It's After 3am...Why Am I Doing This For?

Boring Coverage of the Race for the Right to Run in Another Race

After Tuesday’s primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) is less than 180 delegates away from clinching the nomination. He narrowly lost Indiana, while winning NC by a huge margin. Overall, he picked up about 11 more delegates on the night than Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY).

More importantly, Clinton’s thin victory in Indiana did nothing to enhance her ‘electability’ argument, especially since she got blown out in North Carolina. Her staff has resorted to claiming that Obama actually needs to win 2,209 delegates as opposed to the 2,025 number that I’ve worked so hard to memorize. Their ‘logic’ is that Florida and Michigan’s delegates should be seated even though both states violated rules that her campaign had supported back when it was politically convenient to support those rules.

The exit polls are showing the continued trend of Clinton’s supporters threatening to not support Obama in the general election. While the threats will probably lack action on a large level, I do think there’s a better chance of Clinton’s supporters voting for Senator John McCain (R-AZ) than the one-fifth of Obama’s supporters who say they’ll vote for the Republican nominee if Clinton is selected by the superdelegates. My thought has been that most of Obama’s supporters just won’t show up on election day if he isn’t the nominee.

There are six contests remaining: West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico. With the exception of Puerto Rico (and possibly West Virginia and maybe Kentucky), I tend to think Obama can win all of those primaries. And if Clinton can win any of those, it won’t be by enough of a margin to make much of a difference. It will come down to those superdelegates, and even though you shouldn’t count out a Clinton in a backroom fight, I just can’t believe they’ll override the popular vote and pledged delegate count.

Fun with Numbers

This is the greatest thing in the whole world. It’s a delegate counter that allows you to see what percentage of superdelegates each candidate would have to win in order to win the election based on the results of the remaining primaries. I’m not describing it that well but it’s definitely worth a look. Basically, it looks like Clinton is going to have to win about 80% of the remaining superdelegates and that seems extremely unlikely. Maybe if Clinton had access to this tool, she'd drop out. I don't know.

Show Him the Money!

And how great is the superdelegate system? Some fucking moron, Californian lawyer Steven Ybarra, who is also superdelegate, wants either Obama or Clinton to pay him $20 million for his vote. Yeah, what a great system.

Rush to Judgment

Rush Limbaugh, who was telling his Dittoheads to vote for Clinton to extend out the Democratic primary, has now decided that actually Obama is the weaker of the two candidates, thus the one easier to defeat in November. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) believes that Limbaugh is the one who pushed Clinton to victory in Indiana, “If it was not for Republicans taking Democratic ballots, [Obama] would have won.”

This is obviously pretty crazy since of the self identified Republicans (10% of the electorate), 46% supported Obama. The eight points she won out of a 10% bloc wouldn’t’ve considerably changed the outcome.

This past Sunday, Clinton said that Rush Limbaugh has always had a crush on her. Which led Jay Leno to say on Wednesday, “What is it with the Clintons and their magical power over chubby people? Chubby people can’t resist them!”

More bad news for Clinton

Before the Iowa caucuses, former Senator George McGovern (and one-time presidential candidate) supported Clinton. But he’s jumped ship now and has now endorsed Obama. I’m not being cynical but it does seem like McGovern doesn’t want to be backing a loser. He supported Clinton when she was a frontrunner and now that Obama is the frontrunner, McGovern has become ‘Obama Boy.’

Did his need to support a winner cause him to vote for Nixon in '72?

Dream Ticket: Take 112

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, a former aide to former President Bill Clinton, is claiming that Hillary Clinton is negotiating for a spot on the ticket with Obama as vice-president. I think this is crazy. Number one: I find it somewhat hard to believe she would seek that position and second, I find it impossible to believe that Obama would agree to it. Would he really want someone THAT high profile as his number two? And would he want that number two to have Bill Clinton as a husband? I understand that Obama stands to lose some support from Clinton voters but if wins in November, the cost of having her as a vice-president might be too high to consider.

Hillary Better Than Bill?

This headline claims that Bill Clinton said that his wife would be a better president than he was. Then when you read the article, getting down to the very bottom, the actual quote is found. Earlier, his Chelsea Clinton had said that her mother would be a better president than her father and he said, “for this time in our history, I agree with my daughter.” That’s not the same thing as saying she’d be a better president than he was.

Last Thing About the Gas Tax Holiday...I Promise

More than 200 economists have signed a letter condemning Clinton and McCain’s plan to have a ‘Gas Tax Holiday.’ The number of economists that have come out in opposition to this haven’t deterred the two presidential candidates.

McCain attacked the group as basically being elitists, “Thirty dollars means nothing to a lot of economists -- I understand that. It means a lot to some low-income Americans.” That the $30 savings is likely to be counterweighted by an increase at the fuel pumps that will offset any savings wasn’t addressed by McCain, who had his economic credentials questioned throughout the Republican primary.

Clinton said, “I'm not going to put my lot in with economists.” You know, because when it comes to money, are you really going to trust someone who deals with numbers?

Several supports of all three candidates signed onto the letter.

Conservatives=Happy People?

Conservatives are happier than liberals according to a new study. This is largely because conservatives rationalize the inequalities that exist in the world. The study didn’t discuss moderates, so I don’t know whether I should be happy or sad.

Sniper Asks For Death

John Allen Muhammad, convicted DC Sniper, pulled a McVeigh (sorta) and has asked for his death row appeals be abandoned so Virginia “can murder this innocent Black man.” Now, most people who are claiming their innocence, don’t ask to be put to death. But then again, those who modify their 1990 Chevy Caprice to be able to sit in the trunk and shoot people while then speeding away…tend not to actually be innocent. “What? This car that you found me sleeping in…You think it’s mine? And this gun that matches the gun used at all the crime scenes…You think it’s mine too? You must be a racist.”

Speaking as someone who lived in the area at that time, the idea that both he and Lee Malvo haven’t already been executed is a miscarriage of justice. The fact that Malvo, the main triggerman in most of the shootings, was spared the death penalty is a further travesty. For Muhammad to turn this into a racial issue almost doesn’t deserve coverage.

And on to Sharpton

Al Sharpton was arrested during the recent protests in New York City following the Sean Bell shooting trial. Around 200 others protestors were also arrested after many of them were blocking traffic and otherwise making a nuisance. Sharpton claims this is about protecting civil rights but of course is violating the civil rights of drivers whose ‘crime’ was to be driving to work or wherever they happened to be going. But their civil rights don’t matter as much. And I realize there’s a difference between being shot/killed and being stuck in protest-related traffic but I really hate being in traffic and I think I’d rather be shot…so you know…

Sharpton wants to meet with New York Governor David Patterson (D-NY) but Patterson won’t see him…because he’s blind. Get it? Get it? The meeting is scheduled for Thursday. Remember when Sharpton used to always wear that jogging suit? Yeah, that was always pretty funny. I wish I had a jogging suit. I’d only wear it once probably but it would be a great day. I’d eat a hamburger and probably watch television. Oh, it’d be great.

Important Headlines

On my birthday, a new law will go into effect in Georgia that bans the sale of ‘Pot candy’ to minors. I hafta say, I’m not familiar with ‘Kronic Kandy’ and ‘Pot Suckers.’ Slight irony? The bill was pushed by State Senator Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna).

A study has come out showing how hard life is on the first born child. Indeed. I read the first half of the article and then I stopped due to a combination of boredom and illiteracy.

Packing Progress

I packed up my bedroom, bedroom closet and the bathroom. My storage closet and coat closet are already packed up. It looks like I just might be able to be ready to move after all. The move in date is unofficially a week from today. I just have the living area and kitchen left and I’ll be ready to go.

I have a strategy I use when packing. I pack for 10 minutes and then sit down and watch television. I then pack for 10 more minutes and then watch more television. It’s worked okay so far.

Why I Hate Birds

I went out to my car today and a bird apparently had decided to shit on my car. And I don’t mean a little bird turd. It was like a flying dog decided to take a dump on my car. It took up like half the window on the driver’s side. It was fuckin’ awful.

What I Watched on Television Today

In addition to the Braves game, I watched ‘Down in the Valley’ with Ed Norton. It wasn’t very good. Actually, I didn’t like it at all but I could watch him in pretty much anything. Except the ‘Illusionist’…and ‘The Painted Veil.’ Oh well…almost anything.

Right now, I have the television on mute and there’s an infomercial for some grants seminar about getting free money from the government or something and one of the pitchmen is former Representative JD Hayworth (R-AZ). The dude freaks the shit out of me. First of all, he’s funny looking. He’s one of those Republicans that came to office in the 1994 elections and he ran as one of those ‘I’m going to change Washington’ candidates and then was part of several financial scandals that included the Jack Abramoff/Indian casino thing and a scandal involving campaign payments to his wife. He’s a big mouth who says flamboyant things mainly so he can get his face on television. In his last campaign, which he lost in 2006, several Republican leaders in Arizona came out in support of the Democratic candidate because they didn’t like Hayworth. Now he apparently has his own radio show which will prevent you from seeing his funny face and oddly shaped head but you still will be tortured with his outlandish pronouncements.

As for the infomercial: It looks like a scam to me but surely the Honorable JD Hayworth wouldn’t be endorsing something of questionable integrity. Here’s a tip for you, don’t trust anyone who uses initials for a first name. If they don’t give you a full first name, they’re probably trying to trick you. Or they might be poor and can’t afford a ‘real’ name, which means you should be especially careful because they might try to steal yours.

Hey, is going from Congress to appearing on infomercials considered a downgrade?

What I’m Listening to on My Mp3 Player

I’m listening to a playlist of four albums that I just got (thanks to gift certificates I was given for being part of a special group of people): The National’s ‘Alligator,’ Bishop Allen’s two CD collection of EPs and the recently released ‘Pershing’ from Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, a Missouri band that ranks somewhere between awesome and really awesome. The first album from SSLYBY featured the song ‘House Fire,’ which reminds me a little of Guster. Here’s the video for it and it’s a reminder that if you can ever find someone to race toy cars with, you should always be happy.



Final Thoughts

Lipozene commercials make me feel like I’m being asked to join a cult. And the worst part? I considered joining. I called the number and it turns out they’re selling a weight loss drug. Now, maybe I should’ve bought it but I say if it’s not a cult, I’m not interested.

I saw Steve Winwood sing on television. And I had Cap’n Crunch for breakfast the next day. Coincidence?

Thanks to POD, I now know that ‘story’ and ‘glory’ rhyme with each other.

For my coverage of the Atlanta Braves, please visit http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/djwright.