Specifically the Muslim thing. It's amazing that people can be condemning him for the extreme Christian church he attended and calling him a Muslim simultaneously. I mean, what, do they think he went to Wright's services for 16 years as a cover?

It just annoys me. Fact is I feel bad for anyone who becomes president (or prime minister, for that matter), because even with the best will in the world, all they get on entering office is the last term's problems, the last 50 years' civil service employees, and minus 10,000 years worth of sophistication in the blessed electorate. And it's nothing anyone can blame anyone else for. No-one has the right to be stupid, it's just a question of whether you can be arsed to pull yourself up or to just languish in barely-potty-trained ignorance, and a frustrating amount of people don't.

You have touched on what I am most worried about if Obama is elected. Sure, I have heard the assassination predictions, but I think the more probably outcome will be that since Obama will not be able to make everything magically perfect again he will be blamed for the mess itself both during his presidency and historically. The GOP is expert at twisting the truth to a point, I'm afraid, that Bush will be exempt, and many people in this country are eager to listen to it.
Not that I'm brushing the assassination predictions aside, you understand. I just think that extremes are not the only things we/he/I/whomever should prepare for.
Excuse me, I need more whiskey.

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You must live on land and I must live at sea.

I'm worried about this also. Lord knows Clinton got off scott free when he left Bush with a bunch of problems. Granted, Bush fucked it up way more than he needed to...*sigh*

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"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."

"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing."

"I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy. "

-from the goddess that is Anaïs Nin

I'm guessing most world leaders get assassination attempts of some kind, most of which probably don't get as far as the guy actually bleeding out of his tits from bullet sex. I'd be surprised if there aren't a few more security issues because he's a nigra. This isn't because there's anything right about that, but simply because, again, our countries are full of racist nutcakes who would totally do it.

But yeah, basically he'll inherit a heap of shit, and if he's really lucky he'll just go down in history as having two difficult terms. If he's really unlucky, he'll be totally forgotten as anything other than the first black president, because any work he does towards fixing the mess won't take effect until someone else takes over and gets all the credit.

We have a situation here where it's likely that the next leader will get the glory for our current lot's pretty-good-considering management of a shitty financial situation that couldn't been a total disaster. It annoys me (because I'm about the only person in the country who actually LIKES Gordon Brown), but it's how these things go down sometimes. Blair got half the credit for Major's work, Carter got shafted in a similar way.

The electorate doesn't have the patience for anything other than crappy soundbites, and for some reason they don't mix with good politics, even though they should be entirely separate from it.

I was talking to my fiance' about this assassination stuff and he thinks security is just much better than it use to be. He said that otherwise Bush would have been dead already because so many people hate him. And he wasn't joking as in, ha ha everyone hates Bush. He's serious, with this war and the desperation in this country, some nutcases have probably tried it a few times already.

__________________
"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."

"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing."

"I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy. "

-from the goddess that is Anaïs Nin

fen

congrats on the engagement! send me registration details.

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When I awoke, the Dire Wolf
Six hundred pounds of sin
Was grinning at my window
All I said was "Come on in".
Grateful Dead

haha! Thanks. There is no registration. We've lived together for over 4 years, not much need for stuff. People will likely give us cash though. October '08 woo hoo!!

__________________
"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."

"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing."

"I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy. "

-from the goddess that is Anaïs Nin

Some guy did attempt an assassination on Bush. I think there was something wrong with the gun or something or like he completely missed so much that they didn't even realize it was an assassination attempt until after.

I think Dick Cheney is the reason why Bush hasn't been assassinated.

Yeah, but the vast majority of people are very lazy. A lot of presidential assassinations attempts have nothing to do with politics ("Jodie Foster told me to do it", remember?).

And it doesn't take everyone to hate the guy. What it takes is for ONE person to hate the guy enough to kill him. Unless the average presidential assassin is agonising about "OK, I want to do this, but WILL IT MAKE ME POPULAR?". A fair few popular leaders have been assassinated (Bhutto and Kennedy off the bat) which would seem to suggest otherwise.

It is Ramadan, thus Obama is going to be fasting. Will it affect his presidential bid?

He's prolly eating a pork sammich.

I love how some news corporations can't mention him without emphasising his middle name (Hussein)...

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uhhh... when was the last time you voted? is your location supposed to be louisiana or something bc i haven't seen an e-voting machine since the governor debacle of 2003.

I think the main problem Obama is going to face if he gets in is that his message has been so CHANGE obsessed and whipped the nation into a frenzy of YES WE CAN, that when he realises the limits of what can and can't be done he'll be screwed. This will be compounded with the economic shit going down. Even if he does make some substantial improvements, I can't imagine it being enough to match the ideals people now seem to have of him... which is the problem with being some seen as some kind of messianic figure.

Ah, so Europe doesn't have a hardcore bible population. That's awesome. I live in America. I know it's crazy, but I've never met anyone that thinks the Bible should be printed in 1600s English as God intended.

Oh. A sect?

Well then. I know a sect that wants to kill all "fags". Clearly that must be a representation of the country. Let's toss them into the mix. I think we have some nazis and shit too. Like the European ones. Yeah, America is full of people that are wastes of air/space.

Much like the rest of the world, bigot.

Fun fact: the word "sector" is not the word "sect".

Call me a bigot all you like. I never said that I was judging all Americans by one group of nutjobs. I will happily admit that I'm judging them on loads of such groups, whose combined membership can't account for much less than a quarter of the population. Either or.

It doesn't matter though. So what if only a few of you are religious nutcases or excessive bleeding hearts? The rest of you can still be stupid.

Most of England is stupid. The difference is, we're not convinced that the next election is going to change our nation in any way.

Bleh, I don't think he's not already aware of the limitations of being President. Besides, McCain and company are now co-oping the change theme so both of them will have this problem.

Actually, after seeing McCain's speech last night I'm beginning to think it should be McCain/Obama '08. I got this strange feeling that all his pandering to the right was bullshit just to get in office (well duh), but more that he'd take revenge out on the Republican party. The guy holds some serious grudges. And he holds them FOR YEARS. I think in the back of his head he still remembers how he was treated in 2000. I don't even think he likes those religious right nuts. He wants to get in and go bat shit on all those fucks that screwed him over. Hell, he'll bring in a bunch of Dems into his Administration...hell he'd bring in Clinton and Obama just to make the GOP shit their pants lol.

__________________
"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."

"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing."

"I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy. "

-from the goddess that is Anaïs Nin

Stop watching tv -- or whatever media is feeding you this fantastic idea you seem to have latched onto as something that requires your attention.

Normal people in America don't expect a change in our nation due to a stupid presidential election. Seriously.

Just the small percentage of political junkies that every four years declare the most important election "of our lifetime" is upon us.

You're simply caught up in this stream of bullshit. Very few people here believe anything is going to change for any real value. What you are talking about here has nothing to do with an accurate representation of the general American public. Nor does some oddball club in Kansas, that wants the Bible printed in 1600's style, represent anything beyond a negligible value and/or a talking point that people like you exploit.

You're just another antagonist in the game of social gossip.