Thursday, March 6, 2008

DC Resident To Florida And Michigan: Tough

Via Sullivan comes word of the incredibly predictable cry from the governors of Florida and Michigan: Save Our Delegates!

You know what, guys? There's actually precedent here. And I don't mean 100-year old precedent, I mean last election cycle precedent. That's when the District of Columbia, in an attempt to draw attention to the fact that those of us who live here have no voting representation in Congress, moved up its primary into January.

Can you guess what happened? No? Okay, I'll tell you what happened: The DNC told us to stick our primary where the sun don't shine. So you know what we did? Instead of crying on about how everyone should kiss our Big State asses, we did the responsible thing and held a caucus in February. Was this ideal? Not at all. In fact, it ended up costing me the opportunity to vote, because I was stuck at work. Oh well, those are the breaks.

The second-class citizens here in DC had to deal with the consequences of our political elders making a bone-headed attempt to move our primary up. The politicians running the shows in Michigan and Florida had the benefit of this very recent example of consequences when they made their decisions, and chose to ignore it. Now they're complaining like grounded teenagers that the curfew was "unfair." Too bad, those were the rules. They're not particularly fair, but they were made very clear from day one of this campaign. You want your delegations seated? Fine, schedule yourselves a caucus, or a real primary, not one that violates the rules. It's what the District had to do, and if you think you're somehow so damn special that the rules don't apply to you, you can go choke on a hanging chad.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

NYS NOW: Still Crazy After All These Weeks

Woo-hoo! It's always a good day (or evening, in this case) when my inbox is graced with a Marilyn Fitterman press release:
Mr. Obama's experience and education can't hold a candle to that of Hillary Clinton, who has had the opportunity to actually live and work in the White House for eight years, and to work in the Senate for six years. Damn it, how much more should one have to know to be able to run this great nation of ours?
Hey, yeah! Say, how'd that health care reform work out? Oh, too soon? Seriously, Hillary didn't even have a security clearance when she was first lady...how can you put out a press release railing against sexism and misogyny, and in that very same press release, claim that being the wife of the president qualifies you to be president more than being a state senator?

Plus, education-wise, it's pretty damned snobby to say that a J.D. from Harvard "can't hold a candle" to a J.D. from Yale: ooooh, big difference...plus, and having gone to law school myself, I can say this with certainty, law school does pretty much nothing to prepare you to be president, aside from maybe artificially inflate your sense of self esteem. You know, assuming that Hillary's time as First Lady evens out Obama's time as an actual, you know, elected state senator, then according to Ms. Fitterman, Obama's four fewer years in the U.S. Senate mean he "can't hold a candle" to Hillary's experience"...and if that's the basis for your campaign, then good luck against McCain in November.

I'm not saying she wouldn't make a better president, I'm just saying that statements like this from your supporters don't really help.

New Primary Boogie

Please don't dominate the rap Jack
If you got nothing new to say
If you please don't back up the track
This train got to run today

* * *

One way or another
One way or another
One way or another
This darkness got to give.

The never-ending primary campaign rolls on today...and, regardless of the outcome, will keep on rolling through Pennsylvania. Which wouldn't be so bad, if the MSM election coverage wasn't so Drudge-influenced it resembles the work of TMZ and Perez Hilton more than that of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite...and of course, the blogosphere ain't much better.

Not that the campaigns themselves are much help, either.

In fact, I'm not really sure why I pay attention at all...

At any rate, here are some predictions, for posterity:

Clinton wins the overall Texas vote by a few points - say, 52% - 48% - but because there are more delegates allocated to districts in cities like Austin and Houston, ends up not netting more than one or two delegates. She'll carry Ohio by about 8-10 points, but again, only net maybe 5-10 delegates. Obama will win big in Vermont, netting 5 delegates. Hillary will win Rhode Island by, say, 55-45, and net 3-4 delegates there. Overall, Hillary will come out of the day netting 5-10 delegates...which, of course, only reduces Obama's lead to around 90-95...and of course, Obama will make up all of those delegates in North Carolina.

I don't see how Hillary can win the nomination at this point without things getting ugly at the convention, but I don't see why she would (or should, really) bow out before Pennsylvania. I just really, really hope she doesn't continue down the "McCain has more experience than Obama" route, since, you know, I'd hate to have to watch clips of her in McCain's campaign ads next fall (probably already too late for that, sadly).