U.S. Elections 2008

News & Polls

10 November 2008
Non-U.S. Journalists Cite American Voter Enthusiasm, Role of Race

By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer

Washington — As U.S news commentators continue to assess the meaning of Senator Barack Obama’s November 4 presidential election victory, 50 journalists invited to the United States by the State Department’s Foreign Press Center shared their impressions, expressing surprise at how highly engaged average Americans were in the campaigns.

The group of newspaper, magazine, online and radio journalists covered the election for their organizations from the so-called battleground states on which John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s campaigns focused special attention. The program was funded by the State Department and administered by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), a nonprofit professional organization.

Speaking in Washington November 6, one African journalist commented on the role of identity politics in the race and the enthusiasm of American voters. “I think we had a front-row seat in this drama of race and religion,” he said.

RACE AND U.S. POLITICS

A Ugandan journalist covering the election from Pennsylvania said he arrived in the United States already impressed with Obama’s oratory and political skills. “But I didn’t know this exuberance, the enthusiasm from all the Americans.

“People have talked about African Americans, the black race and all that. But I know that the black Americans are only 12 percent [of the vote],” he said. He was surprised that white Americans came out so strongly in support of Obama.

Many of the visiting journalists noted that Obama’s support extended well beyond the African-American community. President-elect Obama’s identity as the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, and his Islamic middle name “Hussein” were topics of discussion among some American voters during the campaign and had the potential to be divisive in some communities.

“[T]he enthusiasm with which [white Americans] give him the vote, they supported him, the fundraising. You know, for me that was really a shock to me throughout this tour,” the Ugandan journalist said.

ICFJ’s director, Jerri Eddings, said race is becoming less important in American politics. “It’s not going to disappear. It’s probably never going to disappear,” she said. “But the fact that Obama was elected actually proves how much less of an issue [race] is now than it was.”

Patrick Butler, who is ICFJ’s vice president for programs, said the journalists’ observations of the importance of religious identity might be due to the continued role of U.S. churches in influencing voter attitudes.

“Churches are very involved in elections and a large part of the population takes into account religious beliefs and the beliefs of the candidates,” he said.

AMERICAN POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

Several journalists remarked on how the crowds at campaign rallies demonstrated U.S. voter enthusiasm.

“People were waiting for four to five hours to listen to a 13 minute speech of the candidate,” said one. “People were taking little children with them. It was very interesting for me.”

A Nigerian journalist recalled that people stood for two hours waiting to hear Senator Hillary Clinton speak at an Obama rally. “In Nigeria, nobody attends conventions. You have to transport people to the place. You have to provide food if possible,” he said.

Others were struck by the dedication of campaign volunteers on both sides. “I met some who left their homes, who left their jobs just to be volunteers for their candidate and also women who left their homes to be babysitters for the volunteers. … This was something that I noticed very strongly,” said another African journalist.

Of the 50 program participants, 11 were from sub-Saharan Africa, eight from East Asia and the Pacific, eight from Europe, 11 from the Middle East and North Africa, five from South Central Asia, and seven from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Depending on where they were stationed, some journalists cited the high number of African Americans involved in the Obama campaign; some reported especially enthusiastic support for his campaign among blacks who recently had immigrated to the United States from Africa and the Caribbean.

Eddings, speaking from her own experience as an African American who had come from a politically active neighborhood, said activism varied from community to community.

“I’ve always had a theory about immigrants versus people who have been here for several generations, which is that immigrants come with a sense of hope and opportunity and black people in this country, particularly in the South … have lost their sense of opportunity,” following experiences such as segregation and discrimination.

“But in this election, I think many of those very same people who had lost their sense of hope and opportunity actually regained it,” she said.

A Mexican journalist working in Florida remarked on how different voter groups she met had different priorities and concerns that played out in their opinions. Cuban Americans, she said, were “hit very hard” by accusations from the McCain campaign that Obama was a socialist.

“They told me, ‘Well, we came out of the island, fleeing from [Fidel] Castro because he was a communist from there, and now a socialist wants to be president of the United States,’” she said.

She also observed a generational dynamic, as elderly Jewish voters expressed concerns over the economy and about rumors that Obama was a Muslim. However, “their younger relatives didn’t think about that.”

A generational divide was also in evidence at a Florida university. “They were all Obama lovers. … You didn’t really have a real discussion over there.”

However, one of her colleagues said he had been surprised to find that many young voters were uninformed on the issues and expressed support for their candidate based on more trivial matters such as racial identity or the desire to have “a president with whom I can share a beer.”

Butler said, indeed, some Americans vote for candidates they feel they can relate to rather than investigating their policies, and the U.S. system of democracy allows each voter to apply personal criteria when casting a ballot.

“You can vote based on whether you think the guy is good looking or not,” he said. “That’s the way democracy works. You can’t require people to be educated about the issues.”

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