Interesting thread from 2004

Someone posted a link to the wayback machine's cache of DU in the fall of 2004 to compare the mood then with the mood now, and I discovered this interesting post from November 26, 2004:

" seems like one of the good guys, however, the Democratic party damn well better get wise to the fact that he is NOT Presidential or VP material. He will have far less support than Kerry/Edwards. I'm sorry to have to slap you in the face w/ this, but the entire middle section of our country is way too bigoted to put him in office. They will come out in droves to defeat both him and Hillary...THINK ABOUT IT! His name is enough to bring out every, toothless, redneck, KKK, gun-totin', member of the Republican party! BEFORE EVERY ONE OF YOU JUMPS DOWN MY THROAT, I DO NOT AGREE WITH THOSE VEIWS, BUT IT IS A FACT WE ALL NEED TO FACE BEFORE 2008 IF WE WANT TO TAKE THE WH BACK!"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1391000

Just thought you all would enjoy that. What's pretty amusing is looking at the people who posted in the thread who are still DUers and now have Obama icons and signatures.

Nice find :kick:

"I voted for him in the primary and the general election, and have his bumper sticker on my car. But I'm skeptical he could pick up red states in today's America, given his name."

North Carolina
Virginia
Nevada
Colorado
New Mexico
Indiana

Eek...glad I'm not that person.

from wayyyyy before it was cool to do so (early 2006) - and even I thought him winning this year was a pipe dream. I figured he'd run against Hillary.. Hillary would win (or lose) the GE - and then he'd get a bit more under his belt that the republicans could bitch about and run in 2012 (if Hillary lost) or 2016 if she won.

But i'm VERY HAPPY he jumped in and won now.. because we need him badly now!

If so, I'm glad you dug that up!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=7435391&mesg_id=7435432

I saw a couple threads on the old page that weren't archived at archive.org. It hadn't occurred to me to look posts up here.

Interesting comment from back in the day, turns out that Obama rose above it and, well, you know the rest, so far!

Thanks! :toast:

I'm guilty of saying the same thing myself on another board (not politics related) even at a much later date, just during the beginning of the primaries. I loved Obama, I thought he was exactly what the country needed and I still firmly believe that we may never get a chance for a leader like him again. However more than anything I wanted to make sure we wn the White House and thought Hillary had a better chance of winning the general, I didn't think America could elect a black guy with a name like Barack Obama. I'm glad I was wrong. I am soooooo glad I was wrong. There is a lot of racism out there for sure, and we see it all over the McCain camp and his supporters, but fortunately the majority of people are smarter than them.

A few days ago, I went through the archives and looked at posts from 04, VERY, VERY interesting.

thanks for posting!

I know I had my doubts about the middle of the country. When Iowa showed itself willing... suddenly the middle looked a little less red neck. It was a moment of... hope?

first term moderately liberal Senator from a midwestern state raised mainly in Hawaii and partly Indonesia with a middle name the same as a guy as the President of Iraq and a father from Kenya was on the verge of winning the Presidency. You would have laughed in their face.

In 2004 if you told Barack Obama he'd be the democratic nominee and be up 10 points in the poll in 2008. Barack Obama probably would have laughed in your face.

Of course in or 1772 if you spoke of a democracy in America or in 1856 you would have spoke of Slavery being banned in 8 years there would have been laughter in America as well.

Of course it was perfectly reasonable at the time, but it just goes to show how much we all - well, most of us - underestimated Obama.

he would have agreed with them.