Mainstream media in-kind contributions

I have not been following the Democratic debates in their crowded field. So much of the reporting feels forced, much ado about nothing, and divorced from anything that is important to daily life.

Following the second debate in the second round of debates last night, I find in my email inbox this morning one of the most tepid headlines I have seen in a long time. It is from the New York Times.

TOP STORIES
“Malarkey.” Joe Biden was far from perfect, but tonight’s debate showed he’s still the front-runner, until proven otherwise. Read our analysis.

You have to be a pretty monomaniacal follower of partisan insider ball for that to be a hook.

The actual article headline is not much stronger.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Joe Biden Did Fine, and That Might Have Been Enough

I keep in mind that the NYT seemed early to be pretty strong for Kamala Harris. Perhaps this is just their way of making an in-kind contribution to her campaign by hobbling the pack leader.

I did click through, not out of interest in the debate itself but in how the NYT covered it. Pretty much as expected. However, there was this nugget of information which I had not seen before and which is a fascinating refutation of the racist identitarians of the progressive, postmodernist social justice crowd. Emphasis added.

A Quinnipiac University national poll released Monday showed Mr. Biden well ahead of his competitors: He was the choice of 34 percent of Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning voters, the survey found, while Ms. Harris came in at 12 percent. Among black voters the numbers were starker: Mr. Biden had the support of 53 percent of black Democratic voters; Ms. Harris claimed only 7 percent.

I am not surprised. Treating blacks as a voting bloc, they are socially more conservative, more religious, more blue-collar than just about everyone up there on the stage at the debate last night.

Biden is probably the best known of the centrists. Cory Booker (African-American but one of the more socially liberal candidates) only has 2% of the black vote according to the poll cited by the NYT.

Fascinating to see African-Americans voting their interests rather than their identities. According to that poll, 9% of African-Americans are giving their support to socially liberal African-American candidates. 91% of their support goes to white candidates who better reflect their values - 53% to the socially moderate candidate, 12% to the big spenders (Warren and Biden) and 26% not paying attention yet.

Voting like Americans vote, hyphen or no hyphen, according to their perceived interests and not based on racial identity.