Out of Many, One?

"Underneath the weekend euphoria is the pessimistic conviction that a candidate who really could win in November is going to lose out, by slow and painful degrees, punctuated with occasional Iowas and South Carolinas, to a candidate whose eventual nomination will give heart to Republicans across the land. Obama is like the physician who is felled by the very disease he was trying to cure: having promised to heal America's festering divisions, he is in danger of being swallowed by them, as they yawn within his own party, brown against black, black against white, female against male, Jew against gentile, not to mention old against young, and blue-collar workers against 'highly educated professionals' (as the pollsters say). The basic demographics of the party are still in his disfavour, even though the demographics of the country at large suit him very well."

Jonathan Raban in The Guardian considers America's social divisions and how they can influence the primaries.