More on Clinton and Obama's Jacksonian, Academic Divide
A fellow aficionado of election statistics has directed me to this city-and-town map of the Democratic primary results in Massachusetts. Click on any city or town and you'll get the percentages for Clinton and Obama. Note that Obama does not get extremely high percentages in high-income suburbs. He runs no better than even in Newton, for example. One reason: There are many Jewish voters there, and Clinton has tended to run ahead, often well ahead, of Obama among Jews. In contrast, Obama did much better in college towns—66 percent in Amherst, 60 percent in Williamstown, 63 percent in Cambridge. Clinton won 74 percent in Lawrence, an old shoe manufacturing town with many Latinos; she got 77 percent in Fall River and 70 percent in New Bedford, which has a high Portuguese population. And here's an interesting contrast. Provincetown, where the large majority of single-sex marriages have been of men, voted 63 percent for Clinton. Northampton, where the large majority of single-sex marriages have been of women, voted 58 percent for Obama. Do gay men tend to support Clinton and gay women tend to support Obama?
Tags: Massachusetts | presidential election 2008 | primaries | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton
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Reader Comments
Sean Hannity
That was a good appearance on Hannity's show yesterday. I got the feeling it was WAY over Hannity's head however. He does better with short little sound bites that he can compress into his 5 second attention span. I'm a conservative, but Hannity is hard for me to take. Also, I doubt he could name more than about 50 members of the House and maybe 40 senators. He couldn't understand the description of the Scots-Irish in America. He's just not very smart.
Jacksonians
The "Jacksonians" you describe in your recent piece could better be described as rednecks who would never vote for a black person. It has nothing to do with their relationship to their Jacksonian ancestors.
The Democratic primary is overwhelmingly about race. The Hispanics, Asians and lower-class whites who compete with African-Americans are voting for Hillary. Their support is not so much because they particularly like her or they want a woman President. It's an anti vote. My guess is that they would vote overhwhelmingly for a white man if they had the choice--which they will have in November.
The academics and upscale Dems who are voting for Obama just don't feel as threatened by his race.
Race is the central issue in this county and it has been since we started buying slaves from West Africa.
Please don't give me academic B.S. about Jacksonians.
The Massachusetts Vote
This was very enlightening, and I'm surprised Clinton has done well in Massachusetts, given its history in demonizing female candidates (Jane Swift and Kerry Healy). I think many MA residents have "voter's remorse" after voting for Deval Patrick into the governer's office. He has fallen flat on his campaign promises, and if history serves us right, Obama, if president, would fall flat on his promises as well.
I wouldn't interpret the Boston and surrounding areas (including Cambridge) as leaning Obama as a result of the college vote. Afterall, these areas also have a heavy population of African Americans and minorities who tend to vote Obama no matter what. Isolated collegetowns like Wellesley and Amherst are more telling of the "Jacksonian academics" divide. Affluent areas like Lexington and Concord represent the white upper income brackets. The western parts who carried Obama tend to be Republican and anti-Clinton. I don't think the media discusses this segment of the Obama support enough.
After all this, it's surprising that Clinton carried the majority of the youth as well as white males in this state. I would have liked to see a breakdown of the age in the Boston and surrounding areas. This state boasts one of the highest post secondary education rate in the country, and has an above average mean family income. It would help shed light on if Obama really does carry the college educated vote, because, as a young college-educated individual, I have yet to encounter a young college-educated individual who voted for Obama.
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