Supersized-Tuesday Primary Reaction
7:05 p.m. ABC News just called Georgia for Barack Obama. It’s amazing how winners can be assumed when the polls have been closed less than five minutes and no votes have yet been counted. But assuming projections are correct (and oddly, they typically are), I am proud to be a Georgian tonight. I’m proud that a Southern state could choose an African-American candidate. And I’m encouraged to see the first few votes to show that there are more Democratic voters than Republicans. This bodes well for the general election. Voter turnout is the issue at hand. If LGBT voters, anti-war voters and rational Americans who are unable to reconcile the morality espoused by Republicans with the hate, mismanagement and miscalculation of the Republican party with their values. Maybe there is hope for America. Hope that a change is possible. And there’s no better news for the queer community. It will be interesting to see if this immediate projections and very early returns hold up over the course of the evening.
8:15 p.m. Results are mixed across the country. It is so refreshing to have a real race where every vote truly makes a difference. Gone are the days where party leaders decide who is next in line for the presidential nomination. The mass of states voting today is an important opportunity to move beyond the presumptive politics of the past, to a day when voters truly decide who will lead our country, not pundits or party insiders.
10:05 p.m. CNN is projecting Senator Clinton as the winner of Massachusetts. While the delegates at stake are not as numerous as in some others, it is symbolically significant. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s endorsement was not enough to secure his state for Barack Obama. And in a state with a significant LGBT population, Clinton proved a more compelling candidate than Obama. Analysis of Massachusetts voters over the next few days will be interesting. Clinton is believed to have a generally stronger political machine, while Obama has the power of the grassroots. It will be telling to discover if it was the process of politics, the message or personality that brought the state to Clinton.
11:10 p.m. Will someone please tell Wolf Blitzer to stop saying “uh” between every word? He’s driving me nuts. I’m not going to be able to stay on CNN much longer if he doesn’t cut it out.
11:59 p.m. In ballots counted so far, there are only about 100,000 votes between Senators Clinton and Obama. In today’s races, Obama garnered the most delegates, but Clinton is still leading in the delegate count overall. For Democrats, this is a profound election cycle. There are two very strong, refreshingly different, historic candidates. Either candidate promises to be is such light years more progressive and queer-inclusive than any we have seen in our lifetime. Yet “evangelical” turnout has proven strong on the Republican side. Will anti-gay social conservative Republicans be motivated to vote in the general election? Will the strong turnout in Democratic primaries be maintained or grow in the general election. All remains to be seen. But for LGBT voters, it is encouraging that two candidates who are generally pro-gay are leading the party’s race for the presidential nomination. Although neither candidate has an “ideal” position on LGBT issues, the success of both suggest that America may at last be willing to abandon homophobia in favor for the greater good of our country.
Categories: Queer Politics Tags: Barack Obama, election reaction, gay politics, Georgia primary, Hillary Clinton, Wolf Blitzer | No Comments
