Peter Beinart, after charging that John McCain will press the
race issue,
argues that Barack Obama will never be able to prevent race
from becoming a factor in the election, so he has to take the issue
head on by coming out in favor of replacing race-based affirmative
action with class-based programs.
Beinart notes that, "Notre Dame political scientist David Leege
estimates that 17 to 19 percent of white Democrats and
Democratic-leaning independents will resist voting for Obama
because he is black." There's really no way of telling whether such
an estimate is accurate, but even if it is, I'm not sure if I buy
into the rest of Beinart's argument.
For one, I don't think that affirmative action is as salient of
an issue as it once was, and I'm skeptical that the average voter
-- let alone voters who won't vote for Obama because he is black --
will be swayed by such a distinction.
Either way, I think the discussion is moot, because nothing
suggests that Obama would take such a position.
Beinart notes that:
Arguing that his own daughters shouldn't benefit from affirmative
action, he told the Chronicle of Higher Education last year that
"we should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged
and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it
takes to succeed."
It's typical of Obama to sympathize with lots of ideas in certain
forums, but very un-Obamalike to take a clear, bold, stand on an
issue. However open
he may seem to class-based affirmative action in a broad
discussion, I'd be shocked if as a matter of policy, he came out in
favor of using such criterion as an outright substitute for racial
preferences.
topics:
Education, John McCain, Barack Obama
