Published: May 07, 2008 12:12 am            

MARK BENNETT: Hoosiers inherited a historic campaign’s final exams, and learned something

TERRE HAUTE — The results of the Indiana primary piling up Tuesday night felt like the credits rolling at the end of a “Dr. Phil” episode.

Now that it’s over, imagine Doc McGraw asking, “Did y’all learn anything from this?”

Cynics will say no. But the past two months — particularly the last 13 days — have been like a massive group therapy session for Hoosiers, and most of us have grown from enduring it. (Of course, any of us who’ve felt compelled to groan while we’ve grown should be forgiven. After all, how many times did we hear attack ads remind us that gasoline costs $3.65 a gallon? The Democratic presidential candidates’ campaigns spent $8.8 million on TV commercials in Indiana, according to the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. They could’ve bought Hoosiers 2,410,958 gallons of gas with that.)

Seriously, being confronted by the nation to choose between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton forced open discussions at diners, dinner tables, offices, bars and classrooms about a possibility that seemed impossible not that long ago. America’s first female president or its first black president could emerge from a victory in the Indiana primary. Old apprehensions had to be dealt with and, hopefully, shed.

Only a hermit could hide from the topic. The national media started bearing down on Indiana after the March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio revived Clinton’s candidacy. After she won April 22 in Pennsylvania, reporters from around the globe combed 36,000 square miles of Indiana soil for as many of the state’s 6.3-million residents who were willing to talk. The press wasn’t alone. Family, friends, co-workers, fellow churchgoers, even complete strangers asked each other’s opinion.

A cultural turning point was reached when Hoosiers — Democrats, independents and Republicans — found themselves debating the wisdom of gas-tax ideas by Clinton, Obama and GOP nominee-to-be John McCain. Were plans by Clinton and McCain to suspend the tax election-driven pandering, or was Obama’s dismissal of that tactic a missed opportunity to ease motorists’ financial woes? The argument was about the candidates’ policies, not their race or gender.

Certainly, this heated primary campaign did not evaporate all prejudices and stereotypes in Indiana. Some were clearly intensified by the recurring side issue of controversial comments by Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama denounced Wright’s remarks, but Associated Press exit polls indicated significant numbers of voters were influenced by the minister’s view. The past two months haven’t been a cakewalk into enlightenment, en masse.

Maybe in retrospect, perhaps years from now, some who attached Wright’s words to Obama will rethink that decision. A generation ago, McCain voted against the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. Last month, McCain stood at the site of King’s assassination 40 years earlier in Memphis, Tenn., and said, “I was wrong” about that 1983 vote.

Minds can open and change. In many cases, young people nudged their elders into new attitudes. Largely inspired by Obama’s appeal, they’ve registered in unprecedented numbers, and have probed their parents, teachers and bosses about presidential politics. Voters of all ages registered in record numbers in dozens of Indiana counties.

On Tuesday, many who never expected to vote for a female or black presidential candidate did just that.

Indiana didn’t anticipate such a cathartic moment. The presidential primary here traditionally has been an afterthought because of its late May date and the state’s record of favoring Republicans in the November elections. Both parties took Indiana for granted. Thus, Hoosiers have dodged the invasive scrutiny handled by states such as New Hampshire and Iowa every four years.

Indiana couldn’t coast through 2008, though, especially after Obama surged past Clinton on Super Tuesday in February and took the Democratic lead. She’s been closing in ever since, and Tuesday’s Indiana and North Carolina primaries suddenly became make-or-break contests.

It turned out that Indiana didn’t break the Clinton-Obama deadlock. She took Indiana, and he won North Carolina. The remaining primaries in other long-overlooked states — West Virginia, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oregon, Montana and South Dakota, even Puerto Rico — will inherit this unfamiliar experience from Indiana.

Hopefully, they’ll learn something about themselves, too.

Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

        

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