Tonight I'm Proud To Be An American

[ulf]

Congratulations from Germany to all people in the States!
And for next president: Stanley Clarke.
That is my favorite
;-)   
Everything is possible....

[keavin]

Power To The People .........is what this election was all about & the People Won this one!

[georgie_boy]

Not before time Keavin!
Let's all try and make this world a better place!
If he gets it wrong,   then send him over here to the UK to try and sort out the mess here.
 
Wish I was an American.
 
George

[lbpesq]

Flax:
 
You wrote: i wished i was black today so i could feel exactly what these people are feeling today= i rejoice in our success as a democratic society.
 
This got me thinking ... when (if ever) will we get a Jewish president!  (oy vey!)
 
Bill, tgo

[hydrargyrum]

Are you Jewish Bill?  My wife, and consequently my son, are both Jewish.  (I ask just out of curiosity, I'm not trying to throw religion into a political thread on a forum where both are banned).  I guess we had a shot at a Jewish VP with Lieberman, but we all know how that ended.

[kungfusheriff]

Politics aside, as the father of two children of mixed race, it was an incredible feeling to stand in the voting booth with my son next to me and my daughter in my arms and vote for a presidential candidate who was like us. That's all I have to say about it.

[dannobasso]

I'm sure Rev, Wright,  Farrakhan and Rashid Kallidhi will suggest a candidate for that position to the President Elect in the event the VP elect is vacated from his post if Liberman is not available.

[flaxattack]

bill
a jewish president? if i see that before i die it would mean more than the rangers winning the stanley cup in 94! lol
 
i am not a lieberman fan even though hes the sen from my state..
 
i believe that it was said that mccain wanted lieberman as his vp but was voted down by the republican hierarchy because he was initially a democrat who moved to independent because he lost the primary here. so to show them he picked sarah palin.. brilliant move
 
thats like pulling mike mussina from the mound and bringing in hidecki irabu!!!!!!!!!

[benson_murrensun]

We may have already had a Jewish President: Franklin Roosevelt. His mother was of Jewish ancestry, and by Jewish law, the son of a Jewish mother is Jewish as well. FWIW.

[pas]

Flax,
 
1) No, I didn't work for McCain.  I respect his military service but disagree substantially with him regarding many political issues.  
 
2) ...you don't want to pay your fair share of taxes.  Listen, Obama is like any other politician - he talks out of BOTH sides of his mouth.  On the one hand he says that your taxes will go up only if you make in excess of $250K/year.  On the other hand he says he'll let the capital gains tax cuts expire, in effect at least doubling the rate from 15% to 30%.  50% of Americans...those with IRAs, 401Ks, mutual funds, etc. will be subject to this increase, no matter what bracket they're in.  And no, I don't feel one scintilla of guilt for not wanting to be extorted by the federal government to subsidize the 50% of the population that pays ZERO income tax, while pumping out kids they can't pay for.  But then, I guess that's a fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals.  Conservatives believe that children are wards of their parents.  Liberals believe that children are wards of the state.  I'll choose my own charities, thank you very much.
 
I certainly would have been more than happy to vote for a black man for president...unfortunately neither J.C. Watts nor Ward Connerly were running.  Those folks that cast their ballot for Obama based primarily on his race...without either knowing or caring about his potential policy positions...are, by definition racist.
 
But then, I guess I'm one of the few people left who actually remembers what MLK Jr.'s dream was...to be judged by the content of one's character, not by the color of one's skin.

[phylo]

I think the smart money is on the bet that Palin was picked for him not by him.  In other news, she actually stated that '2012 seems like years away.' Paraphrased.  
 
Did anyone else catch the clip of McCain explaining that because Palin's husband finished a snowmobile race with a broken arm that 'he has
what it takes to take on Washington,' and then by some associative property (one left out of my Algebra 1 class) that so does she.  Anyway, that was one of my favorite moments of her 15 mins.

[hydrargyrum]

Without entering a heated discussion, let me just say I would rather sacrifice some of my hard earned income, than to know that a child goes hungry or without medication.  If you are willing to allow innocents to suffer because of the mistakes of their parents, well, then we just have a fundamental disagreement that I expect we cannot resolve.  As for their parents?  Well, that's a bit more complicated.  There are any number of scenarios I can conceive of where decent hardworking people might be down on their luck, that don't require them to be lazy.  Do people cheat the system? Sure.  My uncle was a worthless meth addict who did his fair share of that.  Should we throw the baby out with the bathwater(heh heh), or should we work to improve the system?  
 
And as for voting for someone because of the color of their skin, you can bet just as many people (like my grandparents, for instance) voted against him for that very reason.  To assume that everyone who voted for Obama did so because of his race alone is in my opinion an irrational conclusion which sounds like the right is making excuses for McCain's loss.

[pas]

I neither stated nor implied that everyone who voted for Obama did so because of his race.  I addressed those who voted for Obama based PRIMARILY on his race.  Not sure if your mischaracterization is intentional or inadvertant.
 
So if your grandparents voted against Obama on the basis of his race, then that makes their rationale equally contemptable.  But I don't think two wrongs make a right.

[lbpesq]

Kevin:
 
Am I Jewish?  Do I answer questions with a question?  Did I go into my father's business?  Does my mother think I'm God?  To quote Sara Palin: You betcha.  
 
Not only am I proud to be an American, I'm also proud to be a member of this family.  Though this thread has taken some turns I didn't intend, and has come close to driving off the cliff a couple of times, we have managed to keep things fairly on track in a mutually respectful and civil manner.  
 
Paul:
 
You wrote: I don't feel one scintilla of guilt for not wanting to be extorted by the federal government to subsidize the 50% of the population that pays ZERO income tax  Do big corporations and multi-millionaires really make up 50% of our population?  WOW!  
 
The above was a joke.  I couldn't resist.
 
Seriously though, I suggest to you that the election is over and this really isn't the place to try and keep the campaign alive.  Regardless of political affiliation, the election of anyone other than a Caucasion Protestant male is a big deal in this Country.  I am just old enough to remember what a big deal it was that JFK, a Catholic, could get elected.  If Condi Rice had run and won, I would have been immensely disappointed in her politics, but I still would have been proud that a woman of color could run and win.  I didn't like Hillary, but I was proud that she was able to be a serious candidate.  The more colors, shapes, types, and sizes of people that have a chance, and the more people that come out to vote, the better for all of us in the long run.
 
Bill, tgo

[3rd_ray]

Big corporations and multi-millionaires don't make up 50% of the population, but I'll bet they provide around 50% of the jobs. They can also do something that most of us can't... they can move to where the taxes are lower, and they can take those jobs with them.  
 
BTW, and I'm sure people are going to love this one... Exxon Mobil paid $11.3 billion in income taxes this past quarter. They'll be paying over $40 billion in income taxes for the year. So we're going to call them greedy while we grab as much as we can from them? Count me out.
 
Mike