Posts Tagged ‘ Primaries

Daily del.icio.us Bookmarks for 05/12/08 12 May 2008 at 12:02 pm by Jason 146 views

These are my daily “Good to Know” links for 05/12/08 … please enjoy:

WiiWare is live!! | Joystiq

We know there’s little chance that the Nintendo faithful among you haven’t already circled May 12 on your calendar with your Nintendo World Championships 1990 commemorative Sharpie, but just in case, let us remind you that the WiiWare service is now live.

11-year-old gives $440 to Clinton campaign | The Times West Virginian

11-year-old Dalton Hatfield feels so strongly that Hillary Clinton should be the next president he not only sold his bicycle, but video games and anything else that “I could make money with” to donate to the former first lady’s bid for the nomination.

Not Quite Yet | RealClearPolitics

Elite opinion on the Democratic race has congealed around the idea that it is over. Clinton has no chance whatsoever to win the nomination now. I think she is nearly finished, but not quite yet.

Colossal Castle or Humble Home? Same Price ? Your Choice | DivineCaroline

From the rolling green pastures of France, to the sparkling coastline of Mexico, why live in a cramped, rat-infested junior one-bedroom when you can reign high in your very own castle?

The Get Out Clause, Manchester’s stars of CCTV cameras | Telegraph

Unable to afford a camera crew and equipment, The Get Out Clause decided to make use of the cameras seen all over British streets. Afterwards they wrote to the companies involved and asked for the footage under the Freedom of Information Act.

Come back for more links tomorrow!!



+ Fairness when questioning the children of candidates By Jason 02 April 2008 at 4:15 am 144 views 1 Comment

I came across this article at the Pensito Review talking about Chelsea Clinton getting asked once again about her father’s infidelities. The author brings up a couple great points:

Why should any philanderer’s daughter be asked to answer for her old man’s inability to keep his zipper shut? If there ever was a question that deserved to be ducked, it’s “What do you think about your dad’s extramarital affair?”

If we’re going to adopt this new level of accountability, it ought to be applied fairly. So it has to be fair game to ask John McCain’s daughter, Meghan, who also campaigns for her father, about his long-ago adulteries and more recent relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman; her mother Cindy McCain’s drug problem, which drove her to steal opoids from the medical charity she established; and the involvement of both her parents in the Keating Five Scandal back in 1989.

This is something that has been bugging me for awhile now. Let’s say that Chelsea did have an answer for her Dad’s behavior. What does this change? What does this have to do about her mother’s campaign? In my mind, absolutely nothing. I believe it’s just another attempt to remind everyone about the Lewinsky scandal however they can. Let’s be honest, if my father committed adultery (which, to my knowledge, he hasn’t), I’d be absolutely outraged if someone came up to me or one of my siblings and asked us to answer for him. It’s amazing what people can get away with during a political campaign… I mean, when else is it acceptable for things like this? And if it is now acceptable, like it was stated above, why aren’t we questioning Meghan McCain?

My big question is, if Obama wins the nomination, will we see more attacks against McCain, as Hillary won’t be around? Or will the attacks just increase against Obama? It’s disheartening to read things like:

The Rasmussen poll says only 56 percent of Clinton supporters say they would vote for Obama over McCain if Obama wins the nomination compared with 40 percent who said they would not likely vote for him. If Clinton won, 69 percent of Obama supporters would vote for her compared with 29 percent who would not.

I continue to fear that no matter what happens, Clinton or Obama, we may be faced with McCain in the White House. The only thing I can see stopping this is if there is an alternate ballot at the DNC with someone everyone can agree on (Al Gore is the name bandied around). We’ll have to wait and see, but it worries me.



+ Election Deathmatch Coverage! By Jason 01 April 2008 at 12:00 am 116 views No Comments

The coverage starts at 9PM, so get ready for action live on ESPN4!!

Election Deathmatch

What better way to settle the fight between Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama than with a winner-take-all, fight-to-the-finish, loser-goes-home-crying good old fashioned deathmatch? ESPN4 brings you all of the action LIVE, tonight at 9PM ET. Each candidate will take part in several events, officiated by libertari-pendant candidate Ron Paul. Challenges will include:

The Dick Cheney skeet shooting contest. What better way to prove you’ve got the poker face that it will take to negotiate treaties with hostile world leaders than by taking a load of birdshot to the face?

The Dennis Kucinich dwarf toss. Who’s got the strength to toss the mini-congressman to the other side of the aisle?

The Al Gore 20000k Eco Fun Run. Which candidate can go the distance? Who can do it with the least carbon emissions, and without suffering an Inconvienient Stroke?

The Alberto Gonzalez “I Don’t Recall” Relay. If history has shown us anything, it is that “forgetting” is part of being a good leader. Who can finish the race without letting any facts out?
The George Bush Constitutional Hurdles. Sure, clearing all those hurdles will be tough. Why not just knock them all down?

Catch all the action LIVE, April 1st at 9PM ET, and vote for your favorite candidate by texting your vote to 040108. (Vote does not apply to residents of Florida or Michigan.)

EDIT (April 2nd) - Gotcha!  April Fools!!



+ Electoral Votes! By Jason 24 March 2008 at 9:10 am 135 views No Comments

With so much time being spent on polls and such on the 2008 Primary, Electoral-Votes.com decided to start a running Electoral Vote map. The first map is a Barack Obama vs. John McCain, and the other is Hillary Clinton vs. John McCain. He will be updating the maps daily, and here’s what he has to say about them:

Starting today and until we have a Democratic nominee, two maps will be available for the general election, one for Obama-McCain and one for Clinton-McCain. Links to them will be given below the main map. Please keep in mind that in politics, a week is a long time and 7 months is forever. If you doubt this, check out the electoral college graph for 2004. Notice that Kerry was ahead by 125-150 electoral votes all summer, until the Swift Boat ad started, which precipitated a huge decline from which he never recovered. This graph will be run again this year, but we need a pair of nominees first.

Nevertheless, from a quick inspection of the Obama-McCain and Clinton-McCain maps you can see graphically what you probably already knew. Hillary Clinton is a traditional Democrat and does well in places Democrats usually do well in. She also does well in Florida due to the large number of New York snowbirds who live there in the winter. If she is the nominee, you are going to see a monumental traffic jam Nov. 1 all up and down the East Coast as hundreds of thousands of snowbirds drive down to Florida in time to vote there Nov. 4. Of course, McCain can neutralize her by picking popular Florida governor Charlie Crist as his running mate.

Clinton also does well in the rust belt, but if the economy is in deep doo doo come November, any Democrat can win those states by just talking jobs jobs jobs instead of tax cuts. Obama’s strength is in the red states. He might be able to win Colorado (which has been trending blue anyway) and Nevada. No matter what the map shows, he’s not going to win North Dakota unless buffalos get the vote real quick. But he could easily force McCain to spend real money in states that ought to be no-brainers, like Texas (SurveyUSA’s poll shows McCain ahead of Obama there only 47% to 46%). In short, Clinton’s slogan will be “Kerry + Florida whereas Obama will be playing Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy.

So, with all that… what do the current numbers show? Let’s take a look. First up, Obama/McCain:

Obama/McCain Map

Electoral Votes: Obama 231 — McCain 292 — Ties 15

Ouch. Hello President McCain as of today’s numbers. Now it’s on to Clinton/McCain:

Clinton/McCain Map

Electoral Votes: Clinton 268 — McCain 246 — Ties 24

Would you look at that? Hello Mrs. President as of today’s numbers. Interesting! It’ll be neat to see how these maps change over the course of the next few months!



+ Clinton crushes one out of the park! By Jason 05 March 2008 at 8:28 am 97 views No Comments

Rhode Island… done. Texas… outta here. Ohio… stick a fork in it. Last night Hillary Clinton not only stopped Obama’s winning streak, but with 3 large victories she stopped his momentum faster than a crash barrier could stop a speeding dump truck. Obama has to be hurting… not only has the press turned on him over the past couple days, but now his “sure thing” has become a little more unsure. To quote the article above:

And how did Obama react? He blew up during a Texas press conference heavily attended by Chicago journalists. He stormed off after only eight questions regarding the contacts between his campaign and Canadian diplomats over NAFTA and the Rezko trial. The national press had already been grumbling about his insularity, and Obama gave them an excuse to write reams of material about it, Rezko, and the NAFTA dance.

In short, Obama has exposed himself as a seriously inexperienced and flawed candidate. He hasn’t really been tested until now, and the glass jaw he showed in the first few days of the real bout must have the party establishment worried about a lengthy battle against either Hillary or McCain. Against both, he may soon flounder — and that slim lead in pledged delegates will not present much of an obstacle to bypassing him in Denver.

Yikes. Obama doesn’t do well when he’s not winning and everything isn’t rainbows and puppy dogs and sunshine it seems. Now, the one thing I keep hearing people say is “Well, he’s won more states! Hillary should just give up!” The only response I can give to that is, have you checked out the “popular” vote? Sure, Obama has a few more delegates and has won more states, but the man can’t seem to swing a big state to save himself. California? Clinton. New York? Clinton. Texas? Ohio? New Jersey? Clinton. Obama does great in small states like Alaska, North Dakota, Hawaii, etc… but he just can’t seem to get a big win. Not something someone trying to become President wants to see. Anyway, the popular vote… last week Obama’s camp said Hillary should drop out after losing 11 states in a row, but here is the current breakdown of the popular vote (as of 8:00AM CST from CNN.com):

Barack Obama: 13,423,474 (50.36%)

Hillary Clinton: 13,234,050 (49.64%)

Just a bit close, no? That’s a difference of only 189,424 people out of 26,657,524 votes… that translates into a 0.71% lead. Oh yeah, she really has no chance at all… you know, unless she actually starts winning states again (whoops, looks like that’s happening!). For those curious, these numbers include FL and MI, with Obama getting all the “non-Clinton” votes from MI and it does not include the Texas caucus (which is still being counted and too close to call).

In other news (meaning Republican news), Huckabee finally conceded defeat last night after losing to McCain. While this news is completely expected, it was nice to see him actually run the full race rather than just give up early on. So, the GOP finally has their nominee in the bag… now he just needs to pick a running mate. Let’s hope the Democrats figure this whole thing out soon before they’re left in the dust. Now, I’ve mentioned it before, but I’d love to see a Clinton-Obama ticket, and apparently so would Hillary:

With most political observers sound asleep after a long Tuesday evening that appeared to augur at least seven more weeks of possibly bitter and divisive struggle between the two Democrats until a potentially decisive Pennsylvania primary on April 22, Clinton went on some morning news programs, according to the Associated Press, and appeared to raise the possibility of a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket.

“That may be where this is headed,” she said, “but, of course, we have to decide who is on the top of ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me.”

Interesting… that’s the second time this has come from her camp, but the first time it has been mentioned by her. It’s also a smart move… it shows that she respects Obama and wants to try to re-unite the Democratic Party. It’s also a trap, as he’s kind of in trouble either way he answers. If he says “no”, then it make it look like he’s just trying to make a power grab, the nomination is his and only his! Screw the party!! If he says “yes” to the thought, then voters may start voting more for Hillary as it will stall his momentum more. Smart move by her any way you can look at it.

Well, it looks like we’ll be continuing on to the next races… fun fun fun! :)