Friday, February 23, 2007
Silly Reasons to Vote for a Candidate
By Aaron Morrison
He’s his own man. She’ll bring dignity to the office. He cares about children and families. His record on the issues is clear.
The aforementioned clichés to describe a political candidate’s character can be easily applied to the current batch of 2008 presidential election nomination hopefuls. But they are not.
Instead we know them as a white woman, a half African, half Caucasian man, an Italian ex-mayor of New York City and a really old guy who opposes a woman’s right to choose. Ladies and gentlemen, these are your front-runners.
And trailing behind them are a Mormon, a guy who referred to a black candidate as clean (but he meant to say ‘fresh’), and that other guy with an accent who’s gearing up for his third attempt at the White House.
All of this and more was recently the topic of discussion at SF State’s Political Science Student Association (PSSA) meeting, held Monday. About 12 meeting attendees, amongst them PSSA president Dell Brooks and College Republican president Leigh Wolf, sat around and trashed Barack Obama, that biracial guy, for his consideration as a viable candidate based solely on his appeal (or lack there of) to the African American community. Apparently Al Sharpton wasn’t black enough either.
They hung Hilary Clinton, that white woman, out to dry for being “too plugged in” to the political machine. She can’t help it. She’s married to a former president.
There wasn’t much said about Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, other than his show of courage as mayor after the Sept 11 attacks being duly noted. The man’s certainly got that heroic thing going for him.
And John McCain, that really old guy who despises the Roe v. Wade decision, was having a hard time even winning over the staunch Republicans in the room because of his stance on abortion.
The meeting attendees did not deny that this is indeed a unique group of politicians.
“We’ve never (seen) a group a group of candidates like this,” said PSSA treasure Sabrina Terry.
“It has to do with modern times. We’re not as closed-minded. We’re progressing as a nation.”
Well, Ms. Terry, it might be easy to agree with you if almost every respectable news outlet didn’t run stories about Obama’s racial background being an issue with black voters, as if his identifying with the black community is not enough.
Or about Giuliani being the first Italian-Catholic presidential hopeful. Whoop-tee doo!
Or about Clinton being the first woman front-runner. You go girl!
Or even about McCain being for a federal stop to abortion, and not for a constitutional ban to gay marriages. Has anyone told him that both those issues are equally viewed as forms of legislating morality?
It appears too hard for the media to think past such silly and irrelevant aspects of a candidate’s persona.
Is America afraid that Obama will serve greasy, heart attack inducing fried chicken and collard greens at his inaugural ball? At least that’s what they thought after Tiger Woods was the first black man to win the masters.
Will Giuliani bring the Italian mafia to the white house? Will they be able to film the lost episodes of the final season of HBO’s Sopranos from the oval office?
Will Clinton’s presence in the White House synchronize menstruation periods of all the female staff, making it harder for the male staff a few days every month?
Does McCain’s old ass have any business gunning for anti-abortion laws, when a more realistic issue for him would be senior citizen abuse in convalescent hospices?
Truth is, the media hasn’t provided very many relevant thinking points to make any of these candidates more than just horses in a race for multi-millions in campaign contributions.
A solution to this problem: shut down the presses on the election! We’ve got more than a year to go before the primaries. By then, we wouldn’t care if Obama was born to a Martian and a golden retriever, if Clinton was transgender, if Giuliani starred in the Godfather Part Four, or if McCain adopted black orphaned babies from Africa.
He’s his own man. She’ll bring dignity to the office. He cares about children and families. His record on the issues is clear.
The aforementioned clichés to describe a political candidate’s character can be easily applied to the current batch of 2008 presidential election nomination hopefuls. But they are not.
Instead we know them as a white woman, a half African, half Caucasian man, an Italian ex-mayor of New York City and a really old guy who opposes a woman’s right to choose. Ladies and gentlemen, these are your front-runners.
And trailing behind them are a Mormon, a guy who referred to a black candidate as clean (but he meant to say ‘fresh’), and that other guy with an accent who’s gearing up for his third attempt at the White House.
All of this and more was recently the topic of discussion at SF State’s Political Science Student Association (PSSA) meeting, held Monday. About 12 meeting attendees, amongst them PSSA president Dell Brooks and College Republican president Leigh Wolf, sat around and trashed Barack Obama, that biracial guy, for his consideration as a viable candidate based solely on his appeal (or lack there of) to the African American community. Apparently Al Sharpton wasn’t black enough either.
They hung Hilary Clinton, that white woman, out to dry for being “too plugged in” to the political machine. She can’t help it. She’s married to a former president.
There wasn’t much said about Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, other than his show of courage as mayor after the Sept 11 attacks being duly noted. The man’s certainly got that heroic thing going for him.
And John McCain, that really old guy who despises the Roe v. Wade decision, was having a hard time even winning over the staunch Republicans in the room because of his stance on abortion.
The meeting attendees did not deny that this is indeed a unique group of politicians.
“We’ve never (seen) a group a group of candidates like this,” said PSSA treasure Sabrina Terry.
“It has to do with modern times. We’re not as closed-minded. We’re progressing as a nation.”
Well, Ms. Terry, it might be easy to agree with you if almost every respectable news outlet didn’t run stories about Obama’s racial background being an issue with black voters, as if his identifying with the black community is not enough.
Or about Giuliani being the first Italian-Catholic presidential hopeful. Whoop-tee doo!
Or about Clinton being the first woman front-runner. You go girl!
Or even about McCain being for a federal stop to abortion, and not for a constitutional ban to gay marriages. Has anyone told him that both those issues are equally viewed as forms of legislating morality?
It appears too hard for the media to think past such silly and irrelevant aspects of a candidate’s persona.
Is America afraid that Obama will serve greasy, heart attack inducing fried chicken and collard greens at his inaugural ball? At least that’s what they thought after Tiger Woods was the first black man to win the masters.
Will Giuliani bring the Italian mafia to the white house? Will they be able to film the lost episodes of the final season of HBO’s Sopranos from the oval office?
Will Clinton’s presence in the White House synchronize menstruation periods of all the female staff, making it harder for the male staff a few days every month?
Does McCain’s old ass have any business gunning for anti-abortion laws, when a more realistic issue for him would be senior citizen abuse in convalescent hospices?
Truth is, the media hasn’t provided very many relevant thinking points to make any of these candidates more than just horses in a race for multi-millions in campaign contributions.
A solution to this problem: shut down the presses on the election! We’ve got more than a year to go before the primaries. By then, we wouldn’t care if Obama was born to a Martian and a golden retriever, if Clinton was transgender, if Giuliani starred in the Godfather Part Four, or if McCain adopted black orphaned babies from Africa.
