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

[Meeker]

I'm inclined to say no.

[Aizen]

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

[Landslide Lyndon]

A black Vice President is more possible than another black President.

[tmthforu94]

Probably, since I'll last for another 60-70 years.

[Devilman88]

Maybe, I see a black VP happening before another black president.

[Frodo]

If Barack Obama turns out to be a successful President, then most definitely there will be. 

[Antonio the Sixth]

That's quite unlikely, but there certainly will be antoher one in the far future.

[Antonio the Sixth]

If Barack Obama turns out to be a successful President, then most definitely there will be. 

So that means if Obama fails (which I hope) then blacks will just pack it in, go home, party's over?  I doubt that.  And if Obama succeeds, I doubt people will be going, "Wow!  A Negro like Obama.  I bet he would be a good President."

For once, I agree with you.

[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.

[pbrower2a]

Figuring that I probably have about twenty years of life left at most after Obama's second term, I think not. It will not be advantageous to be black in a nationwide campaign, and Obama got no benefit from being black; random chance (blacks are about an eighth of the American population and shrinking as a share) alone suggests that the chance of a black person winning even the nomination is slight in any year, and getting smaller. Tellingly, the states with the largest percentages of African-Americans (mostly in the South) tended to vote against him. DC is of course a special case.

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.

[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? 

[pbrower2a]

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). 

[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?

[pbrower2a]

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 do genealogy as a hobby. I know enough to recognize that a surname says very little about a person. I have been checking the ancestry of most Presidents of the United States.  I know about name changes among Polish-Americans in some districts:

Bohacz > Bogart
Adamski > Adams
Adamczyk > Adams
Kaniewski > Cunningham
Zielinski > Lynch
Jankowski > Johnson
Haciak > Hudson
Grzybowski > Gibson
Mikolajczak > McLatcher
Stachowiak > Stockwell
Smolka > Smoker

... because dumb Americans couldn't figure out those tricky names.

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

[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?

[pbrower2a]

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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.


 

[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.

[GLPman]

I don't see Obama's level of success or failure determining the race of future presidents. I think minority presidents and vice presidents will become more popular either way, though. I think we'll probably see a black vice president before we see another black president, which will probably be a few elections into the future.

[minionofmidas]

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). 

I wish people wouldn't mention "female" in the same breath. There's been females in every White House.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Considering I'll most likely be living for 70 more years I believe so.

At least now the whole "big-deal" about it will be gone. When JFK was elected there was a big debate about his religion, nowadays people could care less that Biden is a catholic. Next time a black politician is running, I doubt there will be a big debate about his etnicity.

I wish there will be a day when race and sex doesn't matter and a person is simply elected for their politics and qualification and not his or her skin-colour.

[TeePee4Prez]

VP possibly

We'll definitely see a Hispanic and/or a woman.

[pogo stick]

Yes. Ryan Frazier.

[pragmatic liberal]

I think so, but you never know. I mean, who would have guessed when JFK was elected that he would still be the only Catholic president by 2009? (In actuality, that's pretty shocking, considering how large the U.S. Catholic population is and given how completely-assimilated Catholics are today and how well represented they are in other areas of government and business).

[Vepres]

Probably. Statistically, 1 out of every 8 presidential candidates should be black, now that we have had a black president. Considering I have 60 - 80 years left to live, I figure we'll have a couple in my life (presidents and VP's). One thing I've always wondered is will blacks vote en masse for the black presidential candidate next time (this is more relevant in the primaries) or not?

[HAnnA MArin County]

We have also never had an openly gay or lesbian president either, and I doubt we will in my lifetime. As for another African American president, I'm pretty sure the Republicans are going to go all out to nominate and elect their one and only Michael Steele, or that J.C. Watts dude from Oklahoma. Those are the only two black GOP politicians I know. And, if one chooses to be accurate, Barack Obama isn't our first African American president; he's our first mixed/mulatto/biracial (I don't know the PC term) president, so in a sense, we still have yet to elect a BLACK president. I do believe it is foreseeable in my generation seeing as how I'll probably live another 60 years and how my generation is less racist than my parents' and grandparents' generations. I do think we will see an African American along with a Hispanic and hopefully a woman (but NOT Caribou Barbie) in the White House.