Rant and raves...about the election of course!!!

Oh where to begin on this one!!! I have friends who fall all over the spectrum on this election, but ya know...it's my blog....so i'm gonna say my 2 cents....muhahaha!

I think it's absolutely amazing that Obama won. I mean I dunno that I really expected a black president so soon in my lifetime, if ever, and I think it speaks volumes about America that we are here. Particularly knowing the story of my parents and what they went through coming up as black Americans, knowing the history of civil rights in this country, knowing relatively recent events that have touched on racial issues in this country. I think it validates my sense that the nation by and large has moved beyond a lot of issues....as far as blacks are concerned. Now when it comes to Latinos and Arabs, well, that's a whole other story...but let's not go there in this post. I also think Obama has a lot of great qualities, is extremely intelligent, and ran a fairly consistent and mostly positive race overall. So here's my toast to him and the hope that he's re inspired in America!

HAVING SAID ALL THAT...here's what I didn't like(warning...ranting):

1) Sarah Palin - I devoted a whole entry about this moose killa from wasilla. My only issues with her was her astonishing lack of knowledge about civics, geography, her lack of concern about understanding a problem in order to solve it (global warming), and that her folksy overconfidence in her ignorance reminded me way too much of W.
2) John McCain's courting of the social conservatives...who frankly don't give a damn about us gays much at all. Fortunately they didn't matter so much this time (well cept for that gay marriage ban bullshit...but not gonna go there this post).
3) The undercurrent of racism present in the use of Obama's middle name, and the mischaracterization of him as a muslim. I think Colin Powell summed it up best for me. Even if he were Muslim, why would it be an issue, they're freakking dying for us in Iraq too.
4) Accusations of "palling around with terrorists." I'll let the Washington Post do the dirty work for me here: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherman_connection.html.
5) Rev Wright. Having grown up in a black church and knowing the ridiculous oratory freedoms black preachers take at times, I never found too much ado about this story. Particularly when I went on youtube and listened to the rest of the "chickens come home to roost" sermon, its actually not that bad, I think they caught him at a bad moment...even Mike Huckabee defended him on Morning Joe. I can understand though some pause here, but having learned from a PBS documentary that Obama picked the church more for clout in the black community, having watched the entirety of the excerpt of the sermon, and realizing most folks haven't researched that issue to even those meager depths, I chalk this controversy up to failure to research and/or lack of understanding about the dumb things that get said in black churches (maybe another blog post someday about dumb things said in all churches).
6) Obama is a socialist. Oh gawd....please someone just shoot the idiots that keep spouting off on this one. Aside from the contradictions of Joe the Shit4Brains, consider the implications of such programs as Social Security and Medicare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, or even historical taxation principles. Once again, I'll let someone else do the heavy lifting: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/10/31/socialism/
7) Misogyny. Poor Hillary got the shaft, and not in a good way either. Republicans have hated her since she entered the white house. I had heard that the Obama folks were also doing this to her so I tried to look it up, since I really wasn't following this race too closely until after the nominee was decided. Michelle O took a jab at her, and Obama called a reporter "sweetie." Not exactly giant smoking gun territory to me, but i'm sure if I were on the Hillary bandwagon all along I'd be feelin this one too. As far as accusations that they didn't take Palin seriously...well...I never took Palin seriously...and not cuz she's a woman....but I've already ranted on that. Hillary gets an honorary purple heart from me here though. She's been through the ringer so much...but such unfortunately was the case before Obama came on the scene, it would be a little naive for me to fault him too much for taking advantage of it...particularly given the thrilling drama of their showdown.
8) and finally...just the way McCain's campaign sold himself to the devil trying to win this thing. I swear, part of the pain that seemed ever present in McCain's step must have had something to do with letting those idiots from W's campaign run the show, mud slinging and all. Apparently the Straight Talk Express crashed and burned somewhere and they all hopped on Scorched Earth Airlines...aye-ya!

In any case, it's like i said at the beginning, Obama's ability to pull this off in spite of the obstacles really gives me hope, and I think it gives a lot of other folks hope too...so we'll see where this thing goes.