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This article appeared in the October 6, 2008 edition of The Nation.

September 17, 2008

Obama: Win First, Change Later

Oakland, Calif.

Robert L. Borosage and Katrina vanden Heuvel put the cart before the horse in "Progressives in the Obama Moment" [Sept. 1/8]. First Obama has to get elected. We must defeat John McCain and his ugly campaign. As we have seen since Richard Nixon, Republicans pursue a strategy of putting the Democrat on the defensive by manipulating fear and prejudice. I take it as a given that millions of Americans will not vote for Obama because he is black. But his biggest challenge is to put his opponent on the defensive and make a McCain presidency the voters' biggest fear. (I know the mere thought of it scares me.)

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About Thomas J.Sugrue

Thomas J. Sugrue, the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of The Origins of the Urban Crisis and, most recently, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Unfinished Struggle for Racial Equality in the North (forthcoming this fall from Random House). more...
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