I put Middle Earth Journal in hiatus in May of 2008 and moved to Newshoggers.
I temporarily reopened Middle Earth Journal when Newshoggers shut it's doors but I was invited to Participate at The Moderate Voice so Middle Earth Journal is once again in hiatus.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

To vote race or gender? What's a white boy to do?

Here's a comment you probably wouldn't expect to read in the national media.
[A]s a white male I face the same choice - either I vote my race (Clinton) or my gender (Obama).

Normally, upon reading something like that, you would either be laughing or edging away nervously from the deranged madman. However, it was just high sarcasm. In fact, the full quote reads, "Since Edwards no longer officially exists, as a white male I face the same choice - either I vote my race (Clinton) or my gender (Obama). Or I could just pick the candidate based on who I think would be best," The quip came in response to a rather jaw dropping article from CNN where they published the following keen political analysis regarding black, female voters in South Carolina.
"For these women, a unique, and most unexpected dilemma, presents itself: Should they vote their race, or should they vote their gender?"

You've got to be kidding me. As you would probably expect, CNN immediately was flooded with angry e-mails. To their credit, they published a full follow-up story including many of the angry reactions from viewers. I think this was my favorite one:
"Duh, I'm a black woman and here I am at the voting booth. Duh, since I'm illiterate I'll pull down the lever for someone. Hm... Well, he black so I may vote for him... oh wait she a woman I may vote for her... What Ise gon' do? Oh lordy!"

That was from a reader named Tiffany and it probably sums up the general reaction to this deplorable example of "journalism" better than anything we could manage here. It's hard enough to sort out this tepid pool of potential presidents without portraying the voters as such two dimensional, cartoon characters.