I went to the polls at the Carver Housing Project here in Florence (gotta love the re-districting of the Dixiecrats).. The lines went throughout the building and outside of the W.C. Handy Community Center.. The poll workers there say they have never seen anything like it in their lives. In all their years living in that community, voting has been a 'walk in, walk out' process. Today, some people are waiting hours to vote. Funny story... The GOP has a 'poll watcher' stationed at this location. He is the angriest little dwarf I've ever seen. Seriously... our local GOP is so stupid. This is where you station the young black Republican...or the handsome, friendly guy..or the girl with nice boobs or any one else... Instead, they stick this little Gollum looking bastard! That's just not good community outreach. If that little SOB tries to contend a single vote in that place, there will be a riot. Second funny story: This one jackass in line (young, fat, white kid) standing in front of my girlfriend..He turns around and announces "I am not really happy with either side here and race has nothing to do with it." Now let me re-hash... Bliss and I are voting at the Carver Public Housing Project..in the W.C. Handy Community Center.. for those who don't know, WC Handy is the 'Father of the Blues". Handy was literally born 200 yards from the polling spot... This western area of the Shoals is the heart of 'old, black southern-america.' People still live on the plantation land their ancestors were granted as freedman during reconstruction. There are 4 white people in the building.. Bliss, me, the fat guy and Gollum the poll watcher who is carefully inspecting every single black voter that walks into the room.. So now this idiot wants to play 'Who ya gunna vote for!?!?' I looked him squarely in the eye and said confidently, 'dude... seriously, you're going to talk about this here?!?' I think he picked up my hint. The gentleman in front of him literally LOLed. Even though a high minority turnout doesn't figure to benefit McCain, I am excited about this. More people involved in the political process hopefully means more people begin to pay attention to what their party promises them...and then does or doesn't deliver on. IMHO, that is a good thing.
I don't think so Corey. I don't think it is a good thing at all. I don't consider myself racist but I believe that there will be triple the normal black vote simply because there is a black man in the race. ... not because the right black man is there... but because ANY black man is there.
I agree with that Tom. I agree with that and don't believe anyone could contend differently without any sense of honesty. At the same time, it has to start somewhere. I've long held (and I am sure you're all tired of hearing) that the Democratic Party has long spoon fed the black community social welfare programs and incentives that hurt them more than help them. I am of the belief that active participation, and hopefully increased knowledge of the political system will in the end bring more people into the fold of enlightenment. Whether they continue to believe these programs help, or hurt, they will have a more vested interest. That's my hope anyway.
But what does this do to the race baiter, "America is a racist society" folks like Al Sharpton? And someone remind me again, why is it we need affirmative action?
It will be very interesting to see if there are any changes in the Black community as a result of this. Old line black leaders played the race card for pretty much everything, no behavior whether it be drugs, gangs, dropping out, high teen pregnancy, dysfunctional black families, was the fault of the black community, it was all due to racism. When Cosby tried to tell them they needed to take responsibilty and stop talking like idiots and spending money on 200$ tennis shoes he was not well recieved by the old line black leaders. The whole Katrina debacle was seen as nothing but a conspiracy by whites to eliminate blacks, to destroy their community. I have no idea what blacks expect that Obama will do for them or how thier lives will change. I wonder if nothing really changes will there be a backlash from them, that they will accuse him of selling them out? Terry
In the past... they have simply questioned the 'blackness' of african-american leaders.. especially Republicans. Now that the numbers are out there are some interesting facts out there. Obama won 62 million votes yesterday, so did George W Bush in 2004. McCain lost because he had 55 million votes... Kerry had 59 million in 2004.. Bottom line... the GOP didn't get out to vote for McCain. This strongly indicates that reports of the 'groundswell' of voters is greatly overplayed.
I'd like to know how many Republicans voted for Bob Barr or Ron Paul or Mitt Romney. Or Obama. Let's face it, McCain was not a great candidate, debater, speaker or campaign decision maker. 61% of whites voted for Obama;game-set-match.
I think it is obvious who I voted for. Like Terry, I consider this to be a dark day in the history of the US. I will take great pleasure in looking at the two token Democrats in our office and blaming every bad thing that happens for the next 4 years on them and their party like they have done to the Republicans ever since the deceitful fornicator left office! The Dow is down 200 points. Damn Democrats!!!!!!!!
Ya know, he did say during 1/2 time on MNF that he wanted to see a 8 team playoff in CFB. Just thought I'd throw that in from the Sporting side of things.... :wink:
If Corey's numbers are right, that is that both Bush and Obama got 62 Million votes and McCain got 4 million less than Kerry then voter turnout was down. That is directly opposite to the feel I got from listening to CNN where massive voter turnouts were described. Also somebody noted that in 88 that Bush 1 got a bigger win both in the electoral college and the popular vote. Yet within 2 years his star was sliding downhill.
I looked at our County results this morning. It doesn't list vote totals by party of voter, but there were about 1000 votes total for Bob Barr and Ralph Nadar - not nearly enough to affect the county totals as Obama won by over 25,000 votes. 443 folks tossed their vote away on a write-in, and since this is UF's county, I would imagine most of them wrote in Tim Tebow. And the scariest thing on that list ... 67 people right here in my own county voted for Cynthia McKinney!! :shock: (Because of UF, our county sticks out in blue, whereas most of the rest of the surrounding north-central Florida counties are rural, red counties.)
more fun with numbers.... The Democrats seemed more willing to engage the Republicans in CA on Prop8 rather than risk redefining the way CA dishes out their electoral college votes (something I strongly believe in btw). But anywho...back to the point I was making originally with Tom. I've polled in black neighborhoods as well as hispanic neighborhoods. If you've ever sat on the couches of these families and listened to -what they want -what they want for their children -what kind of america they want for all You will find that they are nowhere NEAR the 'blanket support ticket' that they are considered to be for the Dems.. However, they continue to do so. It's been my theory for a while that if you actually get the black and hispanic community out en masse, you will see what each group really believes in and you will also see how far they are from the 'mainstream' political positions of the Democratic party. Yesterday, Prop 8 banning gay marriage and placing it in the state constitution (and beyond the reach of the California State Supreme Court) passed. Prop 8 was clearly the 'return fire' against the Supreme Court for not only tossing aside the passing of Prop22, but for legalizing gay marriage in the state. I don't, and I know this from my friends in the DNC who work in CA, that they really never once thought that prop 8 would pass. What is upsetting to them, and I've been saying this.... is that it may well have been the minority vote that cost them this. Exit polls numbers are showing that: -White voters narrowly voted against Prop 8 (something like 51-49) -Hispanic voters voted for Prop 8 in an equally narrow margin. -Black voters voted overwhelmingly in favor of Prop 8 (something like 70-30) Be careful what you wish for.......
Corey I understand that not only did Prop 8 pass but a ballot initiative in SF legalizing prostitution failed. So in SF, if you're a gay guy or a straight guy, it was a pretty shitty election.
I see they are going to have to raise taxes again in the Peoples Republic of California. Are Calif taxes higher than Taxachussets?