Reuters via Yahoo! News
You could spend a day searching on Shine and still not find all of the posts written about the election, the candidates, the debates. For our Shine anniversary, I went back to the late summer and fall, when the election conversation took off. When the Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his runningmate, it was the start of a long and, shall we say, heated conversation on Shine. The fact that the the Republican presidential ticket boasted a woman for the first time was anything but unifying for the women of Shine, who debated whether she could be a good mother and a good vice president; who criticized and defended her decision to run after knowing her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant; who argued about her expensive campaign wardrobe, and her position on abstinence-only education. Oh, we could go on, and you did, here on Shine.
When it came time for the final debates, we debated.
And, yes, there were some nasty, too-personal jabs, but the best of the election debate on Shine were the thoughtful, thought-provoking posts and comments, written in real time, moments after real events.
After the Palin/Biden vice presidential debate, Dee wrote: "She did good if she were running for mayor not VP of the U.S. You don't dodge issues and continually talk about being a soccer mom and an average Joe. When will you become a VP and not remain an average Joe? We need someone who knows the issues and is willing to tackle them. She had nowhere else to go but up and that's what she did. I guess that's why everyone is so impressed."
Harley wrote: "I am a 48 year old woman who was undecided where my vote would go until last night's debate. First, I would have loved to see someone other than Gwen Ifill host the debate when she clearly favors Obama. Where were her questions regarding energy, abortion, guns, etc? As for Palin, I felt as though I was listening to a neighbor, a friend, voicing her concerns, not some "Yes Man" Democratic suit and tie robot. My vote is for McCain-Palin."
When the election was over and votes cast, you told each other who you voted for and why. Then we, even the many disappointed in the results, couldn't help feeling the national pride that swelled at the knowledge that we had elected the first black president of the United States. Venus1965 wrote: "I voted not just for myself but also for my father, who spent his youth fighting the second world war, and for my grandmother, who, because of Jim Crow laws and because she was Mexican American, couldn't vote until 1960. I voted for my nephew Vincent, who is just a year old and I voted for everyone who made sacrifices. History has been made and I'm very glad I was a part of it." Katema30 asked, "Are you emotional over the the results of this election?" And, yes, we were.
When the stories are big and the stakes are big in all of our lives, we will find a place to write about them on Shine. Did you stop by to have your say about the election, the debates, and the outcome? What were your favorite moments of the election and how we talked about them on Shine?
