RE: Obama - Time running out for the making of a black President

[wyldwolf]

the fact is Obama's campaign appears to be caught in the doldrums. Beneath all the endless public appearances, television interviews and the hype of 'Obama-mania' lies a story of a campaign that has completely failed to budge Clinton out of her position as frontrunner. Indeed, Obama has barely moved in the polls since he exploded onto the political scene when he announced his candidacy earlier this year. It is Clinton's poll numbers that have recently been nudging ever higher, not Obama's.

The story of the Democratic race since Obama entered the field has not been one of a fierce battle or the much expected roller-coaster ride. Instead it has been a long, steady march of the Clinton machine, keeping other candidates at arm's length and building an ever larger lead in the polls. 'There is a long way to go, but at this moment the race remains hers to lose,' said Larry Haas, a political commentator and former official in the Clinton White House.

A survey of recent polls shows Clinton in commanding form compared with all of her rivals. The most recent national polls show her with a lead over Obama that ranges from 14 per cent to 22 per cent. A Gallup survey had her on a whopping 47 per cent, against Obama's 25 per cent and John Edwards's meagre 11 per cent. No other Democrat scored more than 5 per cent. Clinton is also ahead by about 20 points in New Hampshire and has recently moved ahead of Edwards in the key first voting state of Iowa, where Edwards has been virtually camped out for the past two years.

In fact, Obama has not led the polls in any state recently, not even South Carolina, where many black voters are expected to back him in his quest to be America's first black President. That has raised serious questions over whether Obama can actually appeal to black voters. Some of them have been put off by questions over the 'American blackness' of Obama's background, owing to his mixed parentage of a white Kansan mother and a Kenyan father. In the meantime, Clinton has sought to capitalise on the still huge popularity among many blacks of her husband's time in the Oval Office.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2180303,00.html