Talk Elections

I think he would make a strong candidate.

Strong candidate for what, Commissioner of County Registries?

I think he's nuts enough to challenge Obama for the nomination in 2012.  ;)

I'm probably one of the few people who likes Burris.  He doesn't give me the impression that he's crazy or eccentric.  It was odd that he accepted Blago's offer, but he now looks like the smartest guy in Illinois.  If Reid gives him some good assignments and he stays away from divisive talk about race like he has, he has a good chance of winning in '10.

he'll be 80.

Agree. Watching him on CSPAN gave me a pretty favorable impression.

The only thing burris did wrong was being involved in Blago's scheme.

Maybe he wants to be the first african american President?

Al, don't be so utterly ridiculous.  You're clearly forgetting somebody.

Everybody knows that Bill Clinton holds that accolade.

Burris is counting on Blago to appoint him to the presidency once Obama steps down.  The plan is foolproof, provided that Hillary Clinton agrees to sign the certification papers.

Obama is only half black.

And won't Burris be 79 or 80 by then? That's probably too old to be President.

No way. He is my favorite senator and It'd be dreadful to lose him.

Obama's skin is black, thus he is a black. We have the one drop rule in the states, friend.

Al said "African-American", not "black". Obama is not African-American.

He's the son of an African and an American.  Couldn't really be much more of one.

^^^^

He's about the purest example of an African-American there is.

Except not, as the term is euphemistic not descriptive.

'African American' is an artificial term with an arbitrary definition, but the key part is that it is used interchangeably with 'black'.  Obama is black (sufficiently), so he is therefore African American.

The descriptive definition is the better of the two in this case, anyway.

Burris would beat Palin.

Elliot Spitzer would beat Palin.

Romney would beat Burris, big time, and Romney would beat Spitzer, obviously, in Rooseveltian '36 fashion.

..and naming his kids Roland Jr. & Rolanda.

Alcon and I were joking about names he could have used instead of "Roland II" and we came up with names like "He-Roland" and so on.  I suggested "Rolando" but it turns out that Roland Burris actually tried to get an obviously innocent man named Rolando executed (it was a big deal, people like resigned in order to protest Roland's orders but he still pressed on with the case, another man had already confessed to the crime) so that he didn't look weak coming up to his upcoming race for governor:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/31/roland-burris-sought-deat_n_154578.html

So I think Roland Burris isn't all gravy, if you don't mind.  I think directly sacrificing the life of an innocent man for your political ambitions is pretty screwed up

Alcon privately contacted me to correct my mistake, we actually talked about his wife settling on Rolanda instead of She-Roland.

  Concerning the debate about Burris being the first African American president, he would be trying to be the first president who come from a traditional US black American heritage, i.e. the desendant of west African slaves who were brought to America, as opposed to Obama who has no black American relatives and is east African on his father's side.

Except his wife, his daughters, his in-laws...

No. Not Burris. He's a bumbling bafoon, nothing but.

cool bump guy