The Bigot Vote

I'm not entirely interested in an argument over whether sexism or racism is the bigger problem, or whether racism has hurt Obama more than sexism has hurt Clinton. But it bothers me that it is casually recognized that Clinton is winning and, in fact, depending on the bigot vote. The results in Pennsylvania made this very clear, and it has raised questions about Obama's electability in a national election. 20% of Democratic voters said that race was an issue in their vote, and 49% of Clinton voters said they would stay home or vote for McCain if Obama won the party's nomination. Those are some crazy numbers, especially for the Democratic party. The media's codeword for these people is "lunch-bucket Democrats", because apparently "racist assholes" won't make it past the censors.

Nobody with any sense wants to see McCain win the national election. But there are some people I don't care to have in the big tent, and self-righteous bigots are certainly high on that list. Can we stop pretending that this is a legitimate interest group the candidates need to be courting? If we need their vote to win, we're doing it wrong.