It is a great achievement. The UK is still some way away from electing a black man or a Pakistani, for example, as Prime Minister, although I'm pretty sure we've had the odd atheist PM on the quiet.
Guess I should have stuck with my initial projection of 350 EC votes. I was a pollworker yesterday; we had a very busy day and could not even leave for lunch. Wonderful voters brought us coffee and lunch, pizza for dinner. Would not take money for the food! Two of our scheduled workers did not show up and three voters volunteered to stay and help. Anyway, I had to rely on helpful relatives who called me occasionally with updates and could not even celebrate when I got THE call (election officials have no political opinions).
Then there was the jerk poll watcher for the Democratic Party who showed up to make sure we would not close the polls early. I call him a jerk because he had no sense of humor about it, never smiled, and his default position appeared to be that we would have closed early had he not been there.
It is a great achievement. The UK is still some way away from electing a black man or a Pakistani, for example, as Prime Minister,...
Ian, I recently listened to an American lady complaining about the British coverage of the American Presidential Election on exactly this basis. She said that nobody in Britain had the right to comment on whether America was developed enough to elect a black president when it was obvious that no black person could be elected prime minister in Britain. To both yourself and this American lady I say look at the demography of the two countries and then reconsider that claim, in America only 66% of the population are non-hispanic whites and almost 14% are black whereas in Britain 92% of the population are white with the other 8% split between Indians, Pakistani, West Indians, Bangladeshi and so on. None of the coloured minorities in Britain in large enough to build a significant voting block!
We could just hope that Obama announces his apostasy right after the swearing in.
We'll have to wait at least another ten years before that's possible. And if you want a nontheist, that's at least thirty years.
One step at a time.
It is a great achievement. The UK is still some way away from electing a black man or a Pakistani, for example, as Prime Minister, although I'm pretty sure we've had the odd atheist PM on the quiet.
Next time we plan to run an atheist against an agnostic. You thought this last election was nasty? Tosh.
Oh, lord. Chamberlainist accusations, and so on. I think I'd rather have the Christians.
Kennedy? More than a few folks in the US insist that Catholics aren't Christian, so by their reckoning, I suppose it's been done.
Snowflake, are you suggesting that the US never had a non-Christian President? Have you ever read about deism and the founding fathers?
Guess I should have stuck with my initial projection of 350 EC votes. I was a pollworker yesterday; we had a very busy day and could not even leave for lunch. Wonderful voters brought us coffee and lunch, pizza for dinner. Would not take money for the food! Two of our scheduled workers did not show up and three voters volunteered to stay and help. Anyway, I had to rely on helpful relatives who called me occasionally with updates and could not even celebrate when I got THE call (election officials have no political opinions).
Then there was the jerk poll watcher for the Democratic Party who showed up to make sure we would not close the polls early. I call him a jerk because he had no sense of humor about it, never smiled, and his default position appeared to be that we would have closed early had he not been there.
I.H.S.-F.C.D.wrote:
It is a great achievement. The UK is still some way away from electing a black man or a Pakistani, for example, as Prime Minister,...
Ian, I recently listened to an American lady complaining about the British coverage of the American Presidential Election on exactly this basis. She said that nobody in Britain had the right to comment on whether America was developed enough to elect a black president when it was obvious that no black person could be elected prime minister in Britain. To both yourself and this American lady I say look at the demography of the two countries and then reconsider that claim, in America only 66% of the population are non-hispanic whites and almost 14% are black whereas in Britain 92% of the population are white with the other 8% split between Indians, Pakistani, West Indians, Bangladeshi and so on. None of the coloured minorities in Britain in large enough to build a significant voting block!
We've had several non-Christian presidents. Just not any in the last 150 years...