Obama, in Nevada, Talks Electability

By Peter Slevin
CARSON CITY, Nev.--It was fitting, after a bruising few days in which the issue of race dominated the Democratic presidential campaign, that Christy Tews would ask Sen. Barack Obama whether America is ready to send a black man to the Oval Office.

"I don't want a candidate on the Democratic ticket that we can't elect," Tews, 68, told Obama. "Let's get down to brass tacks here. We have have never elected a black man to be president."

"Yes, that's a good point," Obama deadpanned, as an overflow crowd laughed. "I've noticed that."

Obama replied that he faced similar questions when he ran for U.S. Senate in Illinois in 2004, when people said, "You know, he's very talented. He can do a good job, but they would never elect a black guy named Barack Obama. You can't even pronounce his name."

He defeated a large Democratic primary field and raced to victory over an imported black candidate, Alan Keyes, in November.

"So I have seen how we can reach out and, you know, people will take you for who you are. I really trust in the American people, but I recognize that the presidency is different," Obama told the overwhelmingly white audience of more than 2,000 in a community center gym and an adjacent auditorium. "And I recognize that people will attack you."

Nevada will hold its caucuses Saturday.

"Running for president is not playing beanbag," Obama said. "This is tough business."

He pointed to polling data that suggests he can beat any Republican nominee now in the race, then referred to rivals Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and former North Carolina senator John Edwards. He did not, he said, want to sound naïve.

"Will there be some folks who probably won't vote for me because I am black? Of course, just like there may be somebody who won't vote for Hillary because she's a woman or wouldn't vote for John Edwards because they don't like his accent. But the question is, 'Can we get a majority of the American people to give us a fair hearing?'"
Obama said he proved in his Iowa victory on Jan. 3 that he can get a fair hearing and win in a nearly all-white state. The country, he said, has moved forward "in a significant way."

Obama said he believes that if he does not win the Democratic nomination, or the general election, "it would be because I hadn't persuaded the American people that I could make their lives better And I think I can persuade them, because I've got a track record of making people's lives better."

The partisan crowd cheered.

And Tews?

"I thought it was a good answer. It told me he has a lot of information to throw back at the mudslingers," Tews, who leads Buddhist pilgrimages to India, said afterward. "He's not starry-eyed."

She remains, however, officially undecided.