rogue,

And more to the point, the fact that the state has moved more towards Romney and away from Obama cannot be reasonably attributed to racism. Edited to add: Ah, I see you made that same point before my previous post.

[QUOTE=chappy;317276]SW is heavily republican and has been for the last century. Southeast otoh, which votes (except for Cape Girardeau home of Rush Limbaugh) reliably Democratic went for a republican presidential candidate, while overwhelmingly for Democrats in all state offices. In fact 70% of the primary voters voted for Hillary Clinton in the bootheel, while less than 50% voted for Obama in the election.[/QUOTE]

My point was that that there is an indication that racism might have played a role in SW Missouri, but it has not been proven.

As for your stats from SE Missouri, that still doesn't prove racism. Look at where the boot heel is WRT Arkansas. One could argue that Hillary garnered a higher percentage of votes there because of its proximity to Arkansas.

Can you quantify how many votes were either not cast for Obama or cast for the Republicans because of racism? You are implying that it is a significant percentage of voters, i.e. enough to sway the election in favor of Republicans. Zeta-Flux and I do not agree with your opinion.

It seems indisputable to me that racism (and other irrational forms of discrimination) play a part in some human interactions of all types everywhere on Earth, that it will play a part in selecting a candidate for any position amongst some selectors, and therefore that it will affect the way some people will vote in elections. This election will be no exception. However, the [I]scale[/I] of racist motivation is ultimately unquantifiable because people cannot always themselves determine what brings them to a decision let alone honestly tell other people what motivates their choice.

[QUOTE] However, the scale of racist motivation is ultimately unquantifiable because people cannot always themselves determine what brings them to a decision let alone honestly tell other people what motivates their choice. [/QUOTE]I think one can quantify the effects of racism, to some extent.

For example, Obama was elected president four years ago. His winning levels were on par with other presidents elected. The effect of racism (at least, against Obama) can thus be measured against past precedents, etc... His vote totals among Democrats, Republicans, and independents, nationwide were not measurably worse than previous popular Democrats like Clinton. etc...

The exit polls in Ohio are [URL="http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/results/state/OH/president?hpt=hp_c4_7#exit-polls"]here[/URL]. Do you see any evidence for racism against Obama? For Obama?

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;316388]IMHO, It will take more than 20 more years before more than half of Oklahoma would vote for a black man for president.
(This is based upon my [U]personal[/U] experiences with Okies and ex-Okies. When I visited Oklahoma for the 1994 eclipse, there was still convict labor being used in the community. I was advised "We don't talk to him boy, he is a convict".)
Oklahoma is further 'south' than Texas in some ways.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Zeta-Flux;317318]The exit polls in Ohio are [URL="http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/results/state/OH/president?hpt=hp_c4_7#exit-polls"]here[/URL]. Do you see any evidence for racism against Obama? For Obama?[/QUOTE]Don't care about Ohio. I can tell you that it is alive and well in Oklahoma.

Drinking heavily....
 

Congratulations to Obama. I don't see how Romney can win from here.

I didn't vote for him this time. I had a choice of disaster #1 vs. disaster #2 and opted for #2.

Can we now close this topic and open the 2016 pools?

Hillary Clinton vs. Paul Ryan would be very interesting.

[QUOTE=firejuggler;317340]Can we now close this topic[/QUOTE]Not quite yet -- we can still have some post-election analysis for a little while.

[QUOTE=firejuggler]and open the 2016 pools?[/QUOTE]Oh, let's wait at least a year.

not before some celebration :razz:

[YOUTUBE]Xwh8kWuire8[/YOUTUBE]


versus


[YOUTUBE]yTCRwi71_ns[/YOUTUBE]

(you can find many more versions of each, if you be youtubing around)