Have you ever viewed the movie Putney Swope? The satire in which the token black man on the executive board of an advertising firm is accidentally put in charge?
Well Clarence page of the Chicago Tribune thinks there are some comparsions between Obama Obama and Putney Swope. You know what - I do too.
Check out his article.
Obama tiptoes through nation's racial minefield
By Clarence Page
Polls about Sen. Barack Obama's presidential chances remind me of "Putney Swope," the brazenly irreverent 1969 comedy about the first black man to be elected the head of a major advertising agency's board.
Swope was not elected because he was the favorite candidate. Quite the opposite, all of the board's other members voted for him because each was convinced that none of the others members would vote for him.
That lampoon of liberal gestures came to mind as I read a Newsweek poll that accompanies a cover story on Obama this week. It asks whether the respondent would vote for a woman, a Hispanic, a Mormon or an African-American for president. It also asks, "Do you think the rest of America would?"
In each case a healthy majority say they'd do it, compared with a smaller percentage who believe their fellow Americans would. An overwhelming 85 percent, for example, say they'd vote for a woman, compared with only 58 percent who think the rest of the country would.
An even larger 92 percent say they'd vote for an African-American while 59 percent thought other Americans would.
Of course some people do lie to pollsters, especially about race. We don't want to sound too narrow-minded, even to a pollster, which also means we must read into the polls even as we read about them. More HERE
Swope was not elected because he was the favorite candidate. Quite the opposite, all of the board's other members voted for him because each was convinced that none of the others members would vote for him.
That lampoon of liberal gestures came to mind as I read a Newsweek poll that accompanies a cover story on Obama this week. It asks whether the respondent would vote for a woman, a Hispanic, a Mormon or an African-American for president. It also asks, "Do you think the rest of America would?"
In each case a healthy majority say they'd do it, compared with a smaller percentage who believe their fellow Americans would. An overwhelming 85 percent, for example, say they'd vote for a woman, compared with only 58 percent who think the rest of the country would.
An even larger 92 percent say they'd vote for an African-American while 59 percent thought other Americans would.
Of course some people do lie to pollsters, especially about race. We don't want to sound too narrow-minded, even to a pollster, which also means we must read into the polls even as we read about them. More HERE
![[npr_newsnotes.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrutmUkZxwkFeBaRIQmhH5IjbSRus-kQEYwA_IbtQXARIcnJdZsw0tyuY63HLYZjQM-YtcE3niv6L_w73Bm9UQIrLrhurYZVxJP1HiHSpgUPM0xzBPZJIYjmSA06qU1uO9sjgFkTMkWjA/s1600/npr_newsnotes.jpg)
