Debate Moderator Gwen Ifill Discusses Race, Politics in Michigan Campus Talk

Gwen Ifill on Thursday addressed students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn during the campus' Conversation on Race. Ifill read excerpts from her book "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama" and discussed the role that race has had in poltics including last year's election.

According to Ifill, despite last year's election, there has not been much open dialogue regarding race since Obama was elected, and that Obama would not have been elected if he addressed race relations alone. In speaking of universal issues such as health care and education Obama was able to address that concerned voters of all races.

When asked about Obama's critics such as Rush Limbaugh, Ifill said in regards to Limbaugh that we must think that "if he (Limbaugh) wants Obama to fail, it is his policies and not his race that he wants to fail." And said that the different opinions in regards to solving the economy is something that makes the U.S. a democracy and that these difference in opinions are healthy for our nation.

The Conversation on Race is a program started by New Detroit which was started in 1967 by than Republican Governor George Romney, than Democratic Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanugh and Detroit Department Store head Joesph L. Hudson in response to the 1967 Detroit riots by bringing local business and community leaders to establish dialogue in a city that is still the most segregated in the nation.