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'Race' is on: Will White House get a Black prez?
Published on Sat, Jun 07, 2008 at 07:25, Updated on Sat, Jun 07, 2008 at 08:25 in 
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'RACE' FOR TOP JOB: CNN-IBN panel debates if America is ready for a 'Black' president.
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Senator Barack Obama has already created history as the first black presidential candidate of major political party in the US.
Obama met Hillary Clinton, his former rival to get the Democrat party’s nomination for the presidential election, to possibly offer her a vice presidential spot.
Obama may need Clinton’s support, given her drawing power with white women and older voters. Experts though say its white men, and not white women, who are a problem for the Democrats. As many as 62 per cent white men voted for George W Bush in 2004.
Obama may have clinched the Democratic nomination but his race is far from over. The quest to win over white working class voters who backed Clinton overwhelmingly during the bitter nomination battle is going to be a major challenge. Obama will have to win over at least eight swing states—where Clinton won—if he wants to be the US President.
Obama’s youth, charisma and concern for the underprivileged have earned him fans in the US and all across the world. But do these qualities make his race immaterial? Is America ready for a black President?
CNN-IBN’s Senior Editor Sagarika Ghose asked this to Mark Preston, political editor of CNN, Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, senior editor of Hindustan Times, and CNN correspondent Sara Sidner.
“Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now,” Obama said in one of his first campaign speeches. But race is not the biggest issue in America right now.
“The economy is the biggest issue in America right now. People are concerned about gas prices, healthcare and unemployment. The (presidential) race will be won on who can fix the economy,” said Sidner.
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Hillary should wholeheartedly back Obama and become his vP candidate. That would sooth the feathers of the working class backers
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