Barack Obama's Historic Achievement: Responses By My Relatives

These are their verbal responses to Sen. Barack Obama's achievement as the first black person to be the presumptive presidential nominee for a major U.S. political party:

F.L., my early-50s uncle. He is a working-class Democrat and Sen. Barack Obama supporter who lives in Florida. He called my uncle G.J.'s home on Tuesday night: "Hello, this is [his first name] Obama!" And then hung up the line, as a way to tease my conservative Republican uncle, G.J.

G.J., my 63-year-old conservative Republican uncle. He is upper-middle-class, but works in a blue collar job and lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois: "I could live with Obama being president except for two things: He is not theologically Christian, which is obvious by his support for killing babies [abortion] and letting faggots get married. Obama is an undercover Muslim, who joined Trinity [United Church of Christ] to get ahead politically even though he knew it was an anti-American church. We also can't let Obama get in there and appoint crazy Supreme Court justices. We need to overturn abortion and keep out gay marriage."

A.J., my 54-year-old conservative Republican aunt and G.J.'s wife. She is upper-middle-class, owns a business and lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois: "It's unfortunate. This day [Wednesday, the day after the last primaries] is historic, no doubt. This is a day that our parents and grandparents fought so hard to see one day, to possibly see a black man become president. I'd love to vote for a black for president. Too bad I can't this year. I'd love to vote for a Michael Steele type of black. Too bad it's Barack Obama, who is plastic and says whatever he needs to say. If not for the Supreme Court, I'd say, 'Let the brother get in there.' But we can't lose the Supreme Court to extreme leftists who want to continue abortion and gay marriage, which Barack Obama basically supports. Obama professes to be Christian, but he doesn't follow the gospel."

M.J., my 32-year-old cousin and mother of J.J. and A.J. (see below). She is a moderate independent who has been doing temp work since a corporation outsourced her job to Bangalore, India: "I don't know who I'll vote for. I agree with McCain more on social issues and religion, but I believe Obama cares more about people like me [who have been laid off]. I don't think McCain cares about people like me."

J.J., my 13-year-old cousin who will be in 9th grade this autumn and who lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois: "I'm rooting for Obama, because he's black. We haven't had a black president, but all of these white guys. It would be good to have a black president because then black people won't be embarrassed that we've never had a black president. We can be president too."

A.J., my 10-year-old female cousin and honor roll student who lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois who will be in 6th grade this autumn: "I want Obama to win because he's black, and we haven't had a black president. It would be nice to have a female president though." Note, this is the same cousin who previously said that Sen. Clinton got on her nerves.

H.D., my 13-month-old female cousin who lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois: "o-BA-ma, o-BA-ma, o-BA-ma!" was taught to her by our cousin A.J. The candidate has now entered Baby Cuz's vocabulary, which is limited to 10 other words or phrases: "mama", "dah-dee" (daddy), "papa" or "papí" (her grandfather, G.J.; I taught her the Spanish word), "yum-yum" (food), "bay-bay" or "bah-bee" (baby), "ah-low" (hello, with her right hand to her ear whenever the phone rings), "bye-bye", "uh-oh", "no", and "dank-yee" (thank you, which I taught her and she does when you give her something). Say "McCain" to Baby Cuz and she says, "No". Too funny.

I wanted to get the reaction of my 87-year-old grandmother, who supports Sen. Barack Obama for president, but she has been out and about with her very active self. I should get a response soon from her, which should put more historical context on things.