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By priestess (Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 12:31:36 AM EST) obama, election, president, poll (all tags)
Well for once it wasn't the middle class white guy in a suit what won it.

That makes a change.

Poll: When will  the disillusionment kick in?

Congrats to Obama and to the US in general. Will this be the beginning of a new age? When will people realize that it's not?


< God Bless Barack Obama... | 5/11 - We will never forget >
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Poll
When will the disillusionmet kick in
- December 2008 7%
- January 2009 14%
- February 2009 7%
- March 2009 7%
- April 2009 21%
- May 2009 0%
- June 2009 7%
- July 2009 7%
- August 2009 0%
- September 2009 0%
- October 2009 7%
- November 2009 0%
- December 2009 7%
- 2010 0%
- 2011 0%
- 2012 0%
- 2013 7%
- 2014 7%
- 2015 0%
- 2016 0%

Votes: 14
Results | Other Polls
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Congrats to the middle class BLACK guy in a suit | 20 comments (20 topical, 0 hidden)
When will people realize that it's not? by jayhawk88 (4.00 / 2) #1 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 12:57:38 AM EST
When Obama announces he's keeping the troops in Iraq for another year and signs another $700 billion bailout bill.

Still, for me it's going to be fun to see/hear the conservative media turn on Obama, after 8 years of telling us how we need to support our Glorious Leader Mr. President during a Time of War no matter what.


why isn't Nov 2008 one of the choices? by Dr H0ffm4n (4.00 / 1) #2 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 01:30:21 AM EST


[ Parent ]
Heh by priestess (2.00 / 0) #3 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 01:33:12 AM EST
Probably should have been  I guess.

I wonder what the excuse for not pulling out the troops in Iraq will be?

Pre...........

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Chat to the virtual me...
[ Parent ]
Think I prefer by jump the ladder (4.00 / 2) #4 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 01:48:42 AM EST

Middle class guys  of whatever colur in suits to Sarah Palin or Joe the Plumber if they're the alternatives :)



Disillusionment by nebbish (4.00 / 4) #5 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 01:53:35 AM EST
I look forward to the day people realise a leader can be a good leader without performing miracles

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It's political correctness gone mad!

Middle class? by Beechwood 45789 (4.00 / 3) #6 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 01:58:00 AM EST
Though Obama's net worth isn't known, he makes more than $500K a year and some estimates have him at a net worth of just under $2 million. As book sales are a significant part of his fortune, and I think we can expect that to spike given current events, I assume he'll be worth even more than that next year.

Are multi-millionaires the new middle class?


I kinda assumed he was in debt really by priestess (2.00 / 0) #7 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 02:01:02 AM EST
A presidency is an expensive thing to buy!

Pre..............

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Chat to the virtual me...
[ Parent ]
His fans on the internet paid for that by codemonkey uk (4.00 / 2) #8 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 02:08:01 AM EST
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/us_elections_2008/7704360.stm

--- Thad ---
Almost as Smart As you.
[ Parent ]
That was nice of us by priestess (2.00 / 0) #9 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 02:34:42 AM EST
Outspending four to one? I guess the money talks again. If the internet becomes the big way to fund politics, and the internet continues to be more liberal than the rest of the world, I guess that'll be good for us liberals. Expensive perhaps, but good.

Pre.........

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Chat to the virtual me...
[ Parent ]
to be fair ... by R343L (2.00 / 0) #10 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 04:25:23 AM EST
He was probably middle-class by most people's standards not all that long ago. The book sales (Dreams from my Father has been out for over a decade) only took off relatively recently, And I doubt he had his law school paid for by family (so he either had loans or scholarships there).

"There will be time, there will be time / To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet." -- Eliot
[ Parent ]
yeah by gzt (2.00 / 0) #11 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 04:53:59 AM EST
Well, upper middle class. As in, quite nice middle class. He's, uh, in a pretty nice neighborhood, what canvassers for the Democrats would call, "mansion turf".

[ Parent ]
he wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth, by webwench (2.00 / 0) #12 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 05:08:42 AM EST
he worked to get where he is. That should not be discounted.

Getting more attention than you since 1998. Ya ya!

[ Parent ]
Right, I'm not discounting him at all. by gzt (2.00 / 0) #13 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 05:12:48 AM EST
It really is hard to become a professor of law at the University of Chicago. It's hard to become a state senator. It's hard to become a US senator. He clawed his way up to the upper middle class.

[ Parent ]
I canvassed some of that "mansion turf" by wumpus (2.00 / 0) #15 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 02:25:49 PM EST
They were happy to vote one of their own in.  Probably did better than some of the townhouses.<P>
Wumpus



[ Parent ]
hey hey HEY by gzt (2.00 / 0) #16 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 04:16:32 PM EST
Don't you be talking about those townhouses down the road from the mansion turf. We work very hard.

[ Parent ]
I don't know about that. by Beechwood 45789 (2.00 / 0) #18 Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 03:16:06 PM EST
My impression was that, at birth, Obama was actually in the lower economic bracket. Though I may be wrong there.

After graduation though, he was a lawyer for a few years. I don't know how much he was making, but it was enough that, when he wanted to work on his first book uninterrupted, he could jet off to Bali for several months.

As for his books, his first was published in 1995 and never went out of print. People buying it now are buying its sixth edition. True, he didn't have two NYTimes best sellers (as he does now), but it wasn't like it sank without a trace. Notably, he also made Crane's Business "40 Under 40" list, which suggests that he was a mover and shaker in some financially significant way.

This wasn't meant as a criticism of Obama. He seems to have started in fairly inauspicious circumstances (a not-rich broken home) and made a small fortune through hard work and smart connections. I just don't think that "middle class" has every really been a great descriptor for him.




[ Parent ]
Money by ucblockhead (2.00 / 0) #20 Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 07:29:28 PM EST
From what I've read, Michelle Obama was earning $300k when she was working as a lawyer.  That makes it pretty easy for a spouse to take a year off.

My impression is that he (and his wife) were typical poor college students and the typical young up-and-comers in their twenties before becoming very comfortable in their thirties.

The man certainly isn't "middle class" now, and probably hasn't really been for a decade.  But he certainly spent his formative years in that financial/social class.

In regards to his book: somewhere, there was a snarky bit about "how much Obama would have paid under his own tax plan".  I can no longer find that, but it implies heavily that his income skyrocketed just 2-3 years ago.  An "in print" book that is not on the best seller lists hardly makes one wealthy.
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[ucblockhead is] useless and subhuman

[ Parent ]
Middle class by ucblockhead (2.00 / 0) #14 Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 06:15:30 AM EST
The guy was born into the middle class and moved up.
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[ucblockhead is] useless and subhuman
[ Parent ]
Was he? by Beechwood 45789 (2.00 / 0) #17 Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 03:05:51 PM EST
When Obama was born, his father was a foreign national going to school on a government program. I can't find any data on what his mama was doing. That doesn't sound like they were living well, but I don't honestly know.

Admittedly, Obama's step dad was a government accounts man for a major energy company, so he was probably making scratch. But that was several years after Obama was born.

Do actually know what social class Obama was born into? I'm genuinely curious. Do you know what his mama was doing while his pops went to school?


[ Parent ]
Yes, he was by ucblockhead (2.00 / 0) #19 Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 07:19:52 PM EST
His mother was an "anthropological field worker". His grandfather was a furniture salesman and his grandmother a bank VP, so money probably wasn't tight when he was with them. Everything that I've read is that his background was from a comfortably middle class, educated background. It doesn't sound like the guy was ever poor, but he certainly wasn't ever rich until he got his law degree and married another highly paid lawyer.
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[ucblockhead is] useless and subhuman
[ Parent ]
Congrats to the middle class BLACK guy in a suit | 20 comments (20 topical, 0 hidden)

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