I have faith in America, and Americans

[Kidlicious]

Alaska would elect Hitler.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Arrian
Seriously... Stevens won? WTF, Alaska?

That's worse than electing Palin governor.

-Arrian

There is something very wrong with the political life in that state. It's what happens when there is one party rule and not very much media scrutiny.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by OneFootInTheGrave

but for sure I am going to miss Palin

She'll be back. For all the abuse she took, she represents a great deal of progress for the Republican party, who have historically been down on women and especially non-patrician women and women who aren't subservient to men and are willing to talk back. Palin is both of those, and that, although it does not seem like much, is a big step forward for the Republicans on gender matters.

She has plenty of time to learn more about national politics, and if it isn't her it will be some woman like her. I don't see her winning anything, but I can see her or someone like her being an important figurehead of the white christian right, and face it, she's a lot better than most of the guys who do that.

[Barnabas]

Means it is no longer a dream

[DanS]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
The biggest surprise to me from the Senate is the Alaska race.

Alaska doesn't have the decency to fire a man who's a convicted felon pork-barrel piece of ****.

I don't know what went down, but maybe people thought that Stevens won't serve out his term and Palin could then appoint somebody appropriate.

[KrazyHorse]

And thus the Alaska GOP doesn't learn anything from the experience.

[KrazyHorse]

That was the only Senate race I really cared about. Well, that and the Hagan-Dole ****fest.

[Ben Kenobi]

How so?

Dr. King's dream is that a man would be judged by the content of his character and not the colour of his skin.

Voting for someone because of the novelty of voting for a black man, is a direct repudiation of Dr. King. He would have been disgusted by this election.

[Ben Kenobi]

That's surprising.

GOP win all four of the closest races, including the race against Franken.

It means they will keep the senate at 44-56 which is just about perfect.

45-55 without lieberman.

[Arrian]

Dr. King's dream is that a man would be judged by the content of his character

I believe that is what happened.

Voting for someone because of the novelty of voting for a black man

Who did this? I certainly didn't.

Obama got 95% of the AA vote. Kerry, remember, got 88%. How much of the +7% was due to skin color we will likely never really know. I believe that there was some of that, but also that Obama was simply a better candidate as well.

The first black President thing is a cherry on top, not a reason to vote for him. People might get the warm fuzzies b/c of it, but the number of people who voted for him due to skin color is, I expect, tiny.

Likewise, I don't think that very many people voted against him b/c of skin color either. I think the two are a wash. Added up, they are an unfortunate remnant, rather than an important trend.

He would have been disgusted by this election.

I doubt it, but we'll never know b/c somebody thought it was a good idea to shoot him.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
That was the only Senate race I really cared about. Well, that and the Hagan-Dole ****fest.

I cared about Bachmann/Tinklenberg as well. Unfortunately, MN-6 decided that McCarthyism is just a-ok.

-Arrian

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
How so?

Dr. King's dream is that a man would be judged by the content of his character and not the colour of his skin.

Voting for someone because of the novelty of voting for a black man, is a direct repudiation of Dr. King. He would have been disgusted by this election.

If the US wanted to elect a person just because he's black they would have elected Alan Keys.

[Ben Kenobi]

I believe that is what happened.

I see MSNBC crowing on about a historic election because racist America elected a black man.

Maybe you believe that but the majority of folks don't.

If you are voting for Obama, then it's not a historic election. If you are voting for Obama because you believe it's a historic election, then yes, you are repudiating Dr. King.

[Arrian]

MSNBC crowing on about a historic election because racist America elected a black man.

=! being elected because he was black.

If you are voting for Obama because you believe it's a historic election

You are misreading this. People were excited to vote for him, yes. Many of those people were excited in part b/c of the symbolism of it all. Most importantly, however, is that they could vote for a black man for President who matched up with their values and/or supports policies they agree with.

There have been black candidates before, Ben. This one was more than a black candidate. Get it?

Probably not.

-Arrian

[Ben Kenobi]

You are misreading this. People were excited to vote for him, yes. Many of those people were excited in part b/c of the symbolism of it all.

What symbolism is this? Racist America voting in a black man.

Most importantly, however, is that they could vote for a black man for President who matched up with their values and/or supports policies they agree with.

Again, you might have done this but why are you assuming that the majority of those who voted for Obama actually bothered to look at his voting record?

There have been black candidates before, Ben. This one was more than a black candidate. Get it?

This was a symbolic election for sure, but don't claim it was the fulfillment of King's ideal. Obama played the race card and accused anyone of not voting for him of being a racist.

Here's the other thing. Obama is the least qualified president probably in the history of the institution. If this election were sincerely about electing the best person for the presidency regardless of the colour of his skin, then Obama would never have won the presidency.

If Obama was white no one would give two hoots about him.