One cite among many for the James Buchanan story. Another
Odds are the gay barrier was broken long ago for both top offices.
That’s it! We’ve got to make a three dollar bill and put Buchanan’s portrait on it.
When John Ashcroft was nominated for Attorney General, there was a lot of pre-emptive reverse political correctness to the effect that nobody should oppose his nomination based upon his religious beliefs. This blurred the distinction between a politician’s identy as a member of a cultural group and any public policies his religion–as opposed to the interests of the American people–may compel him to pursue. The liberal response to anti-Catholic fears vis-a-vis Kennedy was that he wouldn’t take orders from the Pope–that being a stereotype–not that he had every right to do so in the name of religious freedom.
So it would be one thing elect a president who happened to have a Muslim background, but someting quite another to have a president who would base his policies on Islam. What if, in the unlikely event we feel compelled to go to war with a Muslim country, the president refuses to act? (OTOH, if we had elected a Muslim president in 2000…
…they would have attacked us on 9/11 anyway since our president’s a traitor to Islam).
The bottom line question to any candidate is, which comes first, your devotion to your religion or to the American people?
Am I the only person who finds it rather depressing to read this thread?
The American ideal is that anyone can be President.
The American reality is that only rich, white, heterosexual Protestant males have a decent chance of being President.
Not a new realization, of course, but still a depressing reminder.
You so beat me to it! I was about to jump all over this, too and say he did a really great job of hiding his disability. Many people didn’t know.
True. But if you’re running a marathon where you take one step every 4 years, it’s gonna take a while to catch up to someone who had a 200 year head start.
Also, the number of white, protestant, heterosexual males who haven’t been elected president is exceeded–slightly–only by the number of white heterosexual females.
You do realize, of course, that given that non-Muslim Arabs are virtually non-existent in the Middle East (outside Lebanon, and even there they constitute a minority) the chance that there are enough in this country to ever offer a candidacy for President is minute?
Thomas Jefferson was essentially a deist, which makes him an agnostic in the eyes of some and an atheist in the eyes of others…
Do people actually vote based on religion? Am I just hopelessly out of it here? I never even check to see what their religions are.
What you have to look for is: Are there any Muslims (native born, reasonably wealthy) running for grassroots or low level elective offices? The problem with the blacks (and hispanics) are there AREN’T a lot of high quality (read well known, fairly rich and well connected, with bland agendas that have mass appeal, especially to the center) out there. Thats why you don’t see them moving up to the further tiers of Senate and Congress, let along Governor (all stepping stones to the presidency or at least major party candidacy…there are of course exceptions of couse, but the majority of folks in those levels of government are still White afaik).
Personally I think that there will be a hispanic president in my life time (I’m hoping Richardson from NM is it) as well as a woman (Always felt the wrong Dole ran) and a black (Wish C. Powers would run). I see nothing wrong with a Muslim president…except I don’t know how many Muslims are currently entering politics and moving their way up. Its kind of like professional sports in a way…it takes a lot of folks trying out to get the very few players. Same in politics. White folks have dominated because White folks were mostly who played the game. Thats changing. Given time we’ll see the rewards of that IMO (It hasn’t been that long before the minorities were even fully empowered and these things do take time). I for one am patient…one day there will be a hispanic in the White House and I’ll be cheering big time.
-XT
A non-Muslim Arab finished third in the 2000 Presidential election.
“The majority of Arab Americans are Christian.” 'Course it’s a Zogby poll, and he’s a non-Muslim Arab. 
However, I think it will be many, many years before the US is ready for the idea of a Muslim President. What say you? Could it happen?
Will never happen.
You will see one of the Fab Five elected President before a Muslim.
But again, if he wasn’t openly gay, then the gay barrier wasn’t really broken. Barriers are broken when the populace knows that some fellow has this undesirable characteristic and still elect/hire him.
Sorry if this is going off on a tangent, but I honestly don’t see how this would be a disqualification. Heck, it might even be an advantage, if the person were a war hero or something roughly equivalent.
Nader? I thought he was Jewish.
Nader was of Lebanese decent.
FDR was nominated for Veep on the national ticket. I think it was in 1918. It was certainly before he had polio. I don’t think he would have been able to run in the first place had his bout with polio preceded his first run for elective office. There’s a book that was published a few years ago about just how much of an effort was made to convince the public that FDR had largely recovered from his bout with polio. Apparently the general public was far less aware of the full extent of his injuries than his close associates.
Both of Wisconsin’s U.S. senators, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, are Jewish.
rjung: The American reality is that only rich, white, heterosexual Protestant males have a decent chance of being President.
Well, we did elect one rich white heterosexual Catholic male in John Kennedy. I hope we have at least a “decent chance” of electing another in John Kerry.
Not that I don’t think it’s also important to give the non-rich, non-white, non-heterosexual, non-Christian, and/or non-male citizens of this country an equal chance at the job, but every little bit helps.
This is a bit overstated.
Taking a typically arbitary definition of Middle East/North Africa we have about 30% of the population of Lebanon, ~10% of Syria, ~5-15% of Egypt ( exact numbers disputed, but it is in the multiple millions regardless given Egypt’s large population ), ~6% of Jordan, ~7-10% of Palestinians ( very roughly estimated based on worldwide diaspora, not just West Bank and Gaza - probably mixes with Jordanian numbers in particular a fair bit ), ~5% of Kuwait, ~5% of Qatar, ~5% Azerbaijan, ~3-5% of Iraq, 2-4% U.A.E., ~2% Israel, ~1-2% in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Iran, smaller numbers elsewhere ( excluding Armenia of course, which is ~98% Christian ).
Best guess is that there are ~15-20 million Christians in the Middle East/North Africa, plus a pretty sizeable number in diaspora from the region.
- Tamerlane
Oh, I should add that the majority of the above-mentioned Christians are in fact Arabs ( that is, native speakers of Arabic as their first language ), but a minority are not.
- Tamerlane
[nitpick, but exact wording is important]
Article II of the U.S. Constitution says that:
“Natural born Citizen” is NOT the same as “born in the US”. For example, Barry Goldwater and John McCain – past and (possibly) future Presidential candidates – were not born in the US.
[/nitpick, but exact wording is important]