The Daily Background

Overheard today: a previously-steadfast African American female Clinton supporter I know (a demographic match-up that’s rare to find here in Chicago) talking to a friend about how she wanted Clinton to drop out. The reason, she said, was because of Obama’s gigantic fundraising edge. Sure, it was just one person, but I was shocked to hear her say it, given her earlier outspoken advocacy for Clinton, which is probably not too easy for somebody living on the South Side to have in the first place.

Still, she expressed doubts that the country is really ready to elect an African American as president.

Perhaps it’s been obvious by the way I’ve been blogging in the past several months, but I’ve supported Obama since he first announced his candidacy all the way back in February of 2007. Several times I’ve pretended I was living 50 years in the future and looked back asking myself “Under what circumstances did the United States elect its first Black president?” The answer is, during an extraordinary time when people were very unsatisfied with the status quo. The new poll numbers from CBS/NYT suggest we’re about as close as we can get to this point:

Americans are more dissatisfied with the country’s direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the early 1990s, according to the latest poll.

In the poll, 81 percent of respondents said they believed “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track,” up from 69 percent a year ago and 35 percent in early 2002.

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