article a hitjob, but I think its spot-on. I bet we'll see at least a 15pt shift in the polls following this article.
that's awesome!
My ACLU card got revoked because I was snorting coke from the wrong end of the hooker. Then I got beat up by the rednecks for thinking Shiner Bock counted as a domestic beer.
