PRESIDENT ELECT Obama!

He's going to be our President very soon, so it's time to refer to him that way. The reference to our Presidents as "MR." started with Nixon I think, as people lost trust in the man, and carried their feelings over to the OFFICE. Clinton certainly didn't help things in the area of deserving respect, but he was still our President.

The Office of President deserves our utmost respect, even if we do not like or agree with the man/woman or his/her policies or even private life. (Isn't it quite an improvement to have to refer to both genders?)

So it pains me to hear commentators and read in print that Obama is doing this or that, or even Mr. Obama. He is now our President-Elect. He earned that title with the majority of the Electoral Votes, and I just wish people would show the respect for the office and call him that.

Praying for President Elect Obama

Excerpt from a New York Times article:

Mr. Obama, who watched Mr. McCain’s speech from his hotel room in Chicago, offered a hand to voters who had not supported him in this election, when he took the stage 15 minutes later. “To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn,” he said, “I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president, too.”

It's over. It's finally over. You are probably like I am and relieved to have all those political ads and phone calls over with. A lot of people are celebrating over their candidate's victory, and a lot of folks are quietly resigned to their candidate's defeat, not just on the national level, but also in the local political arena as well. Now comes the really hard part ... to make all these sweeping changes work for the good of all Americans.

We have seen a sea change in American politics with this presidential election like no other in my memory. A change in the way the campaigns were financed and promoted. A change in the ethnic and gender groups that were represented on both National tickets. A change from the apathy and disinterest in politics and voting which seemed to be evident in years past to an excitement that sometimes bordered on mass hysteria.

The time for speeches is now past, and now the real work begins for President Elect Obama and his close aides. I can only hope and pray that he does move toward the center from some of his campaign rhetoric and truly make an effort to consider the positions of those who opposed him in this election.

I am one of those who did not vote for Obama, but I respect him as our newly elected President and will lift him up in my prayers as he begins the process of change that he promoted. I pray that those changes will not be short sighted quick fixes that appeal to the crowds, but thoroughly examined positions that advance this great Democracy of ours.

Yes, a change has been voted for by the majority of the people. May that change be for the good of all Americans, regardless of economic standing, gender, race, religion, or any of the myriad ways that we differentiate ourselves. After all, We are the UNITED States of America!!!

I LIKE IKE! - A Look Back on Presidential Elections

I remember vividly the first Presidential Election that I was interested in ... Eisenhower's! We were in about 8th grade I guess, so the teacher had us at the exact right age to really teach a lot about the US government through this event.

The conventions were on black and white TV all day long back then, with lots of interesting on the floor battles for this and that, and usually long drawn out votes for candidates before one was eventually picked. The excitement level was throbbing all over the place.

I remember Adlai Stevenson's famous shoe with the hole in it, not just from photos that have been preserved, but from the actual event. It was a glorious exciting time to be involved for the first time in this huge complex overwhelming process.

We made speeches for our candidates and had a mock vote, and I was so excited when my candidate won! I still have a campaign button with I LIKE IKE on it somewhere tucked away in a drawer.

I look at elections with a jaded eye today. Oh I'm sure there was lots going on back then that was uncivil and really nasty, but it just seems like politicians have lost something over the years. I'm losing the sense that they are truly trying to help people, and get the impression, regardless of what they say, that they are in it for the power and to further their own party's ambitions. It's been a long time since I have heard someone in office called a Statesman ..... because they're NOT.

I'm not going to get into the Obama/McCain campaigns of the moment, as I really don't think that's what this post is about. I just feel a yearning for the "good old days" where the impression I had (maybe a naive one) was that people argued heatedly, debated, spoke, planned, and ultimately worked through that process for the good of the country.

My First Presidential Election - The Man with a Hole in His Shoe

Photographer William M. Gallagher won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for this photograph of Stevenson on the campaign trail in 1952. The image of the "Man with a Hole in his Shoe" remained with Stevenson and served as a symbol of his efforts during the 1956 presidential campaign.

copied from the Princeton University Library

This 1952 election is the first one that I was old enough to get interested in, plus that's about when we got our first television. That year Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon won over Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman, from my own state - Alabama. We learned about the democratic process in school that year, and our teacher made it all fun, mock election and all. Of course, those were the days when the national conventions were really interesting, as there were sometimes many, many ballots of delegates before the Republican and Democratic candidates were chosen.

Obviously, there is no way that the Republican convention will be like that, but it is possible that the Democratic Convention could be very interesting this time, particularly since the Democrats have what they call Super Delegates. These power brokers are not committed to any candidate, which can make for an interesting convention.

Now add in the Ralph Nader Green Party candidacy, a situation that many Democrats believe cost Al Gore the election last time, and we could be in for some great convention watching.

And it's been a long time since I watched either convention, because they have been very boring to me for years. Just like some folks enjoy a stock car race more if there are lots of wrecks, I think I will enjoy the Democratic Convention more if there is some drama in the candidate selection process. Talk about Reality TV!!!

Hmmm.... Looks Like I'm a Conservative Republican

I still remember when I registered to vote. Back then, you had to be 21 to vote, and at that time you had to pay a poll tax. In Alabama, you also had to pass a quick test to be sure you could read English proficiently. I don't know if that was the case outside the South or not. I do remember that getting rid of those requirements was one of the goals of the Civil Rights Movement. Being white, I never knew if it was true that "Colored" people were given much harder materials to try to read than "White" people, but that is what protesters claimed at the time. As I remembered, the poll tax was just a couple of dollars, so I never did understand what the big fuss was about that.

As far as I can remember, I have voted in every local, state, and national election since then. I consider it my duty as an American to exercise this right, and believe in the old adage that you can't complain about politics unless you vote.

Now that the caucuses are over, and the candidates are starting to advertise on TV in Alabama for the upcoming Primaries, I thought it might be interesting to take one of these online quizzes that are supposed to tell you which candidates match a person's views on a variety of issues. As all such quizzes go, there were some questions where I didn't like any of the answer choices, but all in all this one was very thought provoking. And the results were interesting and useful to me personally.

Does that mean I'm going to vote for the candidate who matched my views? Not necessarily, but I think it does give me an idea of which candidates I should pay the closest attention to.

So, here's the results of my quiz:


80% John McCain
75% Mitt Romney
74% Mike Huckabee
65% Fred Thompson
61% Tom Tancredo
59% Bill Richardson
58% Hillary Clinton
58% Rudy Giuliani
57% John Edwards
57% Barack Obama
51% Chris Dodd
48% Ron Paul
44% Joe Biden
40% Mike Gravel
32% Dennis Kucinich

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz