Will there be another black president or vice president in our lifetimes?

[Magic 8-Ball]

No, I think we got that out of the way.

Snarky comment aside, it depends.  Part of Obama's appeal is that he doesn't come off like a latter-day civil rights leader.  If the Democrats run someone like Cory Booker, there's a strong chance of America electing another black president.  If he sounds like Rangel - and yes, I do realize the generational gap here - probably not.

[Magic 8-Ball]

WASP male domination, though, is over. Obama has opened the Presidency to many others who have surnames that don't look like those that one sees in a listing of Colonial-era Americans...  and to women.

You mean like how Eisenhower paved the way for numerous presidents with German last names? 

[Magic 8-Ball]

WASP male domination, though, is over. Obama has opened the Presidency to many others who have surnames that don't look like those that one sees in a listing of Colonial-era Americans...  and to women.

You mean like how Eisenhower paved the way for numerous presidents with German last names? 

German- and Dutch-Americans might as well be WASPs (if Protestant, of course). I know of German ancestry for Hoover, FDR (ironic, huh!), Truman, Eisenhower (of course!), LBJ, Nixon, and Obama. It could be slight but it was there. 

We have never had a

1. female
2. Hispanic-American
3. Italian-American
4. Polish-American
5. Asian-American, or
6. Jewish

person as President. Obama may have opened the Presidency to persons with all sorts of seemingly-odd names (odd if one lives in the rural South). We barely got an Irish-American President (JFK). 

Ancestry =/= last name.   

I see your point, but I don't agree that Obama being president automatically opens the door to Hispanics and more blacks.  How many female Prime Ministers has the UK had since Thatcher?

[Magic 8-Ball]

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No, it means that the next Presidents are less likely to be white Protestant males.

You're right that you said nothing regarding black and Hispanic candidates.  I confused your original post - although, looking back, I'm not sure how - with the original intent of the thread.  My fault.

And, yes, many with German names are WASPs, but how many people thought that in 1953?  Didn't many German-Americans anglicize their surnames (in some cases, further) to avoid the Teutonic stink of World War II? 

You could just as easily have said that white men with non-British surnames are significantly more likely to be elected president post-Ike.  How many of them did we get before Obama?

[Magic 8-Ball]

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No, it means that the next Presidents are less likely to be white Protestant males.

You're right that you said nothing regarding black and Hispanic candidates.  I confused your original post - although, looking back, I'm not sure how - with the original intent of the thread.  My fault.

And, yes, many with German names are WASPs, but how many people thought that in 1953?  Didn't many German-Americans anglicize their surnames (in some cases, further) to avoid the Teutonic stink of World War II? 

You could just as easily have said that white men with non-British surnames are significantly more likely to be elected president post-Ike.  How many of them did we get before Obama?

Ike's successor was the first Catholic to be President of the United States. Irish Catholics are a huge group of people in America, one to be found in all parts of the United States and associated with the political talents of Irish-American political machines. Eisenhower of course was little associated with his German ancestry (his maternal side was English), but instead with the defeat of Nazis. He was as harsh as he could possibly be toward Nazi war criminals... within the constraints of the niceties of the norms of American military justice.

Before Obama, 42 different men (I know about Cleveland) have been President, all largely of colonial Protestant stock except for JFK, and JFK only barely becoming President -- so barely that I can believe that JFK was elected because he was handsome (Richard Nixon was ugly in appearance!). The Dutch, the Pennsylvania Germans, and Huguenots assimilated early into Anglo-American life. Example: despite their Dutch surname, both TR and FDR were more English than anything else.

Hey, you were the one who said Obama made it cool for those with "odd" names and women to be elected.  Ike was undoubtedly a Wasp, but "Eisenhower" isn't all that common a last name.

Although, Kennedy would be more analogous, far more so, to your assertion that WASPs are done.  I suppose my joke should have used him and Catholicism instead.  Thatcher, however, is still a fine example.

It remains to be seen what effect, if any, Obama has on "the other's" insurgence into the presidency.  Like Thatcher, he may end up being the exception rather than the rule.