Election '08: Quitters Never Win — The Obama Version

Ellen R. Malcolm is very white. She has written this article which is a collection of universal platitudes and stereotypes that can be applied to any non-white-non-male politician. This is what she could have written if she was an Obama supporter and Clinton was first in all categories (you should read her original first):

When I was growing up in the 1960s, I wanted to be considered equal to white citizens. In those days, the rules said that black people were not equal to white people. To make sure that we followed the rules, there were lynchings, killings, burnings, beatings, and assassinations. It’s a wonder our activist brethren could stay alive.

It’s remarkable that my generation of black people entered the workforce and began to compete in business, politics and the hurly-burly of life outside the home. How did we ever learn to locate, much less channel, our competitive instincts in a world that made us subordinate and assumed that we would be content as three fifths. It’s a tremendous tribute to black people of my generation that we sucked it up and learned to compete in the toughest environments.

Which brings us to Barack Obama running for president. This brilliant man believes that he can compete for the most powerful office in the world. He believes that he can do a better job than any of the white people running to lead our country through these challenging times. And millions of Americans, women and men, believe that she is correct.

Yet over and over again the media and his opponents have claimed that he is defeated — it’s over, he can’t win, he’s a loser. And over and over again — in Iowa, in Alabama and Georgia, in Mississippi and Vermont last month, and in North Carolina this week — black voters poured out of their homes to cast their ballots for him. They know that a black man can compete, and they want to make sure that black men, especially this black man, can win.

It’s not surprising that low-income working black people are the cornerstone of Obama’s success. Many of these black people live on the edge of disaster. A pink slip, a family member’s illness, a parent who can no longer work, no family car or rent that goes up — all are threats that could devastate the family. And yet these black people do what black people have done for ages. They put on a confident face, feed their children breakfast and get them off to school. They don’t quit. They suck it up and fight back against whatever life throws their way.

They see in Barack Obama a candidate who understands the pressures they face. As they watch him tough it out against all odds, refusing to quit and continuing to compete against whatever the media and his opponents throw his way, they see a black man as tough and resilient as they are. They clearly want him to win. His victory, I believe, is their victory.

So here we are in the fourth quarter of the nominating process and the game is too close to call. Once again, the opponents and the media are calling for Obama to quit. The first black man ever to win a presidential primary as a national contender is supposed to stop competing, to tip his hat and exit stage right.

Why on earth should one candidate quit before the contest is finished? Democrats need not be so fainthearted. Both of the party’s remaining candidates have raised tens of millions of dollars. Both have the respect of Democrats nationwide. Each has a progressive agenda that stands in stark contrast to Sen. John McCain and his adherence to Bush administration policies.

So why are some Democrats so afraid? We simply need to count every vote, let the remaining states have their say and see the process through to its conclusion.

Barack Obama certainly has the right to compete till the end. But I believe Obama also has a responsibility to play the game to its conclusion. For the black people of my generation who learned to find and channel their competitiveness, for the working black people who never falter in the face of pressure, for the younger black people who still believe they can do anything, Obama is a champion. He’s shown us over and over that winners never quit and that quitters never win. We’ll cheer him on until the game is over. And we hope that when the final whistle blows, we will have elected the first black president and the best president our country has ever had.

Neat, huh?