# Future Presidents **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 29, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208 "2011-04-29T20:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/1 "2011-04-29T20:22:05Z")
Which of these do you think we’ll see first, as President of the United States? ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/2 "2011-04-29T20:27:30Z")
We’ll see an Atheist before we see a Muslim, especially in the current environment. BTW, I relaize (hope?) you were trying to be funny, but people of your ilk need TO CUT THE CRAP WITH THIS BULLSHIT about Obama’s religion! Too many people believe it to make fun of it! ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/3 "2011-04-29T20:32:09Z")
How far into the future are we supposed to speculate? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/4 "2011-04-29T20:32:46Z")
“Current environment” … that’s the sticky wicket, isn’t it. If you’d asked me this question on September 10th, 2001, I’d have said Muslim before atheist … now, I’m not so sure. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/5 "2011-04-29T20:34:26Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > We’ll see an Atheist before we see a Muslim, especially in the current environment. BTW, I relaize (hope?) you were trying to be funny, but people of your ilk need TO CUT THE CRAP WITH THIS BULLSHIT about Obama’s religion! Too many people believe it to make fun of it! Oh, for… yes, it was a joke. For the record, I was trying to imply that he is both an atheist _and_ a Muslim, though I see now that’s not at all clear. I should have added “Twofer!!!” And I wasn’t making fun of his religion, I was making fun of the people who believe he’s Muslim. They should be made fun of, as often as possible. > [@Omar\_Little](#): > > How far into the future are we supposed to speculate? As far as you like. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/6 "2011-04-29T20:34:58Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > “Current environment” … that’s the sticky wicket, isn’t it. If you’d asked me this question on September 10th, 2001, I’d have said Muslim before atheist … now, I’m not so sure. My point EXACTLY! ---
**Author:** ![Saganist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Saganist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saganist)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/7 "2011-04-29T20:43:43Z")
I’d guess atheist because I think we’re only a generation or so from open non-religiosity being a complete non-issue. On the other hand, it’s difficult to not see being Muslim as thought of as somehow un-American for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/8 "2011-04-29T23:33:28Z")
Muslim, for instance what if a Kurdish-American neocon grateful for George W Bush’s Operation Iraqi Freedom ran for POTUS? After all Kurdistan is said to be the only place where Bush could win a Presidential election. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/9 "2011-04-29T23:42:57Z")
Muslim. Americans would elect a fundamentalist Muslim before they’d elect an atheist as President. For that matter, they’d probably elect some cultist who supported human sacrifice before they’d elect an atheist; at least the cultist has _faith_. ---
**Author:** ![pinguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@pinguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinguin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/10 "2011-04-30T00:12:26Z")
You didn’t include Hispanic in the poll ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/11 "2011-04-30T06:08:15Z")
Aren’t “Equally Likely” and “Equally Unlikely” the same thing? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/12 "2011-04-30T06:22:38Z")
> [@pinguin](#): > > You didn’t include Hispanic in the poll Or women, or Mormon, or openly gay, or Jehovah’s witness, or Asian, or… _perhaps_ the OP was only interested in the two options asked about. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/13 "2011-04-30T14:57:54Z")
> [@Saganist](#): > > I’d guess atheist because I think we’re only a generation or so from open non-religiosity being a complete non-issue. On the other hand, it’s difficult to not see being Muslim as thought of as somehow un-American for the foreseeable future. I don’t see that at all. I had the same thought 60 years ago when I realized that most people my age were less religious than their parents. Now I meet people all the time who are my age and astonished that their children are more religious than they. It seems to go in waves but there is no evidence that religiosity among Americans will ever disappear. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/14 "2011-04-30T15:28:24Z")
> [@Shamozzle](#): > > Aren’t “Equally Likely” and “Equally Unlikely” the same thing? I knew somebody would say this. Strictly correct… but I’m sure in context that the poll _means_ the first to read as there’s a good chance for either, the second to mean there’s _not_ a good chance for either. Note, the question is open-ended in time; voting that two “firsts” are “equally unlikely” is therefore a statement that the United States will probably _never_ see either one as long as the country endures. That strikes me as either a prediction of remarkable cultural immobility, or else a pessimistic views of the country’s long-term prospects. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/future-presidents/580208/15 "2011-04-30T21:21:22Z")
Atheist. Christianity’s not going away, but I constantly see Christians that accept atheists, even here in the Bible Belt. I do not see any Christians that accept Muslims around here. There’s a reason why Obama is usually painted as a closet Muslim and not a closet atheist–the former bothers people more.