Archives: Great Debate

I was going through my archives the other day and I came upon this dandy. It shows that I have a nose for the hot topics. I originally posted this on November 7, 2006. Check it out.

The Great Debate
I saw a special the other night on Illinois senator, Barack Obama and the main focus of the special was his possible campaign for President. Of course this got me thinking about the prospect of a having a black man in the white house, check that, a black man LIVING in the white house. (I’ll spare you all the black man working in the white house joke to avoid any uncomfortable chuckling, you know how when you laugh at a joke and then you feel ashamed).

Right away I had images of the only two black presidents I could think of in recent history. There was President Palmer on the t.v. show, “24” who served two terms, BUT during each term there was some terrorist plot that threatened the security of our great nation, and who ultimately was assassinated AFTER he was out of office no less (talk about holding on to grudges) and then there was President ummm……President uhh…… President Morgan Freeman in the movie Deep Impact. Yeah, the movie that ended with a giant asteroid hitting the earth and destroying the world as we know it.

Scary huh?

So with these visions of how life would be with a black President in office, what mature adult with any common sense is going to vote for such a catastrophe?

But that’s not the point here. As usual, the topic came up over lunch at the office. I was sitting at a table with a white female, black male and black female and someone brought up the same special about Obama. So the conversation turned to the likelihood or lack thereof of him winning a presidential election and the black male insisted that it’d never happen. “Hell no” he said “not with all the institutionalized racism in this country”.

Oooh boy.

The black woman disagreed and even went as far to say that it’d happen before we’d ever elect a woman into office. And thus the great debate began. Who was right, who was wrong, which –ism had the strongest grip on our society, racism or sexism? Who are we more afraid of, Barack or Hillary?

Hmmmm……….

In 2006/almost 7, it’s a damn shame I think, that this question still holds any relevance at all. But guess what…..it does. If you think about all the “first black” to do this or the “first woman” to do that, they all happened a while ago. Granted, there are still some “firsts” to be accomplished but none as seemingly far fetched or out of reach as the Presidential Office. My question is, after our most recent Head Honcho, how could anybody justify excluding any potential candidates based on anything OTHER than a strong intellect, common sense, honesty, and or the ability to form complete sentences.

I would like to think that competency would supersede such 1863-ish attitudes but guess what…..

It doesn’t.

Being the cynic that I am, I would have to agree with everyone at the table today that yes it is “possible” to have a black President or a female President, but it’s also possible for me to win the mega millions tomorrow and run off to Hawaii never to be seen again. Is it likely…..uh, no.
But there is an answer to the problem. I’ll give you a second to ponder it before I give you the answer.

(Jeopardy music)

I got one word for you ladies and gents…………..

Oprah!

There it is. Her majesty herself. The Big “O”. Her loyal followers are so deep that I’m sure if each one of them convinced their husbands to vote for her too, she’d win in a landslide (was that sexist? Sorry honey). We vote O-Dub into the Oval office and we instantly wipe out this whole debate. Not only that but through the Angel network she’d end famine in third world countries, cure AIDS here and abroad and bring peace to the Middle East. If Oprah can’t do it, nobody can.

For real.

Cp