Dave Zweifel's Plain Talk: Time to keep our eye on equality ball

Dave Zweifel  —  11/12/2008 8:57 am

Just a few observations today now that the 2008 presidential election is thankfully behind us.

Scott Gray, president of the Urban League of Greater Madison, sent congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama Wednesday and remarked, "Never again will any young boy or girl of color in America be shackled with the awful certainty of 'not in my lifetime.' "

But in a press release Gray pointed out that there is still a way to go right here at home toward equality and economic justice.

"In the 40 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Madison and Dane County have prospered. African-Amercan residents, however, have not fully shared in this prosperity."

In other words, now that there's an African-American president doesn't mean we should take our eye off the ball.

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The longtime Republican senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, appears to have won re-election despite being convicted last month on six felonies. Does that mean that while convicted felons aren't allowed to vote, they can serve in the U.S. Senate?

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My old friend Al Zins sent along an e-mail Wednesday that speaks volumes about the country: "With Sen. Barack Obama becoming the 44th president of the United States, it's interesting to note that the first 16 presidents could have legally owned Obama as a slave."

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Newsmax.com, a Web site that's heavily Republican, insisted that the nation's pollsters were at fault for John McCain's loss. One of the site's columnists claimed that several of the pre-election polls inflated the Obama-McCain predicted margins to double-digits, thereby discouraging Republicans from voting. Interestingly, many Democrats told me the exact opposite. They hoped the polls would tighten before the election because they feared that Obama partisans, especially the young, wouldn't bother to vote, figuring the election was wrapped up.

While it is true that some polls had Obama up by as much as 12 points, many others had the race much closer, one done for Fox News down to as low as 2 points. The realclearpolitics.com site, which our John Nichols would frequently reference in his outstanding Election Matters coverage on captimes.com, provided an ongoing daily average of all the polls. That average during the final two weeks hovered between 5.5 and 7.5 percent and then the day before the election gave the margin to Obama by 7.6. The final results are roughly 53 for Obama and 46 for McCain, the third party candidates getting the rest.

Hardly seems like a gross inflation.

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This election campaign generated even more comments than usual from people who go to our captimes.com and read editorials and columns. As readers of the online edition know, some of the comments range from just plain silly to downright nasty, but there are many others that are serious, well-informed and attempt to make cogent arguments.

One of the serious ones that caught my attention came at the end of our Wednesday editorial on Obama's win. The writer identified himself as "UW Jeff" and he's up front that he didn't vote for Obama. But if all of us could be as gracious when we lose, I've got a hunch this would be a much better world. Here is his commentary:

"Congratulations to our new president-elect. While I did not vote for you, I hope for the best. I trust in you to reach out to the many who did not vote for you like myself and work for changes that we can all unite behind -- it can be done.

"There is ample opportunity to reform government and bring efficiencies forward that will allow you to help those who need help the most and with a goal to make as many as possible self-sufficient and independent and at the same time bring it within a balanced budget and allow us to reduce its size relative to the rest of the economy which hopefully will remain a free market and private-sector-driven economy.

"We can strengthen and not limit personal freedoms and liberties (i.e., please don't try and impose the 'Fairness Doctrine' upon our airwaves and other free speech media). We can and must remain a strong nation -- ready to defend our freedoms and democracy and be willing to extend our strengths and offer protection when necessary to others who seek the same freedoms and liberty and protect the weak from those that would seek to enslave and take those freedoms away.

"I know it sounds a bit too optimistic, but then that's just me. Once again, congratulations Barack Obama, my new president-elect. May you govern wisely."

Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times.

Dave Zweifel  —  11/12/2008 8:57 am