ARE WE POLES APART!

JACK
Every candidate says he or she wants to bring us all together. Whatever the intention, it seems to me that we are more polarized than ever. We just got past the South Carolina primaries, and it seems that black women and most black men voted for Obama. Most white women voted for Clinton, and the conclusion that I draw is that gender and race do impact on the decisions that are going to be made. The question to me is: Is this a fact of life? Do we always move towards our ethnic background or color? Are we really one country, and the interests of all can best be served by a candidate that represents all of us. This is really not a judgment, this is a question. Has the United States really fulfilled its promise of becoming the great melting pot? If this is not so, then how do we make the corrections. Or is it possible that the country as a whole is better off, even though it is still divided? How does it look from your 32-year-old vantage point?

HILLARY
It looks to me like, as Democrats that we have two typical Washington politicians to choose from for our nominee. I do not see the vast divide between Obama and Clinton that others do. Outside of the physical attributes, they are both slick political animals. I see that many other candidates were forced out of the running by the media, and that we now have a two person race with little substantive discourse, and little to help me (anyway) make an educated decision between the two.

JACK
You’re talking about the democratic nomination, it seems to me that the polarity is even more so in the Republican primary. Certainly back in 2000, the Republican strategists went to their conservative Christian base. The problem they are now having is there seems to be only one candidate that qualifies as a religious person on the far right, and that would be Huckabee. But, on the Republican side, we have one candidate who is a Mormon, and should obviously get the Mormon vote, but he is a running a campaign saying that he is a businessman in the real world, therefore he should get the vote of business people. The leading contender at the moment is Sen. McCain, who’s very large following now are people that believe we should be in Iraq and that victory is in sight. I guess the conclusion is that people do fall into compartments and will choose the arena, or the candidate, with whom they are most comfortable. And, incidentally, I disagree with you in one way, the media didn’t knock out the other candidates, the voters did. That is not to say that the media isn’t slanted, and that certain points get a lot more coverage. But, that’s a whole other subject. I just have to look with a big question mark when the statements are made that we are not white or black or brown, or religious, but we are all Americans.

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