A remarkable moment, and a truly amazing achievement. The result was not a surprise; even so, it will take a while to sink in. The country has crossed a threshold.
A convincing and comfortable victory (in electoral-college terms, though far from a landslide in the popular vote). So much for the Bradley effect: an idea, let us hope, whose time has passed. Independents broke heavily in his favour, and he won support right across the country, from all demographic categories. Barack Obama will be president because of this great breadth of appeal and because of his extraordinary magnetism. By themselves, especially when you remember the challenges that confront him, these won't make him a great president, but they suggest that he has it in him to be a great president. At the mere thought of this possibility, one's spirits lift.
From John McCain's gracious concession speech: "A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States."
Mr. Crook,
Two questions,
May I assume that the long string of Labour gouvernements in England after WWII was a result of a "revolt of the masses" based on the income distribution as described by Mr. Pen?
Can we assume that the election win of Mr. Obama who promised to lower taxes and therefore raising incomes, and to raise the mnimum wage to $9.50 per hour, was similarlty a revolt of the masses?
In your article in The Atlantic Monthly you stated that the book title of Mr. Pen's book was less than flashy, well Mr. Crook, I am Dutch and we dutch do not like to over do it. We are a low-key people.
Regards,
Jack van Dijk now American Citizen
> So much for the Bradley effect:
> an idea, let us hope, whose time has passed.
We can hope so. But if it really existed (there is some disagreement on this point), I'm not convinced it's gone for good. It hasn't appeared in this election, I fear, because there were too many other "acceptable" reasons not to vote for Obama: he's a secret Muslim, he's a Marxist, he pals around with terrorists, is unpatriotic, etc. For those inclined to do so, there were plenty of opportunities to rationalize, at least to pollsters, that their opposition to Obama was about something, anything, other than race. Folks felt no embarrassment in pointing to these canards; the test for the survival of the Bradley Effect will come not with Obama, but with another African American candidate with a more conventional background.
A nice post.I agree.