Is America 'ready' for a coke snorting, drunken loser, idiot president?

[Philosoraptor]

This question in response to the 'is America ready for a black/female/atheist or whatever president' questions the press keeps proposing.

After two terms with the most unqualified human disaster on Earth why should the nation question if we're 'ready' for a female or black or whatever president?

bush has rendered all such ridiculous questions MOOT.

[11 Bravo]

1. Apparently so.

[spanone]

2. not only apparently, but for two fucking terms.

[tridim]

3. But Bush is such a folksy, normal guy..

I mean, can't every "normal guy" overturn a jury verdict of a man who is protecting you from crimes of treason? Can't every "normal guy" start a war based on lies?

If I was forced to have a beer with this man I'd definitely pour it over his head and tell him to go to hell.

[Berry Cool]

4. I LOVE this question.

I'm SO sick of this dithering over whether or not we are "ready" for a woman president or a black president. What is this, 1850? What do we have to do in order to "be ready"? If we are not "ready" now, when on earth and how are we going to BE "ready"? What has to happen first?

Also, is there some kind of condition on the Presidency that someone can be elected President only after each and every person in the country is psychologically "ready" to have that person's sex and race occupy the position?

Does anyone really think that it's all going to boil down to a gut decision in a voting booth, in which the American voter says "No...I thought I could do it, but in the end, I JUST CAN'T VOTE for a woman" or "I JUST CAN'T VOTE for a black guy"? And why?

Personally, I was NOT ready for a coke snorting, drunken loser, idiot president. But that hardly mattered in the end, did it? I got one anyway--ready or not!

[LibDemAlways]

5. It really isn't an issue of whether the US is "ready" for a

President of a particular gender or race. It's whether each individual voter is willing to vote in a gender-blind or race-blind manner.

I know a married couple - both white attorneys who vote D - who moved rather than send their children to school with Hispanic children. They fought having a Boys and Girls Club come to our area because they thought it would "attract the wrong element." I have relatives who call black people derogatory names without a second thought. I once had a friend, who is married to a Hispanic guy, feel the need to apologize to me because there were so many black people in the restaurant she chose for lunch. Would any of these people put their prejudices aside and vote for Obama? Would someone like my husband, who speaks harshly of "uppity female" managers at work, vote for Hillary? Doubtful.

Only when Americans are willing to view a candidate first as an individual rather than as a woman, black person, etc., will America be "ready" to elect someone who isn't a white male.

[Berry Cool]

9. But that's exactly why it frustrates me so.

This is the twenty-first century. Are people really so mired in racial and sexual prejudice that they are not "ready" to vote for a person based on that person's stance on policy rather than on that person's race or sex?

To me, Dems who are afraid of sending their kids to school with Hispanic children, who are afraid a Boys & Girls Club will "attract the wrong element," etc., are not as highly evolved in their racial attitudes as they may think they are.

I also wonder: How many people are there out there who REALLY use derogatory names for blacks? Who believe females in positions of power are "uppity"?

I don't know. Maybe I'm just being ignorant or not seeing what I don't want to see. I just find it hard to believe that in this century, that many Americans would have an attitude of "But I can't vote for a black man, it's out of the question" or "But I can't vote for a woman, that's out of the question."

With all apologies to the GEICO cavemen, maybe there really are more Neanderthals left in America than I ever imagined.

[LibDemAlways]

11. I don't think very many people would

publically admit that voting for a black man or a woman would be out of the question. But privately, in the voting booth, those prejudices will surface.

As for the racial and anti-female stereotypes and slurs, they're everywhere, dishearteningly so.

[Jade Fox]

6. Harping on the "is America ready for" questions just shows how...

provincial we really are here in the U.S.

I love this smack-down answer to the "Is America ready for a woman President" blather:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elayne-boosler/is-america-ready-for-a-w_b_40300.html

[JohnnyLib2]

7. But, but ---- he found De Lawd!

and a helluva lot of foolish votes.

:sarcasm:

[Madspirit]

8. Valid Question

We do have to deal with the issue. It sucks to the max. It's still a reality. I, being a radical leftist lesbian, of course, would have no problem voting for just about anyone if they held my values. (...and neither Hillary nor Obama hold my values, though I will vote for either of them if one of them becomes our nominee.) The question is, would a majority of Americans be able to look past their bigotries, especially deeply ingrained, held since childhood bigotries. I mean I even see people here UNWILLING to own and confront their own biases and we're progressive. In a country as backasswards as ours, I am not sure a woman or a black could be elected. I hope to hell I am wrong.

People do change. I remember my daddy saying that women should stay the hell out of politics and then a few years later he turned around and voted for Ann Richards, both times she ran. He also had been a Republican but then suddenly voted for Clinton both times. He said he couldn't vote for Bush because he couldn't vote for stupid people. So a declaration..."Women should stay out of politics, blah blah blah..." was mainly bravado. When it got down to it, he voted for Ann because she was smart and funny and wise and wonderful and a great leader and the "woman" part ended up making no difference to him.

One of our own members, a more conservative member, I grant you but still a Democrat, just said in a post that her own son would not vote for Hillary because SHE'S A WOMAN.

We have to deal with racism and sexism because it exists.
Lee

[johnaries]

10. NO! Look at what he did to America!

And remember, he actually lost to Gore and there are a lot of unanswered questions about 2004.

[AndyTiedye]

12. NO. That is Why They Had to STEAL THE LAST 2 ELECTIONS!

Gore got more votes in 2000. Bush** "won" by stealing Florida.
He "won" in 2004 by stealing Ohio and Florida (and possibly New Mexico) and a whole lot of votes elsewhere.

[Cha]

13. Chris Rock said that America

was ready for a "retarded president(sic)" when asked if America was ready for a "Black President"..

I used his line yesterday at work when some obviously fauxnoise zombie said John Edwards was a "fake" cause he was a "lawyer". My friend and I were talking about who was going to get the nomination and he butted in. We both said.."John Edwards is NOT a fake!" Then I said "America was ready for a retarded president(sic" and that kinda broke the party up..nobody said a word after that.

I know it's not PC and it's not fair to the ones who are but that's the way it happened.

[Philosoraptor]

14. ................

[Rydz777]

15. No, America is not ready for anyone less than an experienced,

principled,forward-thinking statesman. America is ready for Al Gore.