Obama Got Votes for Being Black and Young

[Hyena Dandy]

Well, now that we finally seem to be in agreement that being black and young had something to do with his popularity which helped him win, I think we are on the same page.

I was never arguing it didn't help. My argument was (and always has been) that it wasn't the sole or even primary reason.

[Andara Bledin]

Well, now that we finally seem to be in agreement that being black and young had something to do with his popularity which helped him win, I think we are on the same page.

I sincerely doubt it helped him any more than it hindered him and have yet to see any study (and I followed the election fairly closely at the time) that indicated race played a significant factor in either direction.

^-.-^

[smileyeagle1021]

Seeing as no one can even come up with one legit idea as to why in this election and none of the previous ones before this there was a noticeable increase in these two demographics, the theory that Obama received the increase in votes because he's young and black becomes pretty legit.

Here's one legit idea as to why young and minority (blacks weren't the only ones that turned out more to vote) voters turned out more.
2008 had a shitload more youth voter engagement efforts than in previous years. Yeah, every year they do "rock the vote" etc. but 2008 (at least locally) had a lot more exposure than in 2004. Those campaigns have also evolved over the years. Perhaps they finally found a effective technique to get traditionally disenfranchised voters (youth and minorities) to get out and vote.

[Boozy]

Seeing as no one can even come up with one legit idea as to why in this election and none of the previous ones before this there was a noticeable increase in these two demographics, the theory that Obama received the increase in votes because he's young and black becomes pretty legit.

In 2008, the US was (and still is) in a war on two fronts. That tends to draw the youth and minority votes.

The Obama campaign was also run differently than most. Their goal was to draw as many voters as possible to the polls. It was a successful strategy. And it didn't focus on "Look at me, I'm black and not about to die of a heart attack!".

[Gravekeeper]

Yes, Obama's campaign was actually quite brilliant, aimed at grassroots participation and specifically aimed at getting people who don't normally vote ( Youth ) to vote by getting them actively involved in the process.

I don't think they voted for him because he was young per say, I think they voted for him because he actually paid attention to them for once. Combine that with an opponent that was for all extensive purposes a dinosaur with a dinosaur's political ideology, and yeah, you're going to get the youth vote. >.>

[Andara Bledin]

Yes, Obama's campaign was actually quite brilliant, aimed at grassroots participation and specifically aimed at getting people who don't normally vote ( Youth ) to vote by getting them actively involved in the process.

Precisely!

During the campaign, Obama's crew was all over the place, online and off, taking part and inviting others to do the same.

^-.-^

[Evandril]

I also believe people voted for him because the concept of Sarah Palin having any power as a VP was far too frightening for some people to comprehend.

This

That's how Obama got my vote

[FArchivist]

This
That's how Obama got my vote

And how he got mine.

Sarah Palin is not only not terribly intelligent and extremely jingoistic, but she's affiliated with Joel's Army, a theocratic group who believes they have a divine mandate to physically impose Christian "dominion" on non-believers. That is NOT who I want to have access to our nuclear weapons.

[lordlundar]

Seeing as no one can even come up with one legit idea as to why in this election and none of the previous ones before this there was a noticeable increase in these two demographics, the theory that Obama received the increase in votes because he's young and black becomes pretty legit.

No it doesn't. A lack of contrary evidence does not automatically give your theory weight. This is especially true when there is NO evidence either way. You are saying that the increase in voter turnout is exclusively because he's black and/or young. That is causation and you have no direct evidence to prove it. So unless you have that proof, all your theory without evidence will be is just that, a theory without evidence. I gave other possible reasons that you ignored. What makes the reasons I provided mean nothing while yours must be the truth?

[Greenday]

It is much more unlikely that an increase occurred because he was democrat or because Palin was running. People were either already voting democrat or not. If they were, they weren't voting for McCain/Palin. Change? Every candidate promises this every election. The only difference is he proposed more drastic change that a lot of people didn't want. Obama is different from every other candidate for two main reasons and it just happened that those two reasons coincided with the two groups there was a major increase in?

[Andara Bledin]

Yeah, let's just go ahead and continue to ignore the massive online and social networking presence he had that was also different from any other candidate that was enough to be noticed by our neighbors to the north.

^-.-^

[insertNameHere]

I used to "love" when I said I did not like him based on policy decisions gave support for my examples. I was told I was a racist..... for having a valid argument of why I did not like him that had nothing to do with race.

I would then ask what they liked about him, I got the "Well he is the first black candidate that has a shot, and I want to help vote in the first black president", when asked views on policy they really couldn't give me anything other than the fact he was black.

SO, I know MANY people who voted for him because of the color of his skin, got to love liberals in college, few of my friends did support their argument with how much they hated McCain and his choices and had support. but that was a minority compared to the "Because he is black" crowd

[HYHYBT]

...which means exactly nothing, because there were also people who otherwise would vote Democrat but didn't because Obama is black.

[FArchivist]

SO, I know MANY people who voted for him because of the color of his skin, got to love liberals in college, few of my friends did support their argument with how much they hated McCain and his choices and had support. but that was a minority compared to the "Because he is black" crowd

So all you have are anecdotes, right? Am I correct in saying that?

[Hyena Dandy]

got to love liberals in college,

As they're college LIBERALS, I doubt they would have voted for McCain anyway.

Most people who tried to sell you on voting Obama because he's black would probably have done the same for Clinton being a woman. They'd made up their mind, they're just using a tertiary reason to convince you.


Like Christians and hell. Most Christians aren't Christian to get out of hell. They're Christian for the community, for inner peace, for whatever. But they try to convince other people with hell.