Warren: Quoting Shakespeare and ignoring blogs
Warren
St. Louis University political science professor Ken Warren says he remains disturbed over Gov. Matt Blunt’s assertion last week that Warren was wrongly accusing rural voters of being “racist” because most did not support Democrat Barack Obama, now the president-elect.
“I think that Gov. Blunt owes me an apology for making demogogical comments about what I said, for political gain,” Warren said. “He knows what I said isn’t what he said I said.”
But in the days since then, Warren said he’s ignored the various blogs that have ripped him, and he’s been focusing on his national exit-poll work and other duties.
“To quote Shakespeare, ‘It’s Much Ado About Nothing,’ ” Warren said today.
Warren maintains that he was not making any broad accusations about any voters who didn’t support Obama for president, in his post-election analysis, initially reported last week by The Beacon, an online publication.
Warren acknowledged that many voters had various reasons for preferring Republican John McCain.
“I said ’some people who voted for McCain are racist,’ but that’s a minor percentage,” Warren said.
His point, he continued, is that in such a close election in Missouri, the small percentage of voters who made decisions on racial grounds could make the difference.
Warren noted, for example, the latest pre-election poll in the Post-Dispatch, and earlier ones, had signaled that roughly a quarter of those polled believed that Obama’s biracial background would be an “important” or “very important” factor.
The polling comments came from whites and blacks. Warren noted that some African-Americans were voting for Obama primarily for his race, as well.
(At the same time, about two-thirds of those polled in Missouri said the nation was ready to elect an African-American as president. )
Our pollster, Del Ali, also said right before the election that, “In a close contest, at the last minute, race could be enough to deny Obama a victory” in Missouri.
“My exit poll showed the same thing as your poll,” Warren said. That poll showed that about 60 percent of the African-Americans polled said they would be a lot or somewhat more likely to vote for Obama because of his race, while about 53 percent of the white voters polled said they were less likely to vote for Obama because of his race.
Also backing Warren up was another local political-science professor, UMSL’s Dave Robertson, who wrote a similar analysis recently for The Beacon.
By the way, Warren has been in the midst of such a controversy before. After the city’s racially charged School Board race in 1991, Warren and his SLU colleague, the late George Wendel, touched off an unroar when they alleged vote fraud because of the huge African-American turnout (in the 90-plus percentage range).
Their assertions resulted in an Election Board investigation that resulted in a few African-American poll workers admitting they were casting ballots for relatives who weren’t showing up at the polls themselves.
As an African American I am proud to say that I voted for Mr. Obama because he will be a distinct change (hopefully improvement) from President Bush. The plans and ideas that he articulated seemed like a better approach than the ones offered by Senator McCain. I am also objective enough to express the fact that many an African American voted for Obama just because he is African American. I would shake my head and try to offer advice to people that vote that way. I was not old enough to vote when Jesse Jackson ran for president in 1984. One of the reasons why I did not feel the need to support him is because, I did not see him as one that could lead government. My dad and I had a serious talk about that moment in history. My dad never said it directly, but he was one of those people that would support an African American because they were African American. His life in America is much different than my life in America. In conclusion, I would say people should vote for a person because they trust that person to lead or be effective in the position.