Question: If Obama was not black, would you still have voted for him?

This has really been bothering me lately. Mostly because a lot of Republicans believe Obama is our president-elect because of the color of his skin - that the people that voted for him, specially the minorities, chose him because he's black, and that everyone that voted Democrat this past election ignored everything else.

I, for one, don't care if he's black, or white, or Asian or Marsian. Admittedly, I voted for the guy because (1) I didn't particularly think that Bush did too well in the last 8 years he was in office and it wasn't clear how McCain was going to do something different from Bush' administration (2) I'd rather not continue fighting a war for people who do not want us to fight it for them and (3) I don't like Palin. At some point during the campaign, when Clinton was pushed out of the picture (yeah, I still think she had the bigger balls out of all the candidates), I was seriously leaning towards McCain. I wasn't an Obama fan, still don't consider myself one, didn't think he was the Messiah or referred to him as "The Chosen One", and I still question some of his ideas, associations and proposed changes. But McCain choosing Palin as his running mate definitely turned me off, on top of everything else I already listed.

Anyway, we should really move on from the race/color topic. It's a historical event that we have a non-white president, sure. It's a big deal. But, I sure hope to God that people didn't go out and vote for history alone. That people came out because they care about what will become of this country. I mean, come on, the guy doesn't even call himself just black. He's called himself a mutt publicly, for crying out loud. So, will everyone just shut up about him being the first black president? It doesn't really look or sound good and it alienates everyone else. At the end of the day, the color of his skin will not matter. What will matter, however, are his promises and that he stays true to them.

posted by G. | 11/10/2008 01:26:00 PM --