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Title: Will Affirmative Action Roil '08 Race?
Source:
ABC
URL Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=5213420&page=1
Published: Jun 24, 2008
Author: TEDDY DAVIS, TAHMAN BRADLEY, and GREGORY
Post Date: 2008-06-24 14:12:46 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 118
Comments: 6
Will Affirmative Action Roil '08 Race? Obama Against Connerly Initiatives; McCain Still Mum By TEDDY DAVIS, TAHMAN BRADLEY, and GREGORY WALLACE June 20, 2008 Democrat Barack Obama opposes three state ballot measures which would end affirmative action in Colorado, Arizona, and Nebraska. Republican John McCain, by contrast, continues to take no position, according to a campaign spokesperson. Ward Connerly, one of that nation's foremost advocates for abolishing race- and gender-based affirmative action, is behind a ballot initiative in Colorado, Arizona, and Nebraska. He was also behind measures that passed in California and Michigan. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)The McCain campaign's reluctance to take a stance after multiple requests from ABC News has led Ward Connerly, the proponent of the measures, to say that the presumptive Republican nominee is missing an opportunity to draw a sharp contrast with his Democratic rival. "If (McCain) came out and said, 'I believe that our country is at its best when it treats everybody as an equal' . . . and I have read these initiatives and they do precisely that. . . . He puts Sen. Obama in one hell of a spot," Connerly told ABC News. "Senator Obama has to be careful, as he opposes our initiatives, that he not be seen as an anti-white male kind of candidate," said Connerly. "White males typically vote, probably 70/30 in favor of these initiatives. If Sen. Obama isn't careful, he can get saddled with the impression, the image, of being an angry black man, despite the soothing rhetoric that he uses." Connerly, who has led efforts which ended race- and gender-based affirmative action in California and Michigan, contributed $500 to Obama's campaign on Feb. 28. He made this donation even though the Illinois Democrat lent his voice to a 2006 radio ad seeking to defeat Connerly's ballot measure in the Wolverine State. "I really thought that Senator Obama in his heart of hearts would like to get beyond race. He's a multiracial guy," said Connerly, who himself is multi-racial. "Multiracial people understand race in a far more nuanced way than those who are quote 'mono-racial.'" Obama lost Connerly's backing on June 10 when the Illinois Democrat came out against Connerly's Civil Rights Initiatives in DeWayne Wickham's U.S.A. Today column. The presumptive Democratic nominee wants to continue race-based affirmative action in higher education while also supporting the creation of affirmative action for low-income students regardless of race.
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#1. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
McCain will never come out against affirmative action. He won't take a position now because he needs conservative votes, but if/when he's elected, his actions on the issue won't be much different from what BHO's would be.
Bless you Ward. You put most whites to shame; and no good deed goes unpunished.
Keisha Brown, 21, from Chicago, whose mother has a nightgown with a picture of Obama on it, said, “Everything will be different now.”
Crazy Johnny is moving heaven and hell to distance himself from conservatives. It's working: he won't get their votes this November.
I agree. At least Obama isn't being duplicit on this issue. The same holds w/guns. He's very direct.
A consistent voice of sanity.
there's a black man whose politics would get my vote.
#2. To: Jethro Tull, *Race Realism* (#0)
#3. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#1)
He won't take a position now because he needs conservative votes
“The best and first guarantor of our neutrality and our independent existence is the defensive will of the people…and the proverbial marksmanship of the Swiss shooter. Each soldier a good marksman! Each shot a hit!” Schweizerische Schutzenseitunt (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#4. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#1)
He won't take a position now because he needs conservative votes, but if/when he's elected, his actions on the issue won't be much different from what BHO's would be.
#5. To: Tauzero (#2)
Bless you Ward.
#6. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
Ward Connerly, one of that nation's foremost advocates for abolishing race- and gender-based affirmative action,
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