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Change We Can Believe In: McCain Should Take The Initiative...

No, make that the initiatives, as in the initiatives that will be on the ballots of Colorado, Nebraska, and Arizona in November that would prohibit those states from awarding preferential treatment based on race.

As I argued here (and many other places), McCain could gain additional support in several highly contested ?battleground? states ? including, as it happens, Colorado, as well as Michigan (which passed a similar initiative by a wide margin in 2006) and Virginia ? is he would take a strong stand in favor of colorblind equal treatment. (No doubt showing the power of a compelling argument combined with the Internet, several days after my post cited above appeared McCain did in fact come out in favor of the Arizona initiative, and by extension the others.)

Now comes Peter Brown, the assistant director of the respected Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, who suggests that Obama?s continued support for race preferences is indeed likely to hurt him in Colorado.

The success of similar measures in other states and polls showing very strong support for it in Colorado suggest the proposal is likely to pass. Quinnipiac University/Wall Street Journal/washingtonpost.com polls in June and July found that roughly two-thirds of Colorado voters support the proposal, and less than one-fifth oppose it.

Ending state-sponsored discrimination based on race or ethnicity is one change we desperately need, but that is one change Obama and his supporters do not believe it.

Full post as published by Discriminations on August 11, 2008 (boomark / email).