Received in my email:
What if things were switched around? Think about it. Would the country’s collective point of view be different? Could racism be the culprit? In the following, all the “what-ifs” are true for the other side.
- What if the Obamas had paraded 5 children across the stage, following the debate, including a 3 month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
- What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
- What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his college graduating class?
- What if McCain had only married once, but Obama was a divorcee?
- What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married to a wife who had become disfigured in a car accident?
- What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
- What if Michelle Obama’s family had made their money from beer distribution?
- What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
- What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators censured for corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
- What if Obama couldn’t read from a teleprompter?
- What if Obama was the one with military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing 5 planes? (To be fair, only 3 of the 5 crashes appear to be John’s fault; all occured while flying too low. The rocket mishap on his aircraft carrier could not have been prevented by McCain. And it is uncertain whether his lack of flying skill led to McCain’s being shot down in Viet Nam, once again while flying too low.)
- What if Obama was the one who was known to publicly display a serious anger management problem?
You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected a reality, if the tables were turned, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are? This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative characteristics in another when there is a color difference. Do you really want an impulsive self-professed ‘maverick’ in the White House who would access to ‘the button?’
And, think of this – the candidates’ educational backgrounds:
Barack Obama:
- Columbia University – B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations
- Harvard – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
Joseph Biden:
- University of Delaware – B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science
- Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)
John McCain:
- United States Naval Academy – Class rank: 894 of 899
Sarah Palin:
- Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester
- North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study
- University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism
- Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester
- University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in Journalism
Education isn’t everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world.