Now, before i say anything,I am not racist against him.I am part black myself.The only reason why Obama is president is he is black.If it were a white person with the same beliefs,they would not be president today.
I'd say that white people were intimidated, not on purpose, but in a way frightend of voting AGAINST him, because, at the time, if you said one thing about Obama, everyone jokingly called you a rascist.
why would people be intimidated by the voting of others? noone can see and tell who you voted for. so if people did vote on someone because they were afraid of being called racist, then these are the stupidiest people ever.
First of all, Donpiet, there's a little social factor called peer pressure. People, whether unconciously or not, do conform to that pressure even slightly, it might make a girl second guess her choice of salad with meat on it, and just go with the salad, even if it's the pretense of i'm trying to lose weight, why would she want to lose weight? To look atractive, which is a social pressure. It's not just for teenagers as most people would think. And if you look, I never said he got elected by default, I said
Obama got over 80% of the African Americans who voted.
and
if you said one thing about Obama, everyone jokingly called you a rascist.
. I'm pretty sure that would make some people second guess their vote, what if they thought, "Well, everyone is calling me a racist since I am against Obama, so what if I actually am? *Then procedes to vote for Obama because we do not like to believe bad of ourselves* I'm not saying that Obama got a free win either, i'm just saying that yes, since he is an African American, that changed the vote, and not for the worse.
if people did vote on someone because they were afraid of being called racist, then these are the stupidiest people ever.
and the peer pressure surley didnt occure in every enviroment. so yes they might be some people who changed there political view because someone might call them racist but i would disagree that it was a statisticaly relevant number. if you can prove it was, then i am sorry for the us
Heh, you may have a point in the AMOUNT of influence that would create, but I don't think you can argue that it wouldn't change SOMEONES vote, therefore, it would be a factor, no matter how small. As according to the people who want you to vote, every vote counts. (False unless it's the deciding vote but whatever.)
ut I don't think you can argue that it wouldn't change SOMEONES vote, therefore, it would be a factor, no matter how small.
well in order to call any phenomenom a factor, it should have a minimal size, so you would consider it important. 2 people changing their mind, for exactly the reason you said would not be considered a factor. it could as well be a random vote. typical factors are classicly: party sympathy promises vice in this election race
i wouldnt consider peer pressure as a factor, as long as there is no proof or founded suspicion(saying everyone i know did this does not count) that peer pressure did make people change minds on the vote in a significant number, this cannot be a factor.
but I don't think you can argue that it wouldn't change SOMEONES vote,
no i will not argue the fact of changing Someones(>1person) mind. since there is a chance of this happening, the chance of at least one person acting that way could and probably happend.
i but i will argue the fact, that people did change their minds systematically because of the fear of being called racist.
if someone really wanted to vote for mccain, where would be the difficulty in voting for him and not telling anyone?
Well, I don't know of any sites that would give me information like this, so let me put it this way. Out of all the people in America, out of all of those who vote, (education isn't required to vote) and out of all of the stupid people here, (which is a lot) I (personally) would think that at least 1000 people, (which is less than go to my school) would vote because of that, AT LEAST. I feel like I just downplayed it but to me it seems ineveitable that it would happen. As for minimal requirements to be a factor, a factor is defined by any any influence on a given thing. By definition, a factor could be there was less food because 50 ants stole a chocholate chip cookie, even if a cookie is not highly nutritious and a small amount of food, it is a change. Someone else needs to post on this besides Donpiet and I.
factor is defined by any any influence on a given thing.
yes if you want to define a factor in such a narrow and specific way, than i agree. but the question is, the people who votet for obama out of peer pressure where certainly not regular republican voters or mccain symphatisants. they belonged probably to the huge group of undecided people. so there were probably many other influences besides the pressure to chose obama or not.
i do not see peer pressure as a factor by itself, but more as a thing, that could in coexistence with other factors change someones mind
Just to chime in here...I don't feel like participating in this discussion because its fallen somewhere else already and I don't have time
But...
The question about keeping us waiting? Obama made promises, but he's not a supernatural, supreme, omniscient being. He's a human, who's part of the hardest job in the world, and he hasn't passed the yearly mark of his inauguration -- And you ask why keep us waiting? WTF He's supposed to be Pres for 4 Years not 200 Days -- If you expect the Pres to pull out everything he did his best to offer that fast your just a fail thinker.
But as to whether he'll keep the promises or not is an entirely different thing.
To the first post -- I personally think that part of it was because he was black, but that was not the only reason. He did NOT beat Hillary Clinton by a landslide, he beat her marginally. Obama had great features to him, the sense of a "newbie with promise" (he was part of the Senate for two years). There was more to it than his race, but he appealed to many, along with Whites. JohnMcCain sounded like Bush's lil' trooper. Bush's lil' trooper sounds like he's going to Bomb every country in the middle east.
I was exaggerating, read the entire post. Nibbling off on a little part means nothing if you can't read an entire paragraph. I used the exaggeration to show how I felt about the useless War that Bush started and McCain promised to continue along, even though we, in a fiscal crisis, need the money more than the peace of Iraq does.
