December 03, 2008
Alabamians have established definite trends in our voting patterns. We have made a clear delineation between national and local races. We prefer Republicans for national office and Democrats locally. The state races are somewhere in between.
It is apparent that we are a very red state when it comes to presidential politics. Since 1964 we have voted for the GOP candidate for president ten out of twelve times. We only deviated in 1968 for our native son and Governor George Wallace as a third party candidate and only once for a Democrat when Georgia neighbor Jimmy Carter won the state narrowly in 1976. We voted overwhelmingly for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and we have not looked back. We have voted for the Republican nominee eight straight times, including this November’s landslide vote for John McCain over Barack Obama.
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November 26, 2008
A good many of you were intrigued by last week’s column on Jim Martin, the father of the modern Republican Party in Alabama, especially young readers who were not around in 1962 when Martin made his famous race for the U.S. Senate against Lister Hill.
As mentioned last week, the entire South was Democratic, more out of tradition and protocol than philosophy. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties took the South for granted in national elections because we were automatically in the barn, although philosophically we were more aligned with the Republican Party and our members of Congress voted similarly to the Republicans.
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November 19, 2008
The year was 1962. John Kennedy was President. Camelot was in full bloom. Forgotten was the fact that Kennedy’s father Joseph, who had vowed to buy the Presidency for his son, had in fact done just that. In collusion with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, they had shifted just enough votes in Chicago wards to tilt the pivotal swing state of Illinois to Kennedy over Nixon. The entire election hinged on Illinois. It was days before the final count was in because Daley had to make sure he had enough votes before they counted Nixon out.
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November 12, 2008
Now that the dust has settled on the 2008 Election, let’s analyze the results. Barack Obama’s victory is being heralded as the awakening of the new America. The fact that an African American can be elected President of the United States is groundbreaking and historic. It shows that America has moved remarkably forward on the race issue.
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November 05, 2008
You have the luxury of knowing the outcome of the Presidential Election as you read this column. However, I am at a disadvantage in that I had to go to print prior to Tuesday’s election.
By any measure it has been a historical and watershed election. There was no incumbent president or vice president on the ballot for the first time in decades. In addition, this was the first presidential election without a Bush or Clinton on the ballot in 28 years.
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October 29, 2008
The Presidential Election is finally coming to a close. It has probably been an arduous and protracted process for many of you. However, for those of us who are political junkies, it is the most exciting day of the year. It is like the beginning of college football season, Christmas and 4th of July all wrapped up into one.
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October 22, 2008
Most historians agree that the greatest upset in American presidential political history occurred exactly 60 years ago this fall. Harry S. Truman’s 1948 come from behind victory over Thomas Dewey is the hallmark of American political lore.
Harry Truman, a haberdasher in a Missouri clothing store was drawn into politics almost by accident. He became a product of the infamous Pendergast Machine of Kansas City, when Mayor Pendergast sent Harry to the Senate from Missouri. Truman had been a pretty undistinguishable senator when Franklin Delano Roosevelt surprisingly plucked him out of obscurity and made Truman his vice-presidential running mate in 1944.
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October 15, 2008
As the Presidential Election draws near, there appear to be signs that a record turnout of votes will be cast. Hopefully we can have a harmonious decision whereby the candidate who receives the most votes wins. Our system of relying upon the Electoral College is archaic and unimaginable in this day and time. The system is a disaster waiting to happen. In the greatest democracy in the world it is hard to understand how the candidate who gets the most votes throughout the country could not win the election.
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October 08, 2008
The presidential campaign has come a long way since January when two dozen aspirants were trudging through the snow in Iowa and New Hampshire. With that being said, I would like to share a few thoughts regarding our presidential politics.
First, we need to do away with the Electoral College and have a direct election for President so that the person who receives the most votes is elected President. Every American’s vote should count the same, regardless of which state they call home.
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October 01, 2008
We are down to the proverbial lick log and headed into the homestretch in the 2008 Presidential contest. The protracted race, which began in earnest in the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire two years ago, has four weeks left to go.
It is a historic contest. The Democrats have fielded the first African American in history to head a major party ticket. Freshman Illinois Senator Barack Obama will face the stereotypical Presidential candidate in Republican Senator John McCain. McCain is a 72 year old white male who has been a Congressman and Senator from Arizona for three decades.
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