I’m either so depressed that nothing matters to me, still burnt out from the election from hell, or am looking past “pigmentation problems” that I am not getting excited over the color of our new president’s skin.  I would feel differently if it were a gay man or lesbian being elected.  Certainly I will admit that.  I don’t think it is as personal for me because I have not experienced the same sort of struggles that black people have and do.  Why is it as personal for a white political commentator on TV as it is for the survivors of the civil rights movements of the 60s and 70s?  Should it be?  We all have been putting on these masks to make us look less racist which in fact make us more so.

Yesterday I pulled out and watched the seminal movie, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”.  While many people may find this movie terrible today, it was really groundbreaking for its treatment of black/white married couples.  Many of the principles in the movie I see to this day.  The most important message is that skin color shouldn’t matter and doesn’t make people different.  I had this instilled in me once I moved out of small town America.  To the residents of a lot of these isolated areas, this election means much more.  It’s embarrassing that we celebrate our racist history on this momentous occasion.

I am not trying to minimize the importance of the U.S. as a whole seeing past the color of one’s skin today.  We are making history in an awkward way.  For hundreds of years these prejudices have been at the base of the culture of Americans.  Finally, we are starting to break them down.  We have a hell of a long way to go and I hope that it happens fast.

Let us celebrate our rehabilitation today.  Let us celebrate change from the last eight oppressive years.  Let us celebrate our overcoming of racial barriers and stereotypes.  Let us celebrate social liberation.  Let us celebrate our bright futures.  Let us celebrate a man who will influence positive change. Let us celebrate diversity.  Let us celebrate a first in America.  Let us hope for more.

Thank God or any deity or lack of deity in which you do or do not believe that George W. Bush is out of power.

There is some bad news tonight.  Right at this moment, CNN is reporting that Arizona and Florida are banning gay marriage.  California at this point seems to be pointing towards upholding gay marriage, at least from the exit polls.  It looks close but San Francisco and Los Angeles County have not weighed in yet.  I surely hope that the people of the State of California had the decency to give us our rights, as limited as they may be.  Arkansas has apparently banned gay adoption.  Will Obama make this better?  I doubt it.  My heart of hearts believes that Joe Biden is our best advocate for that at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  We’ll see.

I also hope that Al Franken is elected as a Senator from Minnesota.  From what I’ve seen of him, he seems like he would be sympathetic to our cause.  That race is extremely close as I write this.

Was I a one issue voter this election?  No.  I didn’t like either “package.”  I could have voted for the old John McCain.  Unfortunately, he became John McMean during this election.  I didn’t like Obama either.  The Donny McClurkin incident and inability to give the LGBT community more than 10 minutes of his time since becoming the presumptive presidential nominee is disgusting.  He does NOT have enough experience and everyone running for president wants change.  I voted for Joe Biden, protection of the Supreme Court, and against the social issues plagueing Sarah Palin.  I don’t think either candidate can solve all of our problems.  We need someone with experience, balls, and “bipartisan talent.”

Let’s see how the numbers wrap up tomorrow morning and get ready to go!

Why did Pennsylvania all of a sudden become a battleground state?  I thought Florida and Ohio would cast the deciding votes again.  You see how good of a political strategist I’d make.  Of course, I’m a lifelong Democrat and live in a very important county for John McCain, Allegheny.  Pennsylvania has 67 counties, of which about 4 usually vote democratic, which is enough to carry the whole state.  You can count on Allegheny (Pittsburgh), Philadelphia, Delaware (Philly suburbs), and Dauphin (Harrisburg) Counties voting democrat.  This election we may see Erie, Beaver, Chester, Lehigh (Allentown), Cambria (suprise guess), and Lackawanna (Scranton) Counties heading in that direction also.  Pennsylvania was a big Hillary state and I know a lot of former Hillary Clinton supporters who will be throwing the towel in with Obama.

So, why so many phone calls?  I guess that John McCain believes that if he can get enough Hillary Democrats to vote for him (and his woman) instead of the black that he’ll take PA.  While we in Pennsylvania like our guns and the Pope, we have seen way too many people we know lose loved ones in the Iraq and Afganistan wars.  We have also seen our 401(k)s, 403(b)s, TSPs and Roth IRAs dwindle to nothing as of late mostly due to the failed politics of the last eight years.  We’re hurting.  We don’t want any more of this crap.  Now, I really doubt that an Obama-Biden-Pelosi-Reid administration can pull off miracles.  Let’s see.  We’re in a mess, let’s get out of it.  Things were much better here under Bill Clinton.  We haven’t forgotten that.

Today’s Presidential Masterdebation was the final straw.  Obama was an ass and McCain actually looked better.  That’s coming from a life-long Democrat.  Yes, both lied more than told the truth, but it’s all about image. Both of these guys are so far out of touch with “Joe 6 pack” that it ain’t funny.  At least Bill Clinton knew how to talk to ordinary folk because he was an ordinary guy with a hell of a mind.  He also had a libido, heaven forbid!  I’d rather watch Al Gore’s Keynote slide-show 5 consecutive times than watch these two try to follow debate rules.

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain are two fools who don’t belong running this country.  If you can’t directly answer a question, you should not be able to be the President of the United States.  This is a basic human leadership skill that BOTH are failing over and over again.  Feel free to disagree but I am frankly just tired and done with this system.  Also, some PLEASE disband the Commission on Presidential Debates.  Their system is flawed and the constrained debate format was a joke.  Tom Brokaw had little control and the questioners could not get straight-forward answers.  I do think Tom did the best job that he could in controlling the “debate.”

To back up my position, look up the word “entitlement” in the dictionary.  If I pay 7.65% of my salary towards Social Security and Medicare and my employer pays the same, how do you consider it an entitlement?  If you pay for something, you own it.  Are they saying that I am not entitled to my own money?  A legal alien can at any time withdraw their entire Social Security paid-in benefits.  A citizen cannot.  To me, the term “entitled” sounds like that because we are citizens we are “marked” to receive these benefits.  Can’t we use a term that says that we OWN our own slice because we paid for it?

Oh, by the way, the economy tanked this week and last.  What’s the solution from either one of these guys?  None.  I didn’t see one solid answer on the economy that had a snowball’s chance in hell of working.  4 trillion US dollars have been lost in the US stock markets in the last week.  Neither one of these men could say how to get us out of this situation.  It’s quite shameful.

I have one magical question for each candidate: “You said that you are against gay marriage with grants full civil and equal rights to gay and lesbian couples.  Why do you hate people in the LGBT community?”

McPalin or O’Biden?  You choose.

I just watched the vice presidential debate which was quite interesting.  There were no major mistakes by either one, but you can see that Senator Biden eclipsed Governor Palin.  It’s not a surprise, but she surpassed her expectations.  Eh, what do you want?  It was obvious that he likes the LGBT community and she is staunchly opposed to gays and lesbians.  Even through the haze of a bottle of white I could see that.

Unfortunately, I do think Biden is for gay marriage although support of it would be political suicide.  Gay marriage support is political suicide.  It’s not a popular topic, especially in this election, and is caustic for Democrats vying for the any top spot in a federal job.  Now, for Obama, he would NEVER sway towards the side of gay marriage.  Biden would, in my own humble opinion before you.  For me, it’s marriage or nothing.

I was glad that both sides were open and fairly honest.  It’s about time!  The last presidential debate was so wishy-washy that I couldn’t believe it.  Obama and McCain performed like Senators.  Biden performed like a knowledgeable, in-the-know guy.  Palin was person who memorized the Republican Platform.

Can I vote for Joe Biden?

• Hillary Clinton has (arguably) won the popular vote. (It’s damn near 50/50)
• The Senators have only 120 delegates separating them this minute out of about 2,100.  Is that difference statistically significant considering 34 million votes cast?
• Obama has crossed the line ONLY because of the uncommitted/super delegates.  That’s a smoke-filled back-room decision.
• The media ended the race months ago.
• The media ended the race before all of the votes were cast.
• The DNC messed up in Florida and Michigan.  I want to see Howard Dean, about 1/2 of the Rules Committee, and entire senior management of the party to resign.

Yes, I’m outraged.  At this point I need one thing.  Someone please tell me why I should vote for Barack Obama.  If you use the word change in your reason I will hang you by your toenails.  Guess what?  99% of presidential candidates are running for office because they want change.

Click the title of this post to go to the comments page and tell me why I need to vote for Obama.

The political pundits ended the election a long time ago.  What kind of democratic process do we have?  The answer is that we do not have much of one at all.  The mandate: reform the primary election process.  Caucuses are a thing of the past and there primary election cycle must be much shorter, if not one day.  With the availability if the Internet and TV, a one day primary should be absolutely possible.  

While not statistically very much different in their delegate counts, it looks like Obama is going to get the nomination.  I cannot and will not stand behind him at this point.  I will also not stand by John McCain now.  I will perform some due diligence and decide whether to vote for either.  It is very well possible that I will vote for neither.  I am tired of settling for a vote for President.  I had all faith in Hillary.  Damn.

These are real issues that people are afraid to address.  Let’s put it this way: put on your red sequin shows and pretend.  What if there was a gay white man running against a straight white man in the Democratic primaries (to make things “even”).  Would you as a gay male blindly vote for the gay male candidate?  Would you vote for him if you didn’t agree with him on an issue such as gay marriage?  Right now you would say, “Of course not!”  Well, think again.  How good would you feel voting for the first gay man.  I’d feel pretty good.  I felt great voting (again) for my woman Hillary.  It is somehow fulfilling to vote for someone so much like you.  I hated voting for John Kerry, but had to to combat Bush (how well did that work?).

Barack Obama is black so he gets the black vote.  How stupid does that make Americans look?  The world must be looking at us and laughing at our naivete that we don’t look at the issues before casting our votes.  Think about it!

I personally don’t believe that Obama is electable.  He does well with blacks and the well-to-do.  Hillary does wonderful with the elderly, non-black rural and suburban voters, and blue collar workers.  The blue collar, elderly, and gay voters that make up the “Hill-dawg’s” constituents are what I call real Americans.  I say “real Americans” because they are the ones that matter in early November.

 There are still violent racists in this country and it’s not time for him.  She’s got more experience and while polarizing, we are much more ready for a woman in the White House.  I’m your traditional moderate Democrat from a blue collar family in rural Pennsylvania that looks to her to solve my problems.  She will.  Unfortunately, I have major doubts as to whether she will be nominated by the DNC.  If that does not happen, I will help the community with its due diligence in choosing the more gay-friendly candidate.  I don’t know who that is yet.

Fine, call me racist.  Luckily I spent 6 years living in the New York metro area, thereby having to face my fears of people from various ethnic backgrounds and worked hard to purge those prejudices.  The news media looks at African-American populations while determining the electability of Obama.  How wrong is that?  How dumb does that make us ALL look?