Although Leflore County residents are divided over the results of Tuesday’s presidential election, some are focusing on the future instead of dwelling on the past.
Former U.S. Rep. Webb Franklin, a Republican and a Greenwood attorney, said this morning he was disappointed by President Barack Obama’s re-election but is confident that the country will be able to work together over the next four years.
“We need to get together on these difficult things. The president has no choice but to sit down with Congress to stop us from going off this cliff,” he said. “(Obama’s) acceptance speech took a step towards bipartisanship. I just hope they do it now. Don’t wait for another day to work on these difficult issues. Do them now.”
Republican challenger Mitt Romney won Mississippi’s six electoral votes, getting 660,975 votes (55 percent) to Obama’s 520,206 (44 percent).
Obama easily won Leflore County with 8,423 votes (73 percent) to Romney’s 3,115 (27 percent). The reverse was true in Carroll County where Romney got 3,953 votes (66 percent) to 1,990 (33 percent) for Obama.
Franklin attributed Romney’s loss not to the direction of the Republican Party but rather to the party’s failure to recognize the changing demographic of the country.
“We have to cultivate leadership among the black community and the Latin community,” he said.
Ben Arnold, a music instructor at Mississippi Valley State University and a bookseller at Turnrow Book Co., said he was happy and optimistic that the president has been given four more years.
Johnnie Pilcher, a Greenwood native and resident, said Obama was doing all that he could to “help me and people like me,” adding, “I voted yesterday, and I am optimistic for the future.”
Some other Leflore County residents were less enthusiastic.
Ann Gray of Sidon, a Republican who has volunteered as a poll watcher in the past and has taken a personal interest in both local and national politics, said that the election returns were so offensive that she couldn’t even watch the whole thing.
“I am very depressed that the president won. In the House and Senate, I don’t like the fact that the Tea Party lost,” she said.
Gray said that the next four years would be “horrible” and that she felt sorry for her grandchildren, who are the reason she got involved with politics in the first place.
“I want America to be what it used to be, not what it’s going to be,” she said.
Greenwood carpenter Alex Coleman said he was happy that Obama was given a second term, though he doesn’t claim affiliation with either political party.
“I guess we’ll have to take it day by day,” he said. “Men, women, black people, white people, that’s good to see them all together. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, just as long you have the right plan.”
State Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, said he is pleased that Obama came out on top and believes the election should serve as a wake-up call for bipartisanship.
“I feel good, excellent, but one must realize that we all must work together here,” he said.
According to Jordan, the past four years have been too negative, and he expressed hope that more respect will be shown to the commander-in-chief in his second term.
“Ever since I was 12 or 13 years old I learned to respect the president,” he said. “We should respect the president no matter who he is, and this president has not been respected.”
Jordan said that he was optimistic at the local and state level and would “like to see Mississippians, black and white, Democrats and Republicans, come together.”
•Contact Jeanie Riess at 581-7235 or jriess@gwcommonwealth.com.
