It seems as if the 2008 Presidential race has the face of a changing America and there is history in the making.
The first woman may well be elected as President of the most powerful country on the planet, unless the first black, the first Mormon, the first Hispanic, the first Italian-American, the first thrice married man, or the first person over 70 is elected instead.
After 218 years and 42 presidents – all of them white and male – the field of White House hopefuls this time includes credible candidates whose race, gender, ethnicity, religion or personal history probably would have ruled them out in the past. It was also reported that an atheist will throw his hat in the ring.
USA Today carried out a Gallup Poll and journalist Susan Page carried a front page article on this last Tuesday. She said that some of the candidacies reflect broad trends in American life that also have affected the nation’s schools, workplaces and neighbourhoods. The civil rights and feminist movements, the influx of immigrants from Latin America and Asia and the more public discussion of once-taboo subjects such as divorce are rewriting the rules about who can be elected to the White House.
The Poll found that only one in five Americans were “completely comfortable” with all of the breakthrough traits represented by the leading contenders of the 2008 field. Nearly a third had reservations about most of them. One more thing: Voters won’t necessarily support a candidate who looks like them.
Women were no more likely than men to be comfortable voting for a woman; women over 50 were among the most sceptical of all. Blacks were no more likely than whites to be comfortable voting for a black. And seniors were less likely than the middle-aged to be comfortable voting for a 72-year-old to become president.
Overall, four times as many Americans expressed concerns about a candidate’s age – John Mc Cain will be 72 on Elections Day.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of former president Bill Clinton, is already campaigning and if she wins she will not only be the first woman and the first spouse of a president to do so, but Bill would be the first first-husband.
Candidates include former New York mayor, Rudi Giuliani, a thrice married Italian-American; Illinois Senator Barack Obama, an African American; former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, a Mormon; and Hispanic Bill Richardson.
