snood wrote:For me, the bottom line on Obama is this:
From all indications, this country isn't ready for a black person or a woman in the oval office, and won't be anytime soon. So while its entertaining musing about Condie, Hillary, Barack and Colin, the person occupying that white house on November 8th will be a white man.
In regard to Obama, I think the Democratic Party power structure loves him as long as he toes the line and fulfills their purposes of using him, but I think you are correct that certain party leaders are not going to go quietly and turn over the party baton to Obama. I'm talking about the Clintons and a few others. One could chalk it up to inexperience and so forth, but I think there is more to it than that in the Democratic Party.
In the Republican Party, Colin Powell could have gone a long ways already if he had chosen to compete. Condie also expresses no desire to run, and probably could use more experience, but if she stays away from scandals and continues to do a good job, she has a good chance of being in the mix for VP, or even president a few years down the road. As a white person, I would most definitely consider voting for either one of the above. I would probably not vote for Obama because of his political philosophy.
Another man I greatly enjoyed hearing at the Republican convention was Michael Steele, the lt. governor of Maryland. He inspired me and I would love to be able to vote for him at some point down the road. J. C. Watts is another favorite of mine, and now what about Lynn Swann? As of now, I think the Republican Party is the most fertile ground for potential success for black or women politicians in a future presidential race. All of these projections are of course based on the people performing and staying away from any political corruption.
As far as Hillary, I don't think she can win, not because of her gender, but because of her personality and her politics.
