Obama becomes first black president in landslide

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama was elected the nation's first black president Tuesday night in a historic triumph that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/election_rdp

Thank you to everyone who voted. Of course, I am thrilled. With one exception, everyone I wanted to win won. I am still waiting on the results from my state senate races.

Re: Obama becomes first black president in landslide

I am just sorry "Toots" didn't live to see her grandson become president. I'm sure wherever she is, she knows...

Re: Obama becomes first black president in landslide

The guy I wanted for State Senator won. He had some intense competition. I was concerned he would loose because the other guy clearly had so much more money, but was also ousted from the seat by my guy for corruption. So, I am pretty much tickled to my toes with this election - a real first for me. Maybe you can imagine, but it is so hard seeing the candidates and issues you care about smashed into the dirt year after year. Decade after decade, in my case.

Re: Obama becomes first black president in landslide

To everyone whose candidate lost. Believe me, I understand your disappointment.

I think you may be pleasantly surprised in Obama. For one thing, he is deeply religious. He not only talks about god, he has walked the walk working for the church. A woman told me yesterday that he was the antiChrist. He is not. He is just a man. He can't actually live up to someone people's wild expectations.

I am just happy for once we have a president who cares about the environment. And not married to fossil fuels.

I am happy for the blacks and young people who believed in him. I know how hard it is to go to the polls again after your candidate has lost in the first election you get to vote in.

I am happy for America that we have finally once and for all proved to the world we are not racist anymore! Hopefully, this whole race issue can be put to bed once and for all, because I am really sick of it. Obviously though, women still have a ways to go before one of us of any race or background can become the president. But out day is coming. We had a very viable president and vice president candidate of each party who had a shot at the top job which is more than we ever had before. So to that!

To those who are disappointed, I truely understand how you feel. And I don't think Obama is going to do a dam* thing about abortion one way or another. I think he is going to focus on the economy and job situtation and the situation in the Mid East first. I think changing the gun and abortion laws are so far down on his list they would have to claw their way up to ground level.

Hopefully, the world will be happy now and calm the h*ll down! That would be a huge in my books.

Re: Obama becomes first black president in landslide

I agree with you on so many levels, Nikki. I am very sorry for gays and lesibans. They lost big time this election. However, the only constant is change, so maybe there is hope in the future.

Initially, I supported Obama because he was more pro Veteran than McCain. Then McCain picked Palin as his running mate and that just sealed it for me. Joe Biden was a huge bonus for me. He's very pro Vet and was the chair of the veterans committee and as a veteran, that really works for me.

I totally agree with you on the religion issue, Nikki. We are minorities faith wise and this gives us a unique perspective in a "christian" nation. But I don't see our cause getting very far under Obama. He said he was going to expand the faith based initative ibet with much more oversight. But if he was truely interested one wit in seperating government from religion, he would have gotten rid of that.

Re: Obama becomes first black president in landslide

Individuals are racist, but we are not a racist nation or a nation of racists. For a long time, the world has seen us as a nation of racists, but this is not true. Most of the people here said race had nothing to do with their choice for president.

It's been true for a long time that race does not prevent someone from achieving great things. We have top military generals of all races. We have CEOs of all races. We all mourn with Jennifer Hudson over her tremendous loss these past few weeks. In 1960, our nation wouldn't have black and hispanic women and men voted as some of the best looking people in America.

We've shown the world we will elect a person of color as president. We are not so bound up in racial hatred that we cannot elect a person of color to the most important job in our nation.

You're right, Liz, he can't stop the Mid East crisis on a dime and he can't pull the military out of there instantly either. He's just a man. He's not a superhero. I could be surprised though, Nixon normalized relations with China. Carter brokered a lasting peace deal between Israel and Egypt, nations who had hated each other since Moses. Clinton did a lot towards bringing peace in Northern Ireland. So anything is possible.

He can promote policies that will drastically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Eventually, this will dramatically decrease our interest in the Middle East. This is happening with or without him. People are killing each other, enslaving one another, torturing each other and generally treating their fellow human beings as bad as possible in Sudan and we're not doing anything about that. Why? Because they don't have anything worth having.

Hope is probably the most powerful force human beings can generate on earth (anger, hatred and fear maybe be a trio that is a lot stronger though). There are more people of color in the world than without (although, I debate that pinkish peach is a color too. ) A lot of these people feel powerless, but now they have seen the country that was supposed to be the most racist in the world (which I would strongly protest) elect a person of color president. This is very enpowering for them.

I think that people around the world who might have been on the verge of doing something bad will now calm down a bit. Did Obama personally do this? No, the hope he inspires did. I don't think Obama is a great visionary. I haven't seen any evidence he has fantastic cure all ideas. But he does listen to people and he does want to unite what has been divided for so long. I think people will be pleasantly surprised to see top Republicans in his cabnet and on his list of advisors.

Also, people around the world felt Bush stole the election even though, as much as I hated it, he won fair and square (especially the second time) according to the laws of our nation. Now, they see someone who won the popular vote and the electoral college and he is a person of color. They feel like we have a lot of power in the world and over their personal destiny. The fact of Obama's election can do a lot towards peace. Maybe not in the Middle East, but other places who were thinking crazy terrorism was a good way to go may chill out. I sure hope so.

Our nation's problems are far from solved. This is only the beginning of a long journey towards healing. Obama will not be able to cure everything overnight and those who think so are bound to be disappointed. But it's a step. A good step. I think. I hope.

Re: Obama becomes first black president in landslide

You are so right about abortion, Cheryl. I am proChoice, but it's not something I get worked up about. It's definitely not a guiding factor for me. Besides, if any president was going to do something about abortion, it would have been Bush. He had both houses and the supreme court on his side, but he did nothing. I don't know why. I don't think Obama will do a dang thing about it either. They all talk about abortion to get votes on both sides and then never do anything about it. It's kind of annoying to me, really. Here they spend all this time talking about abortion and what do any of them do to either promote or end it? Absolutely nothing. I don't think they plan to do one thing or another. It's just an election trick. In the end, every president leaves the whole issue up to the states and the courts.

Actually, the military planes are in horrible shape. I hope they do replace them before they are more dangerous to our people than the bad guys are!

I hope he brings the whole military production engine back to the US. I have never been comfortable with manufacturing products for our military in China even if it is cheaper.

I have no idea what he's going to do about defense spending. He wasn't really clear on that, was he? He was clear and precise on veterans' issues. And that's why I voted for him. He was clear that he was going to support post partisan politics and be more inclusive in government. I liked that too.

I like a lot of things about Obama. But I loved Hillary. I am sorry she didn't make it. But I can live with Obama too. I thought McCain might take my VA benefits and that scared me spitless. Then Palin! Whoa! I thought here is a woman who is extremelly deep in her own brand of christianity. Will she be able to except other Christians who don't agree with her? And what about me, I'm an atheist? Yikes! I'm her vision of the antiChrist. Atheists make up a large minority, but we aren't unified. We are certainly a herd of cats. We are most likely destined for minority status forever. However, that doesn't mean we deserve to be crushed or that we are the antiChrist. An antichrist would have to have power. And we don't have any power. Heck, we don't even agree with each other! The only thing that really unites secularists is most reglions consider us the absolute worst thing any human being can ever be. Since the vast majority of the world's population follows one religion or another, world domination by atheists is incredibly unlikely.

McCain's okay. He talks big, but he plays a lot of craps. How religious can he really personally be when he's all alone? Obama is too liberal in his beliefs to be too scary. I think he believes in God to the uttermost depths of his soul. I think he pours over his bible everyday and prays all the time. He may not share a lot of the same beliefs as most Christians, but he's a true believer right down to his toes. He is black after all. I know that sounds bad in some ways. But almost all the blacks I have ever known are steeped in relgion. Usually, that religion is Christianity. Even when it's not, they are very devout. The first Christian nation in the world was Ethopia.

I am an outsider and what I see is a man who not only talks about God, he gave years of his life to the church. Did any of the others do that? Not that I know of.

Don't worry. The atheist cause will not be furthered under this guy. Under God will stay in the pledge. In God we trust will stay on the our money. He's more tolerant than some of the others, but he is still a died in the wool, through and through, christian. There's a lot of diversity in the Christian faith. He's just not a conservative. But he is very much a Christian.

It's one of the things I don't really care for about him.