Saturday, January 26, 2008

Analysis: Was the South Carolina Democratic primary a setback for race relations in the U.S.?

An interesting question to consider as you read the chapter on Civil Rights and as Friday marks the beginning of Black History Month.

Unrelated bonus questions:
Who will win in Florida in the GOP primary Tuesday?
What will the outcome mean for Sen. McCain or Mitt Romney?
Will you watch the Republican debate on Wednesday or the Democratic debate on Thursday?
Do you have enough popcorn ready to watch the Super Duper Tuesday returns on February 5?

Also: Take a look at the Nevada Caucus information below.

15 comments:

joannaz said...

The Florida primary, I believe, will probably be won by McCain. I think the Republicans might be beginning to see that McCain is the most viable candidate and most likely to win against Clinton or Obama in a national election. In a presidential race that seems to be favoring Democratic turnout, Republicans may be slowly favoring candidates like McCain (choosing to ignore his stance on immigration and McCain-Feingold).
Romney will be a very close second and Giuliani a trailing third (even though he has done basically all his campaigning in Florida).

KellyH said...

I believe that the South Carolina Democratic primary may have originally appeared to be a setback for race relations in the U.S.; but, after it was all said and done, I believe there actually could have been an improvement. Issues of race in the campaign were brought to the surface instead of staying under the rug. Also, as Obama pointed out in his victory speech, he had a very diverse group of voters behind him. That's an improvement in my mind, that people are voting not for a person simply because they are of the same race, or for the candidate who in the past has been known to be the person to vote for if you're black, white, latino, etc. People are voting for good reasons and not just associations, and the race issue was talked about continually during the primary, so I believe it was a step forward for race relations.

Vlad said...

Was the South Carolina Dem. Primary a setback for race relations in the U.S.? No. If Clinton didn't go after Obama in the polls, and if the other Clinton didn't attack Obama so much, maybe Obama wouldn't have won by so much. I was more surprised that Edwards lost by so much in his home state and the only state he won in '04.

Who will win in Florida in the GOP primary Tuesday? - John McCain. I can't believe I said he had no chance of getting this far when we had to blog about McCain in the summer.

What will the outcome mean for Sen. McCain or Mitt Romney?
McCain will be pleased, Romney will not, Giuliani will be sad.

Will you watch the Republican debate on Wednesday or the Democratic debate on Thursday? If little to no homework and no advanced-level tests, then yes to both.

Do you have enough popcorn ready to watch the Super Duper Tuesday returns on February 5? I don't like popcorn.

By the way, it's great that MHS has at least one teacher who mentions Black History Month.

aly mac said...

I really don't think that the South Carolina Democratic primary was a setback for race relations in the U.S. Obama proved that he could win in Iowa based on the issues he stood for and not for his race. South Carolina is really just another win for him. Obama also showed very strongly in New Hampshire. The Clinton attacks in SC were really just staged to try to bring out this reaction and it may have actually hurt them more then helped. In the next few weeks a large number of states will have primaries and I believe that race will not be a major factor in deciding the next democratic candidate for presidency.
-I believe that John McCain has the momentum in the election and will most likely win the GOP nomination in Florida. This will all but end Giuliani’s run for president. I believe that Mitt Romney will not win in Florida, but will stay a competitive candidate going into Super Tuesday in February.
-I'm really going to try to watch both, but it really depends on how much homework I get. Otherwise, I know for sure the results will be on the board. If I do get to watch it, I don't think I'll make popcorn. Every time I make it I usually burn it so bad our house smells like smoke for weeks. I'll probably end up eating something else.

amandak said...

I think the SC primary was a setback for race relations, but I don't think it should be a surprise to anybody that race is becoming an issue in this election. Obviously there are black people who would vote for Obama solely based on his race, just as there are women who would vote for Hillary solely based on her sex. Also, as Alyssa said, Obama has proven that he has a diverse group supporting him based on his strong showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, which are predominantly white.

Unknown said...

Was the South Carolina Dem. Primary a setback for race relations in the U.S.?I don't think so.

Who will win in Florida in the GOP primary Tuesday? - I'm thinking John McCain.

What will the outcome mean for Sen. McCain or Mitt Romney?
I'm thinking McCain is going to be really happy. Romney will probably cry.

Will you watch the Republican debate on Wednesday or the Democratic debate on Thursday? As long as the Republican debate doesn't interfere with American Idol on Wednesday, yes. ha. I will most likely watch the Democratic debate on Thursday.

Do you have enough popcorn ready to watch the Super Duper Tuesday returns on February 5? I probably should stock up. Maybe I'll invite Alyssa over so she doesn't burn her house down. The popcorn button on my microwave is pretty reliable :-)

Mr. Bretzmann said...

I'm pretty sure the "popcorn comment" was meant to be rhetorical, but I've enjoyed reading all the fun popcorn commentary anyway! I know a guy who can bring garbage bags full if you're interested! :)

Johnny B said...

Was the South Carolina Dem. Primary a setback for race relations in the U.S.?
I don't believe so, but it's hard for me to give a real analysis because I just don't feel I know enough of whats happening right now.

Who will win in Florida in the GOP primary Tuesday?
I believe that John McCain is kind of riding a wave of momentum right now. I believe that he will win.

What will the outcome mean for Sen. McCain or Mitt Romney?
I believe if McCain wins it will only boost him even more and if Romney loses Florida then it's not going to look very good for his future.

Will you watch the Republican debate on Wednesday or the Democratic debate on Thursday?
I probably will now that I'm finally settled into my new house. I'll at least watch the Democratic debate to watch Clinton and Obama talk back and forth.

Do you have enough popcorn ready to watch the Super Duper Tuesday returns on February 5?
Rhetorical or not, I'm stocked up. And by any chance would that man be Mr. Simpson? Because when I was in AFS freshman year he had tons of popcorn at the end of the night that he was just handing out popcorn to me.

ericag said...

i know that Mr. Bullis sure can get a lot of popcorn.... we had many discussions on the popcorn topic last year in english.

Movie theater popcorn too....

Mr. Bretzmann said...

If you like TV:
Monday: State of the Union Address
Tuesday: GOP FL Primary results
Wednesday: GOP Debate
Thursday: Dem. Debate
Friday: TBA
Saturday: Ground Hog Press Conference

So much for the Writers' Strike.

Jake_H said...

Hello and greetings from Florida. After asking some people, mostly all senior citizens, many do not think that Giuliani will win. Almost all agree that he will take third behind McCain and Romney. Surprisingly unless I brought up the subject of candidates most people do not mention them; they seem more worried about a new state wide tax act that is getting the media hype. As for the dems, not much is mentioned. I have heard statements such as: "Clinton and Obama don't care about us down here." This seems almost true because I have heard very little about them on local TV. The registered independents are aggravated due to Florida's closed primary. This means that they cannot vote for any of the candidates. We will see how things turn out here on Tuesday, I will be going to one of the local precincts to see if I can get any handouts. I hope everything is well in Wisconsin. I will see you on Wednesday!

CarolineB said...

I would like it noted that I, too, work at the Budget and can get garbage bags full of popcorn. Movie theater popcorn.

Mr. Bretzmann said...

So noted.

Can you get big bags of Raisinets too? I really like those.

BrookeS said...

I wasn't sure if we were going to discuss this in class tomorrow, so I wanted to post to get feedback from others. About President Bush's seventh and final State of the Union address.....

I thought, overall, the speech was one of his finest, (and I've been pretty consistent with watching the addresses over the past few years.) I believed the speech elaborated on all of the key issues with a reasonable amount of detail per each. Although the speech did sound a bit too optimistic, I believe it did a fine job in covering each key point and making promising efforts to solve each problematic agenda out nation faces. Just a few State of the Union fast-facts (cause I might not want to get us too off topic tomorrow.....)

*The first State of the Union address was given by George Washington in 1790
*The first State of the Union address televised in primetime was given by President Lyndon B. Johnson

[In case you missed it...]
~50% of the speech focused on domestic affairs; 50%, foreign affairs
~Issues covered included the economy, (which included the housing market,) Healthcare, education, trade market, environmental issues, scientific/medical advances, justice in our nation, immigration, Afghanistan, Iraq (took up approximately 15-20 minutes,) homeland security, worldly issues, and a personalized address to Military forces and their family members

*Feel free to respond! Any questions, ask me [I have notes]


P.S: Sorry I couldn't find anywhere better to put this!

Mr. Bretzmann said...

I'm glad I wasn't the only one watching. Your commentary is interesting. I find it interesting that you said it was optimistic. That might be an understatement. I think one of the CNN commentators was spot-on when he said that the president knows that he's not going to get any of the domestic proposals passed in an election year (with the possible exception of the stimulus package). So it is an optimistic laundry list of IDEAS. (Oops ... good thing I didn't mention that Ronald Reagan had ideas.)