Gallup: Americans Say Country Ready for a Female President

I don't have any reading deficiencies, Possum. And I can spell "Snood" correctly, too.

I presumed you were speaking about THIS Jesse Jackson Jr.? Son of Jesse Jackson, and now US Rep. from Illinois?



Sorry, but I really don't see the resemblance. And I am pretty good at spotting resemblances, Renatus5, MarionT, BernardR, or whatever name you're using at the moment. I really do wish you'd stop this silly name-changing game. It's very immature.

Well, you are more discerning than I, eva. I can't tell one from the other.

Name changing game? Who told you there was a name changing game?
Blue Veined Throbber? or was it Bi Polar ?

But, if America is really ready for a female president and the rumor about Barack Obama( they say he is light in the sandals) is true, then we can have the best of all possible worlds--A black left winger who is light in the sandals--He would get Millions and Millions of votes!

What "they" says he's "light in the sandals"? Is it the voices in your head?

You know nothing about Barack Obama, it is clear. A book named--"Poisoned Ivy" was written about Harvard Law School when Obama was enrolled there and when he was president of the law review. If you knew how to read, Snod, you could find our for yourself.

He also wrote an autobiography in which he revealed that his father, a savage Kenyan Muslim, deserted his white mother in Hawaii. Obama admits to using Cocaine and also tells of his enrollement,for a short time, in a Muslim School.

The most signficant item in Obama'slife, as far as I am concerned, was his resignation from the very prestigious and well paying firm in Chicago called Winston and Strawn. Associates make $250,000 a year in that firm.Partners make about $500,000 and Equity Partners make at least
$1,500,000 a year. As a former president of Harvard Law School, Obama could have had those rewards, but he was not good enough. He left to do the only thing he could do---be a State Representative for a group of poor African Americans.


These are the things you should know, Snid, but since you can't read, you will have to ask someone else to verify them for you.

Snood wouldn't know a thing about Obama unless it had been in a comic book.

Barack Obama may well run for Vice President in the 2008 Race and I will not only work for him, I will contribute to his campaign. The voters of the US will be delighted to see a fresh face who is highly intellectual and who, by his very presence, assuages the heavy guilt we must all bear for the savageries perpetuated on innocent Black people for years when they were enslaved.

Why should we all bear the guilt for stuff done long before we were even born? And don't you think the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of lives given, mostly white, to abolish slavery more than a hundred years ago here in this country should have gone a long way in fixing any guilt problem. To suggest that the mere presence of Obama assuages the heavy guilt I must bear is utter nonsense. First of all, I don't feel like feeling guilty for stuff I never did, and I see no reason for other people to wallow in guilt over this anymore either. Secondly, the presence of Obama fixing the guilt is utter nonsense.

White Guilt and the Western Past


Shelby Steele, OpinionJournal, May 2, 2006


There is something rather odd in the way America has come to fight its wars since World War II.

For one thing, it is now unimaginable that we would use anything approaching the full measure of our military power (the nuclear option aside) in the wars we fight. And this seems only reasonable given the relative weakness of our Third World enemies in Vietnam and in the Middle East. But the fact is that we lost in Vietnam, and today, despite our vast power, we are only slogging along?-if admirably?-in Iraq against a hit-and-run insurgency that cannot stop us even as we seem unable to stop it. Yet no one?-including, very likely, the insurgents themselves?-believes that America lacks the raw power to defeat this insurgency if it wants to. So clearly it is America that determines the scale of this war. It is America, in fact, that fights so as to make a little room for an insurgency.

Certainly since Vietnam, America has increasingly practiced a policy of minimalism and restraint in war. And now this unacknowledged policy, which always makes a space for the enemy, has us in another long and rather passionless war against a weak enemy.

Why this new minimalism in war?

It began, I believe, in a late-20th-century event that transformed the world more profoundly than the collapse of communism: the world-wide collapse of white supremacy as a source of moral authority, political legitimacy and even sovereignty. This idea had organized the entire world, divided up its resources, imposed the nation-state system across the globe, and delivered the majority of the world's population into servitude and oppression. After World War II, revolutions across the globe, from India to Algeria and from Indonesia to the American civil rights revolution, defeated the authority inherent in white supremacy, if not the idea itself. And this defeat exacted a price: the West was left stigmatized by its sins. Today, the white West?-like Germany after the Nazi defeat?-lives in a kind of secular penitence in which the slightest echo of past sins brings down withering condemnation. There is now a cloud over white skin where there once was unquestioned authority.

I call this white guilt not because it is a guilt of conscience but because people stigmatized with moral crimes?-here racism and imperialism?-lack moral authority and so act guiltily whether they feel guilt or not.

They struggle, above all else, to dissociate themselves from the past sins they are stigmatized with. When they behave in ways that invoke the memory of those sins, they must labor to prove that they have not relapsed into their group's former sinfulness. So when America?-the greatest embodiment of Western power?-goes to war in Third World Iraq, it must also labor to dissociate that action from the great Western sin of imperialism. Thus, in Iraq we are in two wars, one against an insurgency and another against the past?-two fronts, two victories to win, one military, the other a victory of dissociation.

The collapse of white supremacy?-and the resulting white guilt?-introduced a new mechanism of power into the world: stigmatization with the evil of the Western past. And this stigmatization is power because it affects the terms of legitimacy for Western nations and for their actions in the world. In Iraq, America is fighting as much for the legitimacy of its war effort as for victory in war. In fact, legitimacy may be the more important goal. If a military victory makes us look like an imperialist nation bent on occupying and raping the resources of a poor brown nation, then victory would mean less because it would have no legitimacy. Europe would scorn. Conversely, if America suffered a military loss in Iraq but in so doing dispelled the imperialist stigma, the loss would be seen as a necessary sacrifice made to restore our nation's legitimacy. Europe's halls of internationalism would suddenly open to us.



Anti-Americanism, whether in Europe or on the American left, works by the mechanism of white guilt. It stigmatizes America with all the imperialistic and racist ugliness of the white Western past so that America becomes a kind of straw man, a construct of Western sin. (The Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons were the focus of such stigmatization campaigns.) Once the stigma is in place, one need only be anti-American in order to be "good," in order to have an automatic moral legitimacy and power in relation to America. (People as seemingly disparate as President Jacques Chirac and the Rev. Al Sharpton are devoted pursuers of the moral high ground to be had in anti-Americanism.) This formula is the most dependable source of power for today's international left. Virtue and power by mere anti-Americanism. And it is all the more appealing since, unlike real virtues, it requires no sacrifice or effort?-only outrage at every slight echo of the imperialist past.

Possibly white guilt's worst effect is that it does not permit whites?-and nonwhites?-to appreciate something extraordinary: the fact that whites in America, and even elsewhere in the West, have achieved a truly remarkable moral transformation. One is forbidden to speak thus, but it is simply true. There are no serious advocates of white supremacy in America today, because whites see this idea as morally repugnant. If there is still the odd white bigot out there surviving past his time, there are millions of whites who only feel goodwill toward minorities.

This is a fact that must be integrated into our public life?-absorbed as new history?-so that America can once again feel the moral authority to seriously tackle its most profound problems. Then, if we decide to go to war, it can be with enough ferocity to win.

Mr. Steele, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, is author, most recently, of "White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era," published this week by HarperCollins.

Original article

Oh crap, it's back.

BBC Homepage


Last updated: TXU: THE REAL TALK OF THE STREETS
Barack Obama: First black President?

Documentaries home



Hear the documentary
Do you know the name of the rising star in US politics?
The 'skinny man with a funny name' says people always get it wrong, and call him Alabama or Yo Mama.

Barack Obama was elected as the only black Senator after wowing the Democrats with a charismatic conference speech.

Half-Kenyan Barack is a knockout with all kinds of voters, even getting sun-burnt farmers in deep Republican country to consider voting Democrat.


Do you think Barack's the man to shake up American politics? Would you like to see him be President one day?
Sam Bwezani
Names don't say anything, just get to the mind of any man and you get "the real MAN". Obama is the future President, it shouldn't be about names or colour. The US is for all races and backgrounds!!

Chick
Congratulations to Obama! However, one black in the whole senate is just something that people cannot afford to celebrate with such hype. It is a serious under-representation. Strive to get there in bigger numbers to ensure real representation.

Rodney
So what if he's black? Its the output we most interested in. Look at the cuban Colin Powell. When he got to power, he forgot to come with his brains.

Paul Ohia
Oh I wish this charisma could be extended to character and strength and I dream that this is the making of a first black president. If wishes were horses.

DAVID KABUBA
Definitely, he is the man for the job. If he was president not only would he shake up America, I think he would shake up the whole world. Issues about Africa are would be dealt at last! Him being linked with an African Background. Neway I wish all da best. Go on My Kenyan Bro!

Richard W
Alinah Roberts you're wrong. There have been black senators before, you may be getting mixed up with the references to Obama as a possible president. There have been black senators before but not many (only 3 in the post civil war america).

Kofi Atuah
I am afraid I can't agree that Barack Obama is a black man. He is half white and then half black, and so contrary to popular views that doesn't make him black. Perhaps he is white and where I come from he'll be regarded as such. At any rate, he is probably a good politician and deserves any success he gets.

Tolly Pee
i think its a little premature to drum up support for the white house just yet, he has just been elevated to the coveted senator position, perhaps this matter should be re-examined a year into his new role?

lauren
Correction; Mr Obama is the fifth black senator in US history, but will be the only one in the upcoming session. Mr Obama is thus far very accomplished and seems the first viable option for an African American presidential candidate; however with today's election results favoring the conservative right in all branches of government, it seems that possibility is a long way off. I hope he maintains his energy and optimism after he gets to Washington. Our country needs more of that right now. Good luck, Mr. Obama!

emmanuel iornongu
this guy will need the prayers of all blacks to succeed. in todays world the colour of ones skin seem to matter much more than what the individual has to offer. ride on brother, we know you can make it. the presidency is yours for the taking!

Alex
People shouldnt be too surprised that america has so few black politicans. It was only around 40 years ago when the US was basically a nation under Apartheid. Progess takes time. On the Barack Obama issue, aslong as he isnt a republican, good luck to him!

Uz - Washington, DC
He's not the first black senator, just the only one at this time. He is clearly someone that communicates a belief to uphold equal protection and other civil liberties & rights. It may also be worth noting what it took to get into the position he's in. For example, he attended Ivy League institutions - Columbia and Harvard Law, which are places of incredible privilege (both in terms of what you learn and who you meet).

Just a reminder that "opening the doors" to other minorities takes more than just a handful of public representatives. On paper, his qualifications are the same as most of his peers. For minorities, one of the biggest challenges is simply having the resources to go to some of these elite institutions.

barac osama
THE SKINNY GUY WITH THE FUNNY NAME IS THE FUTURE FOR BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA

Delton
Yeah, it's nice to see a young black man getting so much attention, even from white Americans, but let's face it, with a name like Obama, White America will never let him even consider a run for President; which is a shame because the guy is very smart and an eloquent speaker.

A G A
It's not what just one man can accomplish. Its how we as citizens perform our civil rights and duties to affect his decisions. Let's change the way we think, the way we live, the way we foster our children and the way we treat each other.

T Gwanzura
People normally change once they are in power but its nice for a change to see a brother do what some norrow minded people say "it's a white man's job". Anyone can do anything thus how God created every soul.

Jacarl from Michigan, USA
Obama's a part of a new group of post-civil right era black politicians in the US who have national appeal. Some of the older black politicians represent the same districts for 20+ years because they lack a base beyond their black constituencies. He's essentially breaking the mold for politicians who are black in the US. More power to him.

For clarification: Obama wouldn't be the first black senator. He'd be the third in the past 40 years. The last was Carol Mosley-Braun (1992-98) from Obama's home state of Illinois.

AK
It will be nice to see an African American man in a position to be a real role model, and give the youth something positive to strive for! Hip hop is serious business, but an mc or dj is not the only thing one can take to the top!

fadhili aka 'fid'
A black senate is what americans have been waiting for. whether he is good or not, will be seen in near future. he seemed to be good enough with all the support he is getting, but at the moment at least african amercans can claim that they have someone with a voice on the senate.

djchicani
well i live in america and watched the democrats convention, and was very impressed with what he had to say. i also have listened to his views on his home state of illinois, and i think he would make a very good president, or even better: a vice-president.

Mary
Just because he is black it doesn't automatically make him the best person to represent. who knows if he will stand by his words? time will tell

Vishal
In this day and age why are we stil focusing on the fact he is black? Didn't we get over this and start looking at people's qualities and political capability? That said, the US is still under 'the old boys club' phenomenon and one black man could easily disappear in to the background. (need to learn more about this man)

TOOTSKEE
Just because he's black doesn't mean he's gonna take care of the massive of black people.We have to wait and see

Dari_O
Any Black man in his power is bound to shake up the American politics but its good to see an half kenyan brother in this great position and if he wins then it will be a great step up for all blacks or ethnic minorities.

Alinah Roberts
It's amazing that this guy would be Americas 1st black senator! But I guess the US is just as or even more racist then any other country. Gwan!

Obama or a woman first
I happen to like Obama too and think he could swing it. I don't think Hilary should even let running for President cross her mind. She will be doing the US a disservice if she tries to run. She's made too many enemies and burnt too many bridges and she DID vote for this war. I haven't felt very good about her ever since.

Welcome to a2k, flyingpegs.

Please look around at other threads - check New Posts at the top right of the page.

I can see voting for Sec. of State Rice for President,
in that she is against gun control.


When I vote,
the controlling criterion is how FREEDOM-MINDED
the candidate is. Personal freedom overrides all other considerations
( bearing in mind that the power of government and personal freedom are inversely proportional ).
David

H. L. Mencken on candidates:


The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. A Galileo could no more be elected president of the United States than he could be elected Pope of Rome. Both high posts are reserved for men favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter facts of life in bandages of self-illusion.
- Henry Louis Mencken, 1880 - 1956

If our country is ready for a woman president, Hillary is not my choice.

Hillary is bright and has been an excellent senator. She would probably be an excellent president (too good for our electorate).

Hillary has contempt for freedom of the individual,
and THAT is the innermost essence of Americanism.

David, the problem with you is that you are anti-government. But government is the price we pay for a civilized society.

Yes; I am very leary and wary of it.

Governments have murdered far more people
thru out history than all common criminals combined;
e.g., in Cambodia anyone caught wearing eyeglasses or a wristwatch
was sentenced to death by the commies, as an enemy of the people.
I will not bring up Ruby Ridge nor Waco, Texas.



Does that mean that if a government collapses
( like in New Orleans, after Katrina ) then the citizens are no longer CIVILIZED ?
thay become barbarians ?
I don 't think so.

During the 1800s, there were people living
out west ( and elsewhere ) with no police nor governments,
out in the wild by themselves; to MY mind,
that does not make them uncivilized.

David