When McCain won the nomination, I thought, here is a Republican elected by Democrats.  The only people I talked to that were excited about McCain were Democrats that had no intention of voting for him in the actual election.

I was hopping mad about that, even as I couldn’t get excited about anyone who was running on the Republican side.

Now I’m hearing about Rush Limbaugh’s operation chaos,
and I see the same kind of thing happening on the Democrat side.  Are Republicans choosing the candidate they think could better lose the general election?

Leave it to Obama to make John McCain look conservative.  I feel for the man.  It’s unintentional, I’m sure, it’s obvious that he is running in earnest, I mean he is a serious candidate, but according to Cokie Roberts,
he’s not getting votes for being earnest, but rather for being black.  That’s rather stinky.  This is what I’d always suspected, that Americans in general and Democrats in particular are too racist to elect a black president now.  Why Democrats, you may ask?  All this exploitation, including voting for this man because he is black and smart.  The classic case of overcompensation.

Personal example alert:  When I was in High School, I had a new guidance counselor every year.  I’m not sure what the point of that was.  It’s not like you could build a relationship with someone that was helping you plan your future or anything.  I had to prove to each counselor that I wasn’t a loser just because I was black.  The new counselor in my senior year greeted me with “so you’re going to graduate—you hope,” without having looked at my transcript or spoken with me at all.  I told him why yes, I hoped to graduate, and in fact I only needed 3 credits.  “We’ll see,” he informed me, and then was falling all over himself apologizing after having checked.  He then tried to advise me to finish my high school career off with half-days or a semester early, seeing as how I only needed three credits.  I thought that wouldn’t look good to colleges, and declined the offer.  After I was accepted to a big 10 University for college, he advised me to look no further—how could I do better than that big 10 school?  Needless to say, I didn’t use him for more than mailing out applications—guidance counselor he was not.

I bring this story up to say that I smell the same kind of thing with Obama.  Ok, so here’s a successful black man, not a loser like we expect, so let’s elect him PRESIDENT!  It’s not like he has any experience or anything, just the slightest of credentials.  Let’s just blow it way out of proportion and maybe then we’ll have atoned for slavery. 

Call it far-fetched, but that’s what it smells like to me.  And I’m not alone; maybe that’s just a song conservatives sing.  But that wouldn’t explain Cokie Roberts, a Clinton supporter.

Will Obama pull off the nomination?  The general election?  I have a hard time believing it.  But I’m counting on his not winning the election, so I might not be the most partial observer. 

So far I’ve been wrong.  I thought Edwards would win the Democratic nomination, and Romney would win the Republican one.  That’s 0 for 2 for all those keeping score.

Then I thought that no matter how well Obama did, Hilary would never concede.  That remains to be seen.  So does my other assertion that she would win with the super delegate support.  So far, the only thing I've been right about is how interesting this race is.  The finish line is in sight. 

Comments

[Stephanie]

Wow. I think one of the biggest problems I see in politics nowadays is that each side assumes that the other side is made up of non-thinking sheeple. And yes, I do see liberals who feel this way about conservatives just as much as conservatives feeling this way about liberals. And it is a shame.

It is as if each side feels that their way is the only conclusion that "smart, thinking" people could possibly come to. But the reality is that smart thinking people exist on both sides of the aisle. They just come to different conclusions. Imagine that. We all do not agree. But that does not make either one of us stupid.

As long as we dismiss people who do not think as we do, we will never move forward and we will stay mired in politics as usual.

I am sorry that you feel that the only reason that I could possibly support Obama is because he is black. That he, as a black man, could not possibly offer me anything other than a chance to ease my white conscience. Wow.

One of the main things that attracted me to Obama was his willingness to try to reach across the aisle and not dismiss the other side as being "wrong". We have had enough of that in this country.

It is time for something new...like seeing the "other side" as the thinking, caring people that they are rather than the stereotypical, unthinking caricatures they are made out to be.