barack obama has won the 2008 election

[JohnnyNemesis]

lol, I haven't read a post from Moose in months.

I understand that the fact that the president now has dark skin isn't exactly directly related to some of the race-related problems we have in America, but it still shows progress that America choose the whitest black man we got to lead and represent the country for the first time ever.

lol fix'd. Don't get me wrong though, dude is black and for real and I love him for many reasons.

And I understand and respect what you're saying, but what I'm saying has more to do with the fact...well, he's the President. It's not bleakness, it's a critical look at what the President is/does. If you look through all the sensationalism, that's still one (extremely powerful, but singular) position in America. If he was a self-loathing racist who hated blacks, would this be an example of significant change, or would we be moving backwards in terms of racial progress? Shouldn't "significant" progress be measured more by what happens to masses of blacks instead of what one man has accomplished? Y'know what I mean?

Now, of course I feel that significant change is coming, but I've just seen too much tokenism to automatically associate a dude being in a position with immediate significant process. But I'm verrrrrrry hopeful and optimistic right now.

Seems like you might possibly have an unnecessarily bleak view on racism in the U.S., although it is definitely still a problem.

And my guess is you're someone who really isn't a position to make that call.

Honestly I used to think John McCain as one of the cooler Republicans before this election.

Word up.

I think it'll be a while until somebody who actually grew up as an African-American in the US gets elected president - racism is far from dying as long as there's consistent discrimination in the structures of society. With that said, Obama's a helluva lot more black than the prezes so far, so it's a step towards something. I like that he's been very honest about his roots - he's never tried to claim he's a descendent of the slaves, he's had to face that whole culture as an outsider who's been treated as an insider because of his skin color.

My thoughts EXACTLY. <3 u baybeegirl

[IamSam]

Lol at whitest black man.

Seriously...raise taxes on the middle class? HA!


This might seem odd, but I hope he does away with the tax rebates for one reason:

If you have been living in a cave, we have a deficit. Why are we handing all these tax dollars back when we have a deficit? Maybe someone can answer that for me...

Oh...and I know a bunch of McCain supporters that say they are moving to Canada to get away from Obama the socalist....

[Superdope]

Oh...and I know a bunch of McCain supporters that say they are moving to Canada to get away from Obama the socalist....

On the other hand, do you really want those people in your country? too bad for Canada, though :/

[HeadAroundU]

Its amazing how much the college support has had an affect on this election! In NC, the counties with the really major universities are all very heavily on obama's side. Fascinating!

For me, it's rather obvious than fascinating or amazing. Republicans are not huge friends with science and proofs, they don't like evolution...etc

Cool, now he's gonna raise taxes. Brace yourselves, middle classes.

Oh, shut the fcuk up.

Don't believe me? Look it all up, and look up the two sides of the story. However you could just take the easy way out and ignore me which most of you will do.

Oh, hell the fcuk yes I'm gonna ignore you. There is a nice saying that suits you, "You preach the water, but you drink the vine" (a literal translation). YOU should look up the 2 sides of the story. Your points are very one sided and extreme.

-----

I watched the US elections quite closely from the beginning to the end. From my point of view, it was your duty to elect Obama. After 8 years of Republicans, it's good to change the ideology even if the opposite candidate sucks, but that's not the case with Obama, he's terrific.

I'm really happy that he got elected. I believe that it's not only good for the USA, but for the world.

Have you guys watched Obama's speech? I ALMOST (I didn't, I never do ) cried.

[Jesus]

This might seem odd, but I hope he does away with the tax rebates for one reason:

If you have been living in a cave, we have a deficit. Why are we handing all these tax dollars back when we have a deficit? Maybe someone can answer that for me...

I hear a lot of progressive saying this, that we need to take care of the deficit etc. And quite frankly it's scares me because that would be one of the worst things that could happen.

The US is facing a depression. A balanced budget is the last thing that's needed. That would fire the economy completely from a recession into a depression straight away. Look actual wages have for the most part stagnated the last 10-15 years for most of the population. Any increase in individual wealth came basically from housing. Which also boosted consumption and thereby also the economy. Now that the bubble is collapsing (and it will collapse further) you'll automatically get less consumption and also a shrinking economy, which sort of becomes a spiral. The only way out of that is an increase in spending via government (deficit spending on new technologies etc) and consumer spending (via tax cuts for people that actually spend money, low class and low middle class).

Budget deficits are generally overrated anyway, you could have a deficit all the time and still have a drop in debt to GDP ratio as long as you're economy grows enough. The US debt as a percentage of GDP is 72.5% which isn't that big of a deal. We (Belgium) had a ratio of 140% in the 90's , now we're back to 80%. The only (small) problem the US has is that around 25% of it's debt is to foreign countries (with around 40% to Japan and China combined).

Oh...and I know a bunch of McCain supporters that say they are moving to Canada to get away from Obama the socalist....

Golden! Atleast they might hear speeches written by the Bush administration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8YwJC_nBgw

[JohnnyNemesis]

[IamSam]

On the other hand, do you really want those people in your country? too bad for Canada, though :/

Lol...actually I do. Some of them are friends, stupid friends, but friends none the less.


My closest circle of friends all voted Obama. Mainly because I explained to them why. I feel proud.

[HeadAroundU]

I love that pic, Ricky.

[_Lost_]

Shouldn't "significant" progress be measured more by what happens to masses of blacks instead of what one man has accomplished? Y'know what I mean?

i think that in a lot of ways, this is election process has brought on significant progress. More people in minority groups took and interest and voted this time around then ever before. Yes, a lot of them only voted because he's half-black (or half-white. why is it that when someone is mixed, they are labeled as black and not white? This bring me to "structural racism" which is a whole other ball-game but still relevant.). But one man's accomplishment is going to show an entire population that they really CAN do/be anything. Hopefully, they will take the hint and the glass ceiling will be shattered for minorities once and for all.

[F@ BANKZ]

I don't like being pessimistic, and I like Obama, but reading this thread has still made me lose all faith in BBS & humanity (BBS comes first).