Why Senator Barack Obama of Illinois won this presidential race in 2008 can be explained from the following reasons: coalition of minority voters, mostly blacks and Hispanics (they did not come on board until after the Iowa caucus when they realized it might be possible that a black could be elected after all and Hispanics came on board after perception that Republicans did not care for them nor share their values); new voters who were disillusioned in the past (one was 96 years old) from voting because it was all the same every 4 years, and who believed this time in the message of “hope” and change”); educated white voters in the suburbs (big surprise because the “race” issue or the “Bradley” effect which did not play a role at all; the youth vote which not only came out for Obama but volunteered to go to neighboring states to work in his campaign).
Catholic votes came at 47% versus the 25% of white evangelical Protestants who also supported Obama in spite of the malicious dire warnings by the Christian Right about the dreadful consequences in voting for the “Muslim,” the “hater of Jews and Israel,” (focusing on his middle name of “Hussein”), the next “Holocaust” and the “Devil Incarnate” himself. They lost their credibility, because instead of preaching tolerance and acceptance because of his race, they preached hatred and lies about him and made allegations to push their followers to violence. One way to separate them from the rest of the country is quite easy—their part of the country, e.g. rural, low-income, xenophobic, cowboy patriotism, limited education, high unemployment, fundamentalist religion, intolerant, racist, first victims of economic slowdown, among others.
Two Filipino-American leaders who were attacked by their GOP “kababayans” were Perry Diaz of California and Rawlein Soberano of Washington because they are Republicans, but they crossed the political line sooner than Colin Powell, Scott McClellan, Ken Duberstein, Matthew Dowd, Peggy Noonan, George Will, Kathleen Parker, Chris Buckley and many others did. Obama’s victory was a real landslide at 349 electoral votes to 162 for John McCain, and the counting is not over yet. His victory is also an indictment of the kind of education provided by the Catholic schools in the Philippines. Some of these McCain supporters came from solid Democratic background but went to support McCain and worked hard to defeat Obama. They could not stomach the thought of voting for a black man (or a “nognog” as they spat his name with contempt). They brought to this country the backward and negative politics from home where an opponent is labeled an “enemy,” where there is no room to disagree among educated people who hold on to different points of view. Had they continued their education in this country, maybe their case would not have been appalling.
The Republican Party in the past has minimized the impact of minority voters and the youth vote which were unreliable for not show up on Election Day. If they just mobilize their base, they could always neutralize the increased registration from these two groups. They hoped to see the same in 2008. But it was different this time around. Early voting was a major change that spread out the number of days and weekends people could go out to vote. Some people were so energized to vote that many were at their assigned voting places before they opened for business. The vote count is still ongoing but Obama is already ahead in popular votes by over 4 million. Obama was far ahead in electoral votes (which elect the American president). Only 270 are needed to be declared the winner. The election returns gave him a landslide which was determined as of 11:02 P.M. West Coast time on Nov. 4. When Bush won in 2000, it took a month for the Supreme Court to declare him the winner. In 2004, it took a day for Bush to be declared the winner. The GOP big cheating elected him in 2000 and 2004.
Why did Senator John McCain of Arizona lose? He lost because of his erratic messages (he had one every day or two); his personal attack ads which focused on Obama instead of the issues, e.g., palling with terrorists (William Ayers) to question his character and judgment; he doesn’t look and act like one of us (a subtle racist reference used by his attack dog Sarah Palin who loved to feed red meat of hatred to their conservative base), raising questions on his patriotism because he did wear the American flag in the lapel of his suit, and his attendance at the church of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Other actions that destroyed his candidacy involved the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, obstinate determination to stay in Iraq indefinitely, his age (72 years old), bailout/economic crisis/suspend the campaign, money (was overspent by Obama), jumping from issue to issue to find one to stick to Obama, annoying robo-calls a week before Election Day.
Obama’s overwhelming victory, both in popular and electoral votes, is a victory for the American people as the president-elect himself announced at Grant Park in Chicago the night after the polls closed. But it is also a victory for the world which has waited this long to see again the America they remembered, loved and respected and not the bully they saw and detested, which had the audacity to admonish them “either your are with us, or you are against us.” They are glad to see a new day in the world, to see an America that is rejuvenated and reinvigorated after eight years of abuse by and lies of the Bush administration.
RGS/AABR (11-05-08)
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