Quote: zooo @ November 5 2008, 5:34 PM GMTStil, she shouldn't be allowed to be in charge of ANYTHING.
She could be in charge of me. 
US Election Page 13
Oh, you quoted before I fixed the l. 
Quote: zooo @ November 5 2008, 5:36 PM GMTOh, you quoted before I fixed the l.
I can ocassionally be premature. That's not a problem, is it? 
!
Quote: NickTheDon @ November 5 2008, 5:19 PM GMTAnd to the people saying it was about race - I'm sure it played a small part, but certainly not a deciding factor. If it did then I'm sure Ohio, a state with a massive white population that Bush won by huge margins in 2000 and 2004, would not have voted for a Black Democratic President.
Obama won Ohio by 200,000 votes out of a total of 5 million cast. Ohio is 12% African-American. 95% of African-Americans voted for Obama. Do the math.
P.S. Bush won by only 100,000 votes in 2004 and only slightly more in 2000. Not exactly a "huge margin."
That's 570,000 Blacks voting for Obama.
I'm trying to work out the ratio but I'd need to know how many people in total voted.
Assuming all 5,000,000 voted that's a demographic shift of 6% quite significant.
If less voted it's substanially larger.
But you voted for a white guy, and you didn't do it because he was white.
You do the logic.
Some people will have voted for Obama because he was black. But just as many will have voted against him for the exact same reason. I'm sure the race only votes cancel each other out.
I still think Obama won because he was the best option.
Quote: sootyj @ November 5 2008, 6:19 PM GMTThat's 570,000 Blacks voting for Obama.
I'm trying to work out the ratio but I'd need to know how many people in total voted.
It's hard to do any real calculations without real facts and figures. Maybe they'll be released eventually. An interesting one would be African-Americans who voted for Obama and had never voted in the past.
All in all, it was roughly 52-48 across the board. A majority, but not an absolute mandate. As one reporter put it on election night, "Half of the nation is going to wake up disappointed."
Quote: zooo @ November 5 2008, 6:21 PM GMTSome people will have voted for Obama because he was black. But just as many will have voted against him for the exact same reason. I'm sure the race only votes cancel each other out.
I'd like to believe it's true, but the 95% figure says otherwise.
Here's an exit poll breakdown:
It's ice cream vendor syndrome. If you have 2 ice cream vendors at a beach, they will evenutally move next to each other where the crowds are in the centre.
In a world of constant news input and analysis, most parties can't afford to be radical. Hence spend all their time chasing after the few floating voters.
The next UK election may be decided by under 200,000 voters.
It's a scary form of consensual dictatorship by the bland.
And I bet a good few million bigots regsitered to vote against Barrack.
Quote: DaButt @ November 5 2008, 6:23 PM GMTIt's hard to do any real calculations without real facts and figures. Maybe they'll be released eventually. An interesting one would be African-Americans who voted for Obama and had never voted in the past.
All in all, it was roughly 52-48 across the board. A majority, but not an absolute mandate. As one reporter put it on election night, "Half of the nation is going to wake up disappointed."
But half a nation always wakes up disappointed... Thatcher never won much more than about 43% of the vote yet she still came out the winner, ergo 57% of voters where mightly pissed the next morning...
And people voting who'd never voted before, surley that's a good thing. If they felt that at last a candidate had been put forward whom they could believe in that's to be praised rather bemoaned..
kjs
Get over it, DaButt. The best man won. The whole world can see that, as well as the majority of the American people. The fact is, outsiders are happy that America has finally got a proper president instead of a figure of fun. 
Even if Obama doesn't live up to the expectations, no one is really going to hate him or want to crucify him unless he does something catastrophically stupid ala George Bush and the Iraq war. But he won't because he's not a war mongering Republican.
Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.
In the UK both the main parties have squeezed their zelaots out into secondary parties.
Labor=Respect, Socialist Labor, BNP
Conservative=UKIP, BNP, Veritas
Where do disenfranchised Libdems go?
Quote: Eat My Shirts @ November 5 2008, 6:33 PM GMTGet over it, DaButt. The best man won. The whole world can see that, as well as the majority of the American people. The fact is, outsiders are happy that America has finally got a proper president instead of a figure of fun.
Even if Obama doesn't live up to the expectations, no one is really going to hate him or want to crucify him unless he does something catastrophically stupid ala George Bush and the Iraq war. But he won't because he's not a war monger republican
Turn it down a notch. The Afghan war was completely justified as was much of the war on terror.
Afghanistan festered under the lacksadaisical reign of Clinton.
We Europeans are profoundly ignorant of the real subtleties of US politics.
Quote: chipolata @ November 5 2008, 4:15 PM GMTEven Winston Churchill got turfed out of office just after leading us to victory in World War II.
And was then voted back in just over 6 years later, don't forget.
Giving Labor 6 short years to found the NHS and the Welfare State.
Hooray for hardworking, pipe smoking socialism!
Even if grumpy old Winston did destroy all that was left of the Festival of Britain.
Damn you letters, why do you hate me so!
Ray Winstone?