One reason (among many) that I voted for Obama in my primary is because he's black. So? Many women I know (white like me) say that they voted for Clinton because she is a woman. And the vast majority of these women unabashedly admit that the question of whether or not she'd make the best President wasn't even on their radar screens - she's a woman - I want a woman to be President - end of discussion.

Obama's "blackness" is important to this election and for important, substantive reasons. First, we have some major fence-mending to do across the globe. Electing a woman President may be a big deal in the U.S. but around the world Clinton's election would be met with a big yawn. They've been there, done that. There have been and continue to be women leaders in many countries around the world. BUT Obama's election - WOW that would have a very positive impact on how the world sees us. This is not just common sense. I live in a D.C. suburb with a very diverse, international community. I have talked to people from places such as France, Argentina, and Ghana. They all tell me how thrilled they and their friends and family at home are by the prospect of an Obama presidency. People want to believe in the promise of America - this gives them hope that it is real. Second, in the early sixties when I was about 4 or 5 my family lived in Kentucky. My parents were very active in the local civil rights movement. Bad things happened (thankfully nothing that caused lasting damage) - they broke all the windows in our house when we were out of town, harassing phone calls, stalking the house - stuff like that. I remember one day my parents told me and my siblings that we were going to go to an amusement park with some other families. We met these families outside the amusement park - a mix of black families and white families. I do not remember anything from the day other than having fun - segregation, non-violent protest, integration, racism, etc. were words I had heard but I was too young to fully grasp their meaning. Of course, now I do. Obama's election would send a powerful message to all those who fought, to all those who fought and died in the struggle for civil rights and to the nation: you no longer have to simply believe that we shall overcome -- we have overcome!!

Anonymouse wrote: "Cecil beanie, you've chosen to answer your final question yourself but I hate to tell you that you're wrong."

Indeed I did but you clearly misunderstood both that question and the previous one, please re-read:

"In short, are there voters who will vote for Clinton, McCain or Obama for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with each candidates ability to effectively lead this country? Of course. Is this something completely new, something we have never ever seen in any election in this country before? Of course not."

I'll try to clarify - the 2 points I was trying to make are as follows:

1.) In this election voters will vote for a candidate for reasons that have nothing to do with ability to effectively lead country.

2.) The phenomenon described in #1 is not new - there have always been such voters.

So, I was not actually talking about something new (i.e., a woman and a black man running for President) but about something old (i.e., voters voting for inconsequential reasons).

I do not remember referring to a "previous woman candidate for the Presidency" but since you ask: how about Shirley Chisholm? (She was also black.) And it was ever so exciting when feminists rallied around her and she won the Democratic nomination. She would have been elected too if it hadn't been for dirty Dick and his nasty tricks. Oh, wait...that didn't happen did it? Oops, my bad.

And just WTF does this mean Anonymous 7:45 am?!! "Jesse Jackson, an African-American in the true and accepted sense of the word, ran for the Presidency so that's not new." Just what is the "true and accepted sense of the word "African-American"???