cman_yall wrote:
I don't have a strong opinion either way about him, but I am sick to death of the hype. The way people are talking about him, you'd think being black(ish) gives him magic powers or something. Oh look, a black(ish) president, that will immediately get rid of any vested power groupings and put an end to all social injustice! How? Um... cause he's black(ish)! No other reason, really... but why would you need more? What are you, a racist?
From what I can make of it:
* He got most of the progressive vote because he was an early opponent of the War on Iraq, before he was a senator. (At the time most Democratic senators, including Clinton and Edwards, supported the war)
* He campaigned in a very effective manner that made great use of modern technology, and may have helped to give him a massive head start. Being a strong orator didn't hurt.
* Hillary Clinton had a similar platform and was stronger than Obama at the debates but had a lot more personal baggage with the American people - only when Obama showed a bit of personal baggage of his own did his lead over her ever look shaky, I'd go so far as to say the support for Obama over Clinton was largely personal rather than ideological.
* He was up against a weak candidate in the form of John McCain who could maybe have made something out of his "maverick" image, but chose not to in the hope of galvanising the conservative base like Bush did in the last election. Hardline conservatives distrusted him and didn't turn up to vote as much as they usually did, and many who might have otherwise been sympathetic to him were put off by his pandering to the right-wing with Sarah Palin.
* Bush's approval rating was very low. It was easy for the Democrats to portray a pandering McCain as Bush II, which for most Americans would have been an unattractive prospect.
* John McCain: "the fundamentals of our economy are strong"
* ...and finally the race issue.
17 Feb 2009, 9:13 pm
