The Democratic RACE and South Carolina

I'm sitting here watching the broadcast of the South Carolina results and i'm really irritated. They've spent about the entire first hour talking about race and who all the white people and African Americans voted for and gender and how those votes went. I want CNN to shut up and stop talking about race and gender, I might be interested in looking at the data once or twice but I really don't care, and i don't think it's that big a deal.

I might just be too young to care. I'm 25 which puts me right at the beginning of the the generation called "millennials", the generation following gen X. Supposedly one of the qualities that help define our generation is that we're "color blind" or "multi-cultural". You know, I'll make jokes and stuff but there has never for a moment been an ounce of me that has thought that race or gender is going to matter in how I cast MY vote or what I think. (Bill Clinton just bombed on some jokes...) It irritates the hell out of me that the media likes to play up that Obama is a Black candidate and Hilary is a woman.

I'm NOT saying racism is not an issue in the US. I'm NOT saying that there's no gender gap. There IS, but what does that have to do with who you vote for, and this election. You do defeat racism by voting for someone because he's Black, you defeat racism when it is no longer an issue. If Obama gets elected it WILL be historic because he's the first. But in no way is it the same thing as what Jackie Robinson did for baseball, or Jesse Owen did competing in the Olympics. In my head it's not that he's Black and elected president, being Black is just another characteristic of who he is, like his height, or weight or something. I really don't care and the media is trying too hard to push a topic that no one cares about. At least for people my age that's for sure, Facebook survey shows that facebook users are roughly 80% for Obama and i gurantee you it's not because he's Black and not because Hilary is a woman.

If anything age and wealth should be bigger issues that should be talked about. how these groups vote on some of the biggest issues should indicate how these age groups view certain issues. Think... a bad economy, taxes, jobs, health care are all influential to all age groups but in different ways. The 18-29 group would probably be thinking about getting a job, starting their 401k, and just taking a look at what health care is and what the costs are... your 50+ group will have a different need in all these areas. Who the age groups and wealth groups vote for is a way bigger deal than race. So CNN needs to stop spending so much time talking about race.

-end rant-

Informal Poll time:
(I'll update these as i receive answers posted as comments on this blog, or on facebook wall or private mail. Maybe my rant is way off.)


Question 1.
Yes or No
Does race matter to YOU at all when voting for a President?

Question 2.
Yes or No
Does Gender matter to YOU at all when voting for President?

Question 3.
pick 1
If they could stop all this talk about race, which of these topics would you rather hear the candidates talk about?

1) The increase in the under 21 suicide rate, the corrections necessary on a national level to prevent another columbine or Virginia Tech, and what you specifically will change to prevent these happening again.

2) Bush's handling of Katrina, what you as president feel that your role is in a natural disaster like Katrina, how to repair the aging infrastructure of the US, in that moment, and the first day after Katrina what should the president do?

3) The rise in the necessity of having a dual income family, your take on the reality of this, and the direction you want the country to take when it comes to an issue like this and how to control/fix/promote this depending on what you think.

4) The us political system and the addition of a 3rd party, or a revamping of how people are elected.

5) US veterans and how they're taken care of when they come back.

again, email or post or something and let me know how you feel.

The SC debate

I've had a few thoughts after the debates:

1) Obama looked unsteady, the guy stutters a lot and seems unprepared sometimes. A majority of the time when he was getting attacked by Hilary he seemed uncomfortable. This tells me though that he is definitely NOT the status quo and Hilary is. It bothers me that he took the bait and started swinging back but he's definitely not comfortable with this form of politics. If that is a good thing or not still remains to be seen.

2) Hilary seems nasty. I feel that they were selling a nicer image for her A LOT since Iowa. I mean i keep hearing that when you're alone with her she's the fun person to be around but after watching last night I don't know if I'd want to go have a beer with her. The image just doesn't fit because her campaign is so hard nose politics while she's trying to sell this everybody's friend image. I am inclined to believe that her advisors have sold her on a campaign this style while she probably IS a cool fun person to hang out with.

3) Edwards should definitely be offended no one took shots at him. Hilary and Obama took shots at each other because they view each other as threats. Edwards... They mostly just ignored him although he did take some shots at Obama. I feel like he has a tendency to jump on another candidate if someone else is firing away.

4) In three months no one is going to remember what was said when Hilary and Obama were going at it. All that will remain is the fact that they got in a big mudslinging contest and were both trying to use catch phrases to make the other look bad. I think this will make Obama look worse because he's suppose to be above politics like this. Hilary on the other hand probably doesn't get her image ruined if they continue on like this.

5) I feel like it was moderated horribly... seriously... keep those guys under control.