I did not vote for McCain, I'll tell you that much. I live in New York and the only third party candidate on the ballot had Bob Barr on it. I voted down the lines for Working Families' Party. I am very liberal but I do not like Obama. I do not know why people think he is such a great speaker. It annoys me when I hear his groupies in the press and in my everyday life. I will never understand how or why people have latched onto such a vapid person and placed so much faith in him. They often point to his prescience on the Iraq war, but he has voted to extend it and all the breaches of civil liberties that came with it. I do not know how that goes with his wisdom and foresight with regard to Iraq. Who does not think that Obama would have voted for the attack on Iraq had he been in the Senate at the time? It would have been politically expedient to do it at the time and that is his motivation for everything he says and does.

I do not like Obama and I never did. In fact, I can't stand the man. I hope he falls on his face and gets knocked down a few pegs. I have enough money to weather the financial crisis, my job is secure, I own my property, I have no outstanding debts. I know that that sounds petty, but like Obama says, I won't apologize for my way of life. Obama does not even think that I am entitled to equal rights and paraded a homophobic "minister" who equates my relationship with pedophilia and bestiality before the nation today. I fully expect him to use gays as his whipping boy and bargaining chip, much like Bill Clinton did with blacks and gays. I do not support him or his administration.

I supported Sen. Clinton in the primaries. She, like Obama, says she only supports civil unions for gays, but I think that she has the political will to force gay rights through and probably would have had she been elected. I certainly never heard of Sen. Clinton rebuffing gays the way Obama did. I do not expect Obama to support my rights, I expect him to undermine him in any way he can. He is a cynical politician in this and other ways. So, that is how I voted.

I am not interested in reviving old disputes I got into with people here about how I do not feel Obama is black the same way I am black, that he manipulated black people and blackness, and that his victory is not a fulfillment of black liberation in this country because tomorrow, blacks will still be in dire straights and because he is not a descendant of west African slaves, how I think he has a messiah complex, and how I think he is in over his head. Whether anyone thinks it is wrong or right, that is how I feel. And, regardless of how I feel about him, he is the president now and there is no value in bickering over his heritage or my choice in the primary. Now, the issue is how he does and what he says.

I do not quite understand what you are talking about. I never said anything about First Lady Obama's hair and I think the idea that President Obama should "allow" her to wear her hair one way or another is ridiculous. She is a grown woman who can wear what she wants without his input.

I was not making a judgment on Obama's genes. My problem is with Obama being spoken of as being black in the tradition of black people like me whose ancestors worked as slaves on this soil. I find it problematic that he is lumped in with someone like me in that his is not a legacy of oppression on this land. It is different, he manipulated the media's ignorant assertion that just because we might look the same that he and I have the same heritage. He has manipulated blacks and the injustices we have suffered on this land. I have no problem with his mixed racial background per se. It has nothing to do with genes.

You can deliberately misunderstand if you want, but I refuse to debate the merits of my position because I am not going to bring anyone around to my way of thinking and no one is going to bring me around to his/her way of thinking. Some people understand where I am coming from, others think it is a horrible stance to take. He managed to pull off his scam, so my position on this is immaterial now.

If you have a problem with him not being Jewish, I would be interested in hearing why.