A reflection on the 2008 presidential election

[touch_forever]

So Obama won. McCain lost. Can we kindly continue on with our lives?

The result of the election neither disappoints me, nor does it make me leap for joy. I'm actually quite mixed about the whole thing; more mixed than I thought I would be.

It really does make me happy that America found it in itself to vote for a black president. No, really; it

Comments

[nemesis123]

There's plenty of white southern people who voted for McCain based on the color of his skin. There are certainly uneducated votes on both side. Also, I think Obama's viewpoints rose above race this election. If anything, we voted for the first biracial president ever. He is no more white than he is black

[bluespectre]

I'd recommend the movie Good Night, and Good Luck. Even though its a different subject matter, its kinda parallel to your last sentence.

[e_welch]

All around good thoughts, although I do think that McCain would have been the best candidate to win this election since he has shown his ability to work with democrats in the past, and he is a highly respected senator. In the interest of good sportsmanship, that is all I will say about McCain.

My only real contention is with the argument that Obama got 90% of the black vote because he is black. If you look at the numbers, in 1992 Bill Clinton got 83% of the black vote to George Bush's 10%. If we calculate out the figures that voted for Ross Perot, since they would not have voted had he not been running, the figure for Clinton moves closer to 85%. In 1996, Clinton got 84% of the black vote, and again we can calculate out the 4% that went to Ross Perot for a higher number. In 2004, 88% of blacks voted for John Kerry. In 2000 Al Gore got 90% of the black vote, compared to Bush's 9% and Nader's 1%. The question then becomes, how many blacks were voting for Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry based on the color of their skin?