Obama vs. Swann

So...this has been rattling around in my head for a bit, and I thought I'd toss it out into the world just to see what got thrown back...

In 2008, by refusing to vote for Barack Obama, I have been labelled as a racist. However, in 2006, when I voted for Ed Rendell over Lynn Swann, I was not labelled as a racist.

Anyone care to explain this to me?

How hard is it to understand that I, along with many others, will not vote for Obama?

When I registered as a Democrat nearly a decade ago, my mother said that I had only done it to annoy her (she is - or was - a registered republican). I don't know if I said or thought it (I don't recall being smacked, so it was probably a thought), but my retort was, "no - that's merely frosting." In 1998, when I turned 18 and mailed in my voter registration for St. Lawrence County in Northern New York, Bill Clinton was in his second term. I barely remember Ronald Reagan - he's more of a symbol to me than anything else - but I did remember the Bush I years and how upset I was over the Gulf War. Most of my political "experience" was via what I had read in history textbooks, but what stuck with me was this: throughout history, good things happened when Democrats and progressives were in office (i.e.: Franklin Roosevelt) while bad things happened when republicans and conservatives were in office (i.e.: Richard Nixon).

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