Al Gore's choice of Joseph Lieberman is a historical event; it is the first time that a Jew has been in the presidental race. And while this sounds like a fantastic step forward from a sociological perspective, unfortunatley, I don't think that the USA will react very favorably towards the idea of a Jewish Vice-President.

Just think of all the hatemongers in this country; seeing a Jewish person on the ticket will be a motivation to vote, if only to vote against the Jew. And while, granted, having a Jewish candidate might very well sway the vote of many other Jews towards him, the number of negative voters will almost certainly outweigh the positive ones.

Now I don't know anything about Mr. Lieberman's political views, other than that he's a democrat. But I do know that he's Jewish, and despite America's claims of being socially tolerant, being so is an automatic downvote in many people's books.

So, with this recent choice, don't expect to see President Gore. It's no longer a political race; it's a matter of stupid religous affiliations taking over the country. Yet another Protestant in office... and this is separation of church and state??

Fight anti-semitism. Haven't we moved beyond this point??

On the other hand, it's equally likely that Jews throughout the United States will vote for Gore/Lieberman simply because Lieberman is Jewish. Plus the probability that the radical right voters who refuse to elect a Jew to the White House are the sort of people who would have voted Republican anyways.

I believe that posthumous has the correct ideaology in the core meaning of his node. Religion is important in choosing a leader, simply because its a very formal mean of social control, and a very powerful one at that. Logicially, a person would want their leaders to be of the same devotion as they are, to give more of a human, down to earth, and controllable nature to them. If a candidate states that he is a devout Catholic, then his beliefs are usually within a predictable range.

Fact of the matter is, Lieberman might help Gore win New York, but Gore was already slated to win New York. And like Bush says anyway, using a vice-president to further an election is idiocy, so I'm glad that neither party seems to have chosen their candidate just to win delegates.

What posthumous is really targetting is the concept of blind, idiot, uneducated anti-religious movements. These people are no different than racists, they choose to dislike people simply because of their beliefs.

But, the bottom line is this: it should always be your right to vote against a candidate for whatever reasons you so choose. If every redneck and skinhead in the US decides that they're going to vote against Lieberman because of his religion, they should have a right to do so. The Founding Fathers never laid claim that a vote must be justified.

And as a result, we probably will see a rather large lashing out against the Jewish community as a whole.