European Americans: Yes, We Can!
Two weeks after President Obama said that Cambridge, Mass., policehad “acted stupidly” by arresting Harvard University Prof. Henry LouisGates for arguing with them inside his home, Republicans are stilltaking stock of their unexpected political gift.
A Pew Research pollreleased on July 30 found the president’s approval rating among whitevoters slipping seven points, from 53 percent to 46 percent, explicitlybecause of their disappointment in the Gates remarks. A CNN/OpinionResearch poll released on August 4 found that six out of 10 white voters disagreed with the president’s remarks. A Quinnipiac poll released on August 6 found that white voters, by a 2-1 margin, believed that the president had “acted stupidly” in talking about Gates.
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“Let’s face it,” said Michael Graham, a Boston radio host, in aninterview with TWI. “During a national, televised press conference, thepresident had an Al Sharpton moment.In November 2008 he was not ‘our’ president for black voters and‘their’ president for white voters. If he becomes, for middle-classwhite Americans, ‘their’ president, that’s devastating, that’s akiller.”“The lock’s been jiggled, but the door hasn’t been broken down,” said Graham, who suggested that the Department of Justice’s decision to drop a case against the radical New Black Panther Party might be hurting white support for Obama if it got more coverage (Here).