I agree with you that racism and sexism are still a problem and I understand the concern about either a black man or woman may not be able to win. When I get feeling better I have a post about finished that addresses this concern.

Thanks for commenting. If I felt better I would respond with more. I don’t know if you write at all but you should consider it.

Driving to work yesterday I was listening to the BBC. They interviewed a woman in WV. The interview went something like this:
BBC: Who are you voting for?
woman: Hillary Clinton
BBC: You’re not voting for Obama?
woman: No.
BBC: Why?
woman: “Because he’s black.”

I put the last in quotes because that is an exact response. Maybe the BBC went through hundreds before they found the one who was prejudice. Certainly, Hillary’s win was across the board from what I’ve heard. But it seems clear to me that WV was a lost cause for Obama from early on and that one factor in this was simply prejudice. It is very disheartening, but not unexpected, that this attitude still exists, and in numbers, but I assure you it exists. I’ve run into it all the time, maybe because I’m a nice guy – or perceived that way – so people confide in me. I get everything from “a woman shouldn’t be a pastor” to “I’m sorry, but those people ARE lazy!” I didn’t run into this as much in the middle class, white neighborhood I grew up in. I didn’t get it from my family nor my relatives. My family runs the gamut from quite liberal (me and my parents) to very conservative (uncles and wives with the grandparents in between). But when we sold our house near DC to “blacks” we got an earful from some formerly nice and close neighbors. You can probably guess it but we were accused of bringing the neighborhood down. Our relatives didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. The attitude seems to run across all income and education levels when it exists. But it does exist and where it exists, it’s pervasive. Only when you force others to coexist with minorities will SOME of them change their ways of thinking. Others are stuck and won’t change; it will be up to their children to have more open minds.

Seeing and hearing what I do in SW Virginia (where Obama had notably more trouble) I can promise you in WV, just a short bike ride away, prejudicial attitudes exist there as well. This may not account for his big loss there but I assure you it was a factor. And I assure you it doesn’t matter if the people with this attitude are educated or not, poor or rich.

Luckily, WV isn’t the biggest delegate state. But it does expose one weakness in his electionability: his skin. Sad. Very sad.