No. 2: Obama elected
History made with first black president
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Then-Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, at a rally in Des Moines on Oct. 31. File Photo: Jon Lemons/Iowa State Daily
For Nate Bond, Nov. 4 proved to be one of the most exhausting and exhilarating days of the semester.
It is no coincidence that Bond’s exhaustion and hard work coincided with one of year’s most historical events — the election of the first black president in the history of the United States.
“I was on my feet from seven in the morning, until about four in the afternoon,” said Bond, sophomore in environmental science–Liberal Arts and Sciences, describing his grueling day. “It was nice to see the culmination of all our hard work coming to reality.”
Bond is the treasurer for Students for Barack Obama and spent Election Day on campus with other members of the organization, reminding students to vote. The organization even spent time going door to door throughout the Ames community offering to give Obama supporters rides to nearby polling locations.
Bond believes this event is one of the most important moments for his generation. He feels this election is a positive step forward for this country getting closer to “not caring about race.”
“Maybe our generation will eventually look past race … and judge politicians more on their merits,” he said.
Paul Lasley, professor and chair of sociology – agriculture and life sciences, agrees with Bond in the historic nature of the election.
“What it says is that people are more willing to accept diversity in leadership,” Lasley said. “Maybe 30 to 50 years of national attention on acceptance of diversity … is maybe finally taking root.”
The election brought in record numbers of voters, according to most American news sources and garnered international attention.
In addition, Lasley said the Obama campaign generated a high amount of enthusiasm among college students, as well within the nation as a whole.
He said Obama’s policies regarding student financial aid was a a contributing factor to the enthusiasm of students for Obama’s campaign.
Anthony Maly, sophomore in political science, also noticed the positive energy on campus surrounding Obama’s campaign.
“The election got a lot of people fired up,” he said. He hopes in the future, since the election coverage was so pervasive, that students will take a deeper interest in politics and participate in local elections.
In a previous interview with the Daily, Tunde Adeleke, professor of liberal arts and sciences administration, said the United States has not only gained a great amount of attention within the country, but also attention overseas. Because of the United States’ racist reputation abroad, “the election of a black man will go a long way in beginning to really change the image of this country,” he said.
Maly agrees.
“This election means so much to our generation,” Maly said. “It shows the world how the U.S. can be more accepting and look at things from a different perspective.”
Staff comments:
"It’s not like racism has disappeared, because it hasn’t. But on Nov. 4, enough people put aside their prejudices to do something great for this country, and that gives me hope."
— Nia Balvanz, copy chief
"I was surprised Americans were able to throw away their ignorance and pre-conceived notions that a black man wouldn’t be able to lead our country just as well as a white man. If you look at the list, this event is the only positive thing that happened."
— Kim Norvell, news editor
Comments
Is it a victory over racism if you pick a president largely because of his race? This article does not list any attribute of Obama except his race. Doesn't that sound a wee bit ... racist? If this were a true victory over racism, shouldn't Obama's race be the least of his attraction, just like you would pick a doctor or mechanic or accountant for reasons other than race? Like, say, competence?
The Left has had a lot of fun calling Bush Hitler and Republicans Nazis, yet Obama chose to affiliate with a terrorist who wanted to overturn the government in a revolution, then send most of its citizens to reeducation camps and exterminate 25 million of them who rejected political correctness. Does that vision of a Nazi-like Holocaust bother any of you at all? Anyone? Anyone? Evidently, it didn't bother Obama. Should that be cause for worry?
"Obama chose to affiliate with a terrorist who wanted to overturn the government in a revolution, then send most of its citizens to reeducation camps and exterminate 25 million of them who rejected political correctness."
Obama is also clearly an alien from another planet sword to enslave humans. He will reveal our fate during on January 20th.
. . . that's what I get for trying to type while laughing so hard.
www.nytimes.com/...
Yes steve, racism is dead. Jackson and Sharpton have retired. And at that press conference in Illinois yesterday, that former black panther Cong. Rush NEVER said "you have to appoint a black man, bizzo, 'cause there ain't no brothas in da hood, er, the Senate now, word to yo mutha."
or whatever the hell he said. i lost interest when a corrupt democrat governor from illinois (as opposed to a corrupt republican governor from illinois) stands up and claims he is fulfilling his Constitutional duty to appoint someone to the Senate. And the bozo never told us how much he got for it!
i love this story! There isn't a democrat in Illinois clean enough to go after the governor and start impeachment proceedings because they know Blago will shine the light of corruption on ALL the democrats and get some republicans as well, and the president-elect doesn't want this coming out because then we will find out how dirty he is to succeed in such a cess pool of political dealings.
Craig's opinion for 2009-Blago won't make it to trial. he will die in a "car accident" since "suicide" is not convincing for a sociopath/egomaniac like Blago. Then, no trial, no light of corruption shone on the Illinois democrats.
What a lame rebuttal, Harry. Here is the FBI mole in Ayer's Weathermen terror cell telling exactly how Ayers planned a Nazi-like extermination campaign for America:
YouTube - Larry Grathwohl on Ayers' plan for American re-ed...
Laugh that one off, Harry. You're on the side of lefty maniacs like Ayers, actually covering for his insanely murderous plans.
What I find amusing is that even after the election you are parotting the right-wing talking points. What I find amusing is that you continue to apply guilt-by-association smears even after they've been dismissed by the majority of Americans.
I'm sure everyone you are/were "affiliated" with is perfect? I'm sure you've never even been in a room with anyone who's done anything remotely untoward. I'm positive that none of your political heroes have never even shaken a hand with a person of questionable character.
Harry, what's so interesting in your response is that you do everything to evade addressing Bill Ayer's plans to imprison millions of Americans and exterminate millions more. What an apologist you are for this murdering worm, just because he is pals with Obama.
While my friends have their flaws, none of them has killed a cop with a terrorist bomb. None of them have planted bombs to terrorize their neighbors. And none of them has turned to me and suggested we throw all the Democrats into reeducation camps and kill the ones who won't toe the party line.
The difference between us on this is vast, Harry. You think that wanting to perpetrate a holocaust against Republicans is a slight imperfection in character. I see it as evil. Your defense of this murdering nutbag demonstrates how far the Left has fallen in its values, how alien those values are to America.
Steve, let me be very very clear: I don't give a damn about Bill Ayers and I don't know why you do either. Obama is acquainted with him just like he is acquainted with a lot of people (just like Bush is associated with Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay and was associated with Ken Lay and like his father is associated with the bin Laden family, etc., etc.). Bill Ayers is NOT the issue.
The issue is that you are attempting to smear Obama because his has an association with someone you don't like. Obama's connections to Bill Ayers are insignificant to everyone but the right-wing lunatic fringe. Move on.
"What an apologist you are for this murdering worm"
He's never murdered anyone and I'm not apologizing for him. I don't care about him. You are obsessed by him.
"Your defense of this murdering nutbag demonstrates . . ."
Your complete lack of truth demonstrates why you have no credibility at all when attempting to analyze critical issues. You are willfully ignorant of the truth.
Steve, let it go for your own health. harry and his ilk will defend nutbags like ayers and even the corrupt Bill Richardson in an effort to paint democrats as pure and any attempt to smear them is purely a "vast right wing conspiracy". Mrs. clinton and her husband's associations should not be questioned because "their intentions are good"-the liberal mantra. Republicans intend to kill the old and starve poor little schoolchildren while democrats only want to make everybody equally happy by spreading the wealth around (but actually making everybody equally miserable, except for the "more equal than the rest" pigs in the democrat leadership) and if there's not quite enough wealth to go around, just kill the unborn, but don't kill terrorists and the incarcerated!
Obama is corrupt just as his good buddy HotRod Blagojevic is. Just like all the other democrats who steer contracts towards their spouse's businesses, demand you allow unfair union votes but won't allow their restaurants and motels to unionize by the SEIU (right nancy pelosi?) Just liek Obama's buddy Billy Richardson is accused of.
Seriously, how can obama be tied to such characters as Rev Wright, Blagojevic, Bill Ayers, Father Phlager, Louis Farakhan, and recieve illegal campaign contributions from Gaza and NOT be corrupt. Oh, wait, Bill Clinton was associated with dozens of bad men and HE was pure and true according to democrats.
Best quote ever, Bill Clinton while standing in the Oval Office at the "Power Lunch" of living Presidents and President -elect Obama,
"I just love that rug"
What I find amusing (though somewhat disappointing) is that a decent-sized segment of this country is still tied up in these types of smears when what they should be doing is looking inside their own party and figuring out why they lost and how to realign with what the country needs and wants. I would love to have a Republican party that actually challenges the Democrat philosophy and engages in a meaningful discourse to move the country forward. Instead many Republicans engage in these smear wars and try to paint their loss as the result of irrational and corrupt Democrats.