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With Hillary's big win over Obama in West Virginia today, that now will give her 3 contests she's won by more than 20 points, as compared to Obama's 21. And it still means she has absolutely no shot at winning the nomination. Obama has even surpassed her in super delegates now, and exactly one week from today he will clinch the nomination with a win in Oregon.
I have come across several depressing stories about race in America though over the last few days. To begin with is this AP video about voting in West Virginia, with quotes from a voter that "I guess because he is another race, I'm sorta scared of the other race because we've had so much conflict with them". And then a Washington Post article describing some of the racism that volunteers for the campaign have experienced, which includes stories like "One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: 'Hang that darky from a tree!'" (wow, just wow), a mayor in Pennslyvania accusing Obama of not pledging on the bible, another voter explaining she would not vote for him because "He's a half-breed and he's a Muslim. How can you trust that?", and it describes the story of multiple cars yelling out the n-word on a busy street in the middle of the day towards a group of black high school students holding Obama signs. What the hell is wrong with these people?
I guess I still forget that segregation was still legal and encouraged only a scant 40 years ago, and a lot of people grew up being taught the color of your skin had a direct link to your intelligence and what you should be allowed to do in life. Or that when Barack was born, his parents could have been arrested for having an interracial marriage in certain states.
But at the same time, I think it's amazing that for the first time we have both a black man and a woman running for the highest office in America and both were the leading contenders for that spot. And I have no doubt that there has been a lot of misogyny towards Hillary. Which while I have my many reasons for preferring Obama over Hillary, I really do hope to see a woman president in the near future (say 2016?), as it *IS* time that we break the idea that to have a chance at being president you must be an old white male. And I have to love that in spite of those crazy people in the links above, a black guy with a funny name, who grew up poor and politically unconnected, has a great shot at becoming the next President of the United States.
My car celebrated it's 2nd birthday on the 9th. So far I've ran into one other car with my front left bumper, a pile of rocks with my right rear bumper, a dent from someone's car door in my left rear wheel well, and lots of rock chips and small scratches, but it still is looking pretty good for having 33,000 miles on it. And I still plan on keeping it for a long long time.
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