Barack Obama wins U.S. Presidency!
Illinois Senator Barack Obama has been elected the 44th President of the United States of America handily defeating Arizona Senator John McCain. In this historic event, it turns the page in another chapter of Black history. Having only been declared eligible to vote in 1964, this is a historic moment resonating throughout the African Diaspora. While there is jubilation and hope, many challenges are ahead. These challenges were seen during the campaign when hate-filled rhetoric and hyperbole dominated segments of the campaign.
Despite much of the negativity, Obama ran a well-oiled campaign and raised an unprecedented amount of campaign money fueled by an online engine that included YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and countless blogs. What is interesting is that the campaign run by the Obama team resembled a chess game that was efficient, focused and powerful. The Senator from Illinois presented himself as a steady tactician and master strategist during the 21-month campaign. In one of the televised debates, Senator McCain reasoned that Obama didn’t know the difference between strategy and tactics. He was clearly wrong.
It is no surprise that Obama has supported chess initiatives and recently mentioned the success of the Harlem Children’s Zone. He may be the first President who may have spoken openly about the merits of chess. If this is any indication of the support chess will receive by the Obama administration, then the United States Chess Federation needs to leverage this support into tangible programs to promote chess and education.
Senator Barack Obama on the Harlem Children’s Zone
Hail to our new Chief! Please everyone let us remember him in our prayers of protection and guidance. He has quite a job ahead of him.
Regards,
Larry
Now he has to make sure Iran also gets the nuclear weapon like Israel and USA itself.He has to stop Israel expanding insifde the legal country of Palestine and withdraw troops from Iran and Afghanistan and stop preaching a fake terror war and that will be real change.
Obama’s election is a wonderful day for America and indeed the entire world. I have long been a supporter of his (in his successful run for the U.S. Senate, and now the presidency). I have also been a zealous opponent of the current president, who is undoubtedly the worst president in history. For over a year and a half, I wrote a blog called BeatBushBlog. It’s still at https://home.earthlink.net/~fsrhine/ but, having failed to beat Bush, I stopped posting in April 2005.
This campaign has really opened my eyes to the issue of white privilege. There’s a great essay on that subject at https://www.opednews.com/articles/This-is-Your-Nation-on-Whi-by-Tim-Wise-080916-307.html It blows my mind that the same people who thought Dubya was perfectly qualified to be president, and think Sarah Palin is too, think Obama is not. Indeed, the Republicans even managed to turn Obama’s considerable plusses into minuses. Obama never talked about being a graduate of Columbia University, and President of the Harvard Law Review no less, because that would have fed into the “elitist” meme. (Bush being a C student, McCain being in the bottom 1% of his college class, and Palin taking six years to get a bachelor’s degree apparently show how “un-elitist” they are.) McCain transformed the fact that Obama is loved by millions of people around the world into him being a “celebrity” like Paris and Britney; apparently the president is supposed to be hated around the world, as Bush is. And then McCain, having attacked Obama for his “celebrity” and inexperience, selected Palin as his running mate, an ex-beauty queen so vacuous that she reportedly thought Africa was a country, not a continent – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezh2SNwPcKc . And I guarantee you that if Michelle Obama, rather than Cindy McCain, had become a drug addict and stolen drugs from the charity she ran (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_McCain#Prescription_drug_addiction ) , you would heard of that a thousand times and people would have been demanding to know why she wasn’t in jail. The double standard is amazing.
More like 46%, but yes, it is a mystery to me how they got that much. As you know, I’m a white guy, and I am puzzled by what reason, other than race, would motivate someone to vote for McCain-Palin over Obama-Biden. As best I can figure it out, part of it is overt racism (my mother-in-law, for instance), part latent racism (people who think they’re not racist, but unconsciously set the bar at very different places for whites and blacks), part single-issue voters (McCain and Palin love the unborn!; Obama doesn’t!), and part of it is people who live in a Faux News alternate universe where they are fed (and unquestioningly swallow) bizarre reasons that they must vote against the Democratic candidate and for the Republican candidate (Bill Ayers! Reverend Wright! ACORN!).
I suppose one could also, taking the “glass half full” perspective, argue that the election results show that most people are not racist. I haven’t seen the final numbers (and even those are fallible, since some people lie to pollsters and say they voted for the winning candidate even if they didn’t), but projections before the election were that Obama was going to get a larger percentage of the white vote than any Democratic candidate since Carter in 1976. I think, though, that given how (deservedly) wildly unpopular Bush is (a record-low 20% approval rating in one recent poll), and how closely McCain is tied to Bush, that had race not been a factor, Obama would have won a popular vote blowout (over 60%). I also think that some of the McCain-Palin attacks on Obama were thinly veiled racism (he’s scary; he’s different from us; he pals around with terrorists; we don’t really know who he is) that one wouldn’t have seen directed at a white candidate. Thankfully, a majority of the electorate saw through that sleazy nonsense
It is true, though, that the Republicans have been so successful at demonizing Democrats that in many states a majority of the people will vote for almost any Republican presidential candidate over almost any Democratic candidate, irrespective of race. See Thomas Frank’s book What’s the Matter with Kansas?
Congratulations people of color…you just broke through the glass ceiling!
As chess players, we have many role models that have clearly demonstrated to us that there are no legitimate excuses before the Goddess Caissa and the truth of the 64 squares….now the rest of the world can toss their excuses for not living to their fullest potential aside and BE!
My tears today are for those stalwarts who did not live to see the fullest fruits of their labors….
Where can I find info on Baracks chess game. I heard he was an avid chess player and getting more involvement amoung the youth with chess in Chicago. Anyone know anymore info?
jscott5
jscott5,
This is an angle I have been actively researching. I will certainly report here first as soon as I find out further details.
Frank
The election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America is indeed a major milestone on the issue of race. Let’s be clear, there is no more powerful position in the world than US President, and a black man will soon have that position. That’s why my 83 year old African American mother, and her 89 year old sister were all but incoherent with emotion when the networks started calling the Obama victory at 11PM eastern.
Of course his victory does not mean that racially discriminatory behavior is now extinct in the US. It does mean, however, that it has been conclusively demonstrated that it is possible for an individual of any background, to map a path to any goal in this nation… and achieve that goal.
Daaim this Barack this Barrack that is a wait and see game. Do we have a thread on Kamsky – Topalov?I would welcome that
Here is the real deal on America–
“Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.” – Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001