On what grounds did you vote? Colour or code.

I voted based on policies, reputation, and skill.

That happened to be the traits of a candidate who happened to be black, didn’t make any difference to me.

I voted for Obama’s ears.

Okay, so I voted for his ideas, hopes, plans, policies, etc. But I really do love his ears, too.

i second asmonet.

skin color means nothing to me.

but i was surprised to see how many of my classmates and friends (who happen to be republicans) said really racial things after the election. i had no idea how racist the mccain fans were. one of my high school classmates had their status on myspace set to “they call it the white house for a reason” i was so hurt by the comment i told her immediately to take it down, and im not even African American!!

White girl, here…voted for the black man for his policies and attitudes. Obama Rocks!

Since you’re new here, I’ll let you know in advance that Fluther is not really representative of America as a whole. It is a very liberal leaning site, with a small percentage of conservative members. Also, welcome to the collective!

I voted for Barack Obama because of his policies, education, dignified and honest demeanor, and hopes. I could go on and on. I am VERY proud to have him as our President. The color of his skin never made me think twice about my decision. I do worry about his well being and safety. Sadly, this election has really brought out the worst in so many people from the other side. The ugliness, hatred, and extreme prejudice has me angry and saddened. I’m glad this landslide of a win was a big slap in their face. They apparently need it.

I voted for Obama because he inspired me, because I agree with the majority of his policies, because he is intelligent and educated, and because I think he is more capable of handling the many and varied crises facing our nation than McCain was.

But I also voted for him because the color of his skin meant that his election would be a powerful and enduring symbol for the civil rights movement and to African Americans across the country.

I’m young so race isn’t supposed to affect my generation—which it didn’t because race never even entered my mind when I decided to vote for him. Good call

Don’t you think politicians are all full of shit? It is what it is. Obama is educated, good for him. A president is a figurehead, congress and the house and his advisors rule the country. F the civil rights movement, a bowel movement will suffice. Just get over it. Womens movement was my generation and that was a fight. Civil rights have become rights of color, what color is that???

What happened to blood lines? Don’t people care about bloodlines anymore. Some of our forefathers would be rolling over in their graves

Incidently, obama is not JUST black.

@americaandfree- Whoa newbee. I sense a bit of anger there.

@american: Grow up.

I… don’t really understand most of what you said, but I’ll try to respond.

Many politicians are full of shit, not all. I’m not saying that Obama is a squeaky clean saint, but he has convinced me that he is one of those who is not.

I voted for Obama based on his intellect because I wanted a change from a president who “thinks with his gut”, because I wanted the President to understand the issues facing our country, and, moreover, because I felt he understood those issues better than McCain.

I may have misunderstood you, but comparing the Civil Rights movement to a “bowel movement” is both ignorant and offensive.

I don’t even know what to make of your last sentence.

@american: What exactly are you trying to say? On the one hand, you’re coming across quite bigoted while on the other you are reminding us that Obama is half white. Where do you stand on this? While you’re at it, who did you vote for, and why?

Colour has never really been an issue here in the US. Color, on the other hand…

@american: Never mind, bigoted it is!

Further evidence.

I voted for the best candidate with the best chance of being the most positive and influential president and that was clearly Obama. Skin color was never a determining factor for me and it never should have been for anyone else either, period.

“What happened to blood lines? Don’t people care about bloodlines anymore. Some of our forefathers would be rolling over in their graves”

Not that I entirely understand what you mean, or what connection this had to anything else you said, but the notion of your “blood” determining anything worthwhile about you as a person has long since been abandoned by most people.

Many people are, of course, still proud of their cultural heritage and many are still interested in their ancestry, but while our white, slave-owning forefathers may certainly be rolling over in their graves at the thought of “mixing racial bloodlines”, which is what I assume you’re referring to given some of your other comments, their opinions on the subject don’t matter much, as the country has, thankfully, moved on a little.

It matters very much to me that the man I wanted for President is a person of color. It matters because we-the-people overturned a couple of centuries of pain and fear in order to elect him.
But if he’d been white I’d have forgiven him for it. I didn’t go out looking for a black candidate to support. I was praying for an intelligent adult to support, and god (sic) gave me this developed, wide-experienced, well-travelled, focussed, loving, articulate man who can use the word “affection” in front of a nation. Thank you, god, whoever you are.

wow! Thanks to everyone! It was really interesting to hear so many oppinions!

To those who commented on my spelling of “color”, Im australian, and I spell it with u. =) and to those interested, I support Obama fully and couldn’t be happier about his election.

@halfscottishguy- Thank YOU for your interest and support! Welcome to Fluther! :-)

I always thought that it would be cool to have a red white and blue President, but until that person comes along color is not a factor in my voting.

I’ve got to go to work so I’ll keep this short but I voted for Obama because he was a terrific candidate and I expect him to be a great president. It was a plus to me that he is an African-American because I think it is a great symbol of the lessening of racism in this country and the changes we need to make. That he was raised in so many different places and has an international background is an added bonus as we begin to rejoin the world (I hope they’ll let us in!).

As my 89 year old mother said, “He’s a real mensch!”

(And don’t anyone run down the Civil Rights movement – people died so that everyone could vote, sit where they want on the bus, be elected president!)

I voted for Obama based on his stances on the issues. Except for FISA. He pissed me off then. But his overall set of opinions is still WAY better than McCain’s.

His campaign didn’t hurt though—it’s so damn easy to say I voted for hope, change, and a spine tingling speech that largely involved a positive forward looking statement.

I voted for Obama because I thought he was the better of the two major candidates for the job. Also, it was a vote against McCain and (mostly) Palin, who I saw as being actively bad for the job. If Obama’s skin color entered into it, it was only as a beneficial perk.

@Americanandfree: Bloodlines lead back to the same place, and we all came from Africa. Some people just did more recently than others, but why quibble?

I voted for him because of his policies and his character. I also think that he is pretty cute, but that is not why I voted for him!

@Bluefreedom: It shouldn’t have, but sadly it was. Not to sound racists, but particularly to the blacks. I mean, many blacks came on the news yesterday, letting us know how great it was to finally have a black man as the president, and all that. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t some of these same people say that race wasn’t a factor in the election?

Also, I went into a Wendy’s and there was a white couple in line in front of me. We were the only three whites in the entire restaurant. The couple get up to the register, and both were wearing Obama badges. The lady at the register immediately notices them and asks, and I quote, “Why in the hell would a happy white couple like yourselves want to vote for a black man?” I heard this and my jaw dropped, and so did the couple’s. They didn’t really know what to think, and responded that they respected his policies. The other cashier muttered something, but it got a few laughs from some co-workers standing near her. I admit right then that I was scared, and was really ready to just walk out of there, but feared what might happen if I did. Nothing else happened, but everyone ordering their food and getting it and all that jazz.

Right then I knew Obama was going to when by landslide, simply because of soo many blacks in the country were going to get out and vote this year, just to support their own race getting into office.

Yesterday morning, my younger sister said she walked into her classroom and the blacks were just a hootin’ and hollerin’, and saying that now all the white people are going to die. Once again I was appalled, and not sure what to think.

In the north, it may be all happy whoo-hoo, but here in the south, tensions are extremely high. If anything is to happen to the president, we are on the verge of massive violence. What it may lead to, who knows, but racism is still very much alive in this country, whether you WANT to believe it or not.

@laureth: Not everyone in Africa is black you know. So that comment about coming from there more recently than others, didn’t make much sense. This is also why I call blacks, blacks, and not African-Americans, because their just as much Americans as we are. Not African-Americans. You call Mexicans, Mexicans, right? You don’t call them Mexican-Americans, or Latino-Americans. They’re just Mexicans, or Latinos, or Hispanics. Same with Blacks, they’re blacks, not African-Americans.

MooKoo: Actually, CNN showed the exit stats. The pie chart of folks who said that race factored into their decision was almost exactly the same as the pie chart for folks who said it didn’t. Which is to say Obama got the same percentage of the “we care about race” vote as he did of the “we couldn’t care less about race” vote.

Also, Laureth was referring to the idea that all homo sapiens evolved out of Africa.

Lots of people say Irish-American, Italian-American, and Mexican-American as well.

Color meant nothing. Issues meant everything, particularly the issue of health care.

@MooKoo: You say, ”@laureth: Not everyone in Africa is black you know. So that comment about coming from there more recently than others, didn’t make much sense.”

My ancestors left Africa and colonized Europe tens of thousands of years ago, and then some of those people came to the United States in the last couple hundred years. Barack’s father came from Africa in the last generation. Either way, both of our bloodlines go back to Africa, it’s just that they left at different times.

@american You say “What happened to blood lines? Don’t people care about bloodlines anymore. Some of our forefathers would be rolling over in their graves”

Would you consider Thomas Jefferson a forefather? If so, be aware that he had black ancestors (and black descendants as well via Sally Heming). What about Abraham Lincoln? Andrew Jackson? Calvin Coolidge? Warren Harding? All of these presidents had black (and in some cases Native American) ancestors. They just didn’t look black. Instead they passed for white and folks didn’t pay as much attention to bloodlines back then as some seem to today.

So in one sense Obama isn’t the first black president. He is just the first one to look black and to admit to his ancestry.

See http://www.diversityinc.com/public/1461.cfm for details.

@MooKoo – it might interest you to know that folks who study human evolution have concluded that there are only two types of mitochondrial DNA (DNA passed down by the mother) and both types originate in Africa. In other words, all of us, white, black or any other color, are descended from two women from Africa.

And back to the topic at hand, I voted in part for Obama’s ideas, ideals and policies, and in part that the best way to bring change to Washington is to vote the Republicans out. I also voted for Obama because I don’t agree with McCain’s ideas and policies, and because I would be much happier to have Joe Biden step into the job, if worse comes to worse, than Sarah Palin.

He is a more physically attractive man than John McCain, but that had nothing to do with my vote.

@McBean – our family has ears like that, too. Fortunately, it seems to be mostly a male trait, but my great grandmother was rumored to be able to fly with hers.

Wow, I thought this was a great question that I would love to answer and then I read “american’s” posts and got kind of sick to my stomach. What is really disturbing is that I am sure that they are not the only one that feels this way.
My answer is that I voted for him because I felt he really understands the issues we face and more importantly that he really CARES about the American people. As someone said, the color/colour of his skin was just a perk.

I voted for the six I’s. Issues, Ideas, Intellect, Ideology, Integrity and Inspiration. I think race is important in that it is an indicator of how far our society comes…so it was in my mind a “bonus” that he was a black candidate, but it never factored into my decision. I supported him for day one, and I knew from day one that he’d win, and I knew race would for some people be a part of that. Imagine being someone who does not relate to the rich old white men that we always get to choose from? How can you believe they understand your situation. You get someone who is younger (like you), who has struggled to get by in life (like you), and/or who just looks more like you, that’s powerful enough to get some people who don’t usually vote out to the polls. I’m a 37 year old married white man with a house and a good, stable job…I’ve never been dirt poor and I grew up in an area and at a time where it was OK to tell racist jokes in polite company…it wasn’t the separate drinking fountains of the 1960s or the wholesale slavery of the 1860s and before, but growing up in the 80’s it was not uncommon for my elders to describe blacks in very dismissive and derisive terms (Michael Jackson was a faggot nigger, Jessie Jackson was a radical preacher nigger…you get the idea).

I didn’t let that poison me…I evaluate people on their merits. So as a 37 year old white man who grew up in a small northern town, I have a lot more in common with Sarah Palin than Barack Obama, if not also John McCain. But Palin is an inexperienced, self important moron…Obama is the first candidate to outright articulate the problems facing America and what I see as the appropriate solutions to those problems that I’ve thought and worried about my whole life, but which no politician has ever seemed to understand. Almost everything he’s said about what he thinks we need to do (a bottom up economy being the most important) has been the ideal I’ve searched for unsuccesfully in every Presiential candidate I’ve ever had the opportunity to vote for.

The extent to which his race may have helped him get elected and the inspirational message it will send to people of all races in our country and around the world is just gravy.

I was first impressed by Obama before I even saw him. I was reading a book with the 2004 Dem Conv was on. His speech made me look up and I felt he was going to be somebody that I would vote for. I didn’t think he would run in 2008. I thought that would be Hillary and that she would be beaten up (like she was as 1st Lady)so badly that Obama was the candidate in 2012.

For two years I watched both and when the Dems took the House and tied the Senate in 2006, I expected to be voting for Hillary this year. But the Congressional Dems were so ineffectual and Hillary was so on the bus, I was badly disappointed. Only Obama didn’t join the parade.

I think there were enough of us who believed that Obama would simply be the best candidate and we supported him every way we could.

I figured it would be Hillary in 2008 and 2012, Obama in 2016. When Hillary started campaigning, I saw her ugly side, and when it was contrasted against the great integrity and intellect of Obama, as much as I thought I’d probably vote for her in ‘08, she just came off as the inferior candidate.

@MooKoo. I realized that color was a factor in the election and that is why I put in my original post that ”.....color was never a determining factor for me and it never should have been for anyone else either….”. That was me looking at this in too much of a clinical sense probably because there really is no way you could have seperated race from this election process. I just wanted to hope differently I guess.

When you described the scene in the Wendy’s restaurant, that got me a little fired up. If it was me in there, I don’t know if I would have been able to stifle myself and not speak my mind on a few things. As far as the classroom where individuals commented that all white people are now going to die, it’s just like you said, appalling…...and sad.

@ galileogirl My brother said that I told him that Barack Obama, a senator from Illinois, had just made a great speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention and that I could see him as President someday. Now he wants me to pick stocks and horses for him!

I voted for Obama, but not because of his race.
I didn’t vote for Palin, but not because of her gender.

The republicans have just run this country into the ground in too many ways. I would have been voting for the democrat to combat that anyway. But I’m really glad we had such a great choice to make this year in a positive way. I’m glad I got to vote for Obama and not just “not McCain”.

I hope there will be changes, mostly peace and food for the truly hungry kids. I hope when the “world” sees a different face he can go where the other power hungry presidents threatened and convince those who covet the food for the hungry to give instead of hoard. Time will tell. I still feel blood lineage is important. I also remember a time when religion crossing was frowned upon. My Mom had to turn Catholic to marry my Dad. So, yes, alot has changed. Equality is important, but some people use their race as if people owe them. Obama said Get up and work for it. I hope he doesn’t mean redistributing wealth will increase welfare and make these people more lazy. I also work at a prison where the majority are black and think ONLY we have overcome means a person, other than caucasion is president. I reminded them, he’s educated, works for a living, and basically they live off the system, and mostly are demanding .

I’m just hoping we can keep our right to bear arms and defend our homes. I heard he wants to raise the price of guns and ammo alot. Anyone hear that???

Whomever got sick to their stomach, remember the freedom of speech. Yeah, that’s where we get to say, when and whatever we want, without trying to hurt people’s feelings., hopefully. I believe and thank God my children believe in keeping the blood line the way we want it. We will pass that on.

I’m still wondering about this whole “blood lineage” thing. Other than being interested in Geneology and celebrating your cultural heritage, what importance could “blood” have?

i think it is a vampire thing.

LOL fireside.

Mostly it’s nice to go to all the festivals and wonder what it was like to be and immigrant not knowing the language and making a life in this country. I enjoy all festivals and food from any walk of life, but particularly my ancestors. That’s all. Thanks for asking and not judging.

I voted on the basis of who I perceived to be most intelligent. Color is not an issue. How do you even classify race in Obama’s case?

Well, race is an extremely tricky concept at the best of times. Really, it’s that he’s a symbol. The fact that he looks black and was still elected demonstrates to a lot of people that we’ve come a long way.