Identity politics: Alvin Greene won by about same percent as Obama did in SC Dem primary

Dan Surber is 100% correct:

Alvin Greene, 32, [Greene is black] won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina over Judge Vic Rawl [Rawl is white], 100,375 to 69,850.

Greene is black, Rawl is white. In identity politics, maybe the overwhelming majority of Democratic primary voters decided that they could beat incumbent Republican Senator Jim DeMint (who was re-nominated) with a black man.

It may just be identity politics.

Greene won by a 100,375 to 69,850 count (58.9% of the vote).  According to South Carolina's official Democratic primary results from 2008 (SC registers voters by race), 110,559 votes were cast by non-whites versus 83,832 votes by whites (56.8% vs. 43.2%).  We can assume the higher turnout in the 2008 primary was due to a hotly contested race between Obama (the non-white candidate) versus a slew of white Democratic candidates.

UPDATE: The 2008 Democratic primary results I referenced turned out to be for the state primaries, not the Presidential primaries. But Obama did get 55.44% of the vote during the January SC Democratic Presidential primary, which is still roughly proportional to the non-white vote that Greene got and the number of non-white voters in the 2008 primaries held in June (similar to the election that Greene just won). So I stand by the analysis... a classic case of identity politics.

But we can easily deduce that Obama received 90 to 95% of the non-white vote and those same voters voted in roughly the same proportion for Alvin Greene, a man whose qualifications were virtually nil and only appealed to these voters because they identified with his skin color and little else. What other plausible, rational, non-kooky conspiracy theory is there??? The simple and obvious explanation is often the correct answer. Such is the case here.

There's no need to cook up some crazy conspiracy theory about the South Carolina GOP.  As Allahpundit points out, the SC GOP doesn't look competent enough to execute such as a scheme anyway.  Nope... this is just pure and simple Democratic party identity politics.  Black Democratic voters, like other minority Democrats, vote based on ethnicity and identity politics first and qualifications and principles last.

Ergo, Alvin Greene.

UPDATE: Even more racial identity politics from SC Democrats:

Just days after losing the Democratic nomination for governor, state Sen. Robert Ford of Charleston blasted his party and the Legislative Black Caucus for supporting his white competitor.

Ford went on to say that ‘Uncle Tom’ is alive today in SC politics.

Hmm.

UPDATE AGAIN:

Apparently Senator Ford is quite the self anointed expert on race in South Carolina. According to Phil Bailey (host of the now infamous Pub Politics show), Ford had the following to say re: Mr. Greene:

"No white folks have an 'e' on the end of Green."

ONE MORE UPDATE:
Charleston's Post & Courier has the full quote from Senator Ford:

State Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, who lost his gubernatorial bid Tuesday, said race could have played a role. The Democratic primary electorate is majority black, as is Greene, but not Rawl. "Vic Rawl had money, but he didn't have enough. He wasn't able to identify himself with black voters," Ford said. "No white folks have an 'e' on the end of Green. The blacks after they left the plantation couldn't spell, and they threw an 'e' on the end."

There you have it. Ladies and gentlemen, I present Alvin Greene!



P.S. A big thank you to the Other McCain for linking to this post!