The national political cripple fight continues with Barack Obama winning the Wyoming Democratic Caucus by around 60 percent. It looks like there were enough rich, white liberals owning ski lodges in the "Equality State" to put the Illinois senator over Hillary Clinton this afternoon.
Mean McCain: Apparently the biggest news about John McCain this week was that he got a little irritated over a question from a New York Times reporter about a private conversation he had in 2004 with John Kerry about filling his VP slot.
Gee. What has the New York Times ever done to McCain to make the man snap at one of its reporters like this? (Making the woman look the bumbling fool in the process by the way).
The real question is why Times reporters are even allowed aboard McCain's private plane. Until the paper retracts and apologizes for its poorly written, unattributed and sloppy story about the senator's alleged sexual impropriety with a lobbyist, the McCain campaign is within its rights to revoke the credentials of all Times staffers.
Disenfranchising D's: The Democrats still don't know what to do to solve the growing crisis of whether or not to sit its delegates from Florida and Michigan.
Here's an idea.
Seat the Florida delegates. It was a primary that Clinton won. Then hold a caucus in Michigan. Caucuses have been favoring Obama.
Problem solved and problem solved cheap.
Nearly 1.7 million Floridians voted in the Democrat primary; this is almost as many people who participated in the Republican contest. When the Democrats shuffled to their polling places - while on their way to the Old Country Buffet - most felt their votes were going to mean something. The Jan. 29 vote was a large enough sample of motivated Democrats in the state that you can reasonably guess the attitude of the electorate. So count them.
Clinton got 50 percent of the vote; Obama 33 percent.
Unfortunately with Michigan, Obama wasn't even on the ballot so the results showing Hillary winning are flawed. Hold a caucus where the party bosses can manipulate the vote for Obama. Then Michigan and Florida basically negate each other and the nomination process gets decided by the Super Delegates at the convention.
Does it have to take a Republican to come up with a rational solution to a mess that Democrats made?
Instead DNC Chairman Howard Dean is bound and determined to hold two more primaries which are going to wind up costing the state parties, the DNC, or the Obama and Clinton campaigns (or someone) $20 to $30 million.
Republicans across the country are no doubt shouting "Yeeaaarrghhh!!!" at the thought.
Of course Dean is trying to stick the taxpayers of both Michigan and Florida to cover the back trail of his mistake. This isn't going to happen because holding a second do-over primary has never fed a starving child.
Amazingly enough some Democrats have been consoling themselves by not blaming Dean for his continued stiff-necked insistence on disenfranchising their Florida brethren.
No it's all the fault of Gov. Charlie Crist and the Republicans in the Florida legislature. Never mind the fact that the RNC solved the problem just by halving the Sunshine State's delegates and calling it good. And the Democrat hierarchy in Michigan tried to jump the gun too by moving up their primary.
Here's the deal. If you hold two more state-wide primaries Republicans are going to figure out a way somehow to spike the Kool-Aid. Oh yeah! It's what Democrats have done for years and elephants have long, if fuzzy, memories. Ain't politics a dirty game?
Consider this wisdom. The fewer elections of national importance that are held in Florida the safer it is for America. Do Democrats really want the outcome of their presidential nomination process to be decided by a hastily organized, slap-dash redo, polling senior citizens in God's Waiting Room?
Posted by DonWard at March 08, 2008 06:01 PM | Email ThisThe leadership of the Democrats has been hijacked by the leftists like Dean who are merely puppets for the George Soros money machine. Soros is an America-hater, but apparently that doesn't bother the Democratic leadership - what a sad state of affairs.
Posted by: KS on March 8, 2008 08:11 PMHave you ever even been to Wyoming Don?
Posted by: Unkl Witz on March 8, 2008 09:42 PM"....The newfound attention by the candidates and the national news media drew many newly registered Democrats to caucus on Saturday -- officials said there were more than 2,000 registrations recently -- and lifelong Democrats who had never caucused before.
Vernice Sack, 80, and her husband, Paul Sack, 83, counted themselves among the first-time caucusgoers. They both supported Mr. Obama, they said. "He's got the right ideas," Mr. Sack said...."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/us/politics/09wyoming.html?bl&ex=1205211600&en=c658ee387d0be4f6&ei=5087%0A
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7007109937779036019
I will really be suprised if her and Bills censorship squad aren't already trying to shut down google for having this on their site.
Posted by: GS on March 9, 2008 12:02 AMHave to agree the Dem's have always had a serious spokesperson gap. One need go no further than Harry Reid to see just how grim it is. Fortunately for them, John McCain falls into the same category as his speeches are about as dynamic as skim milk. The only time he gets even mildly interesting is when he loses his temper and blows his top at some reporter asking snarky questions. Hence the nickname "Senator Hothead."
Maybe, just maybe, that's why Obama has been able to crash the party. At least the guy can communicate from the podium.
Journalism changed with Woodward and Bernstein into a goucha journalism which means that if a "reporter" can catch someone, anyone in any kind of trap they get face time on tv and fame and fortune. That is unfortunate because I wonder how many of past leaders who were considered great could exist in the environment of a 24 hour news cycle which needs to be fed even if it is with Britney being escorted to a mental ward.
This country has such huge problems now that the decision needs to be based on something other than a reporter's desire to be the next Barbara Walters.
I think the reason that many people are going the independent route is party people seem to be some of the most unforgiving fundamentalists around. They make those folks in "American Gothic" look like a couple of funsters.
Posted by: WVH on March 9, 2008 11:53 AMDemocrats and Republicans=Democrats Lite... Why vote at all if you're a libertarian?
Posted by: FreedomLover on March 9, 2008 01:33 PMWhat economy is that? The one with higher than ever gas prices (even allowing for inflation). Stock Market + Dollar in the toilet along with deficits as far as the eye can see.
Got news for you it's already happened.
Posted by: ExPatBrit on March 9, 2008 02:14 PMIf that is the best shot the Democrats have, they are toast. Not that I shed a tear for the "Maverick" to have nasty NYT tricks played on him, but it was such a pathetic attempt it probably boosted support for McLame.
If Democrats want to pin the "HotHead" label on McCain, get him going on about gooks in Nam and such. But the little Russteresue gotcha's are pathetic elementary school playground league, not national political campaign level stuff at all.
The Texas Democratic precinct caucuses were attended by 1.1 million of the 2.8 million Democrats who voted in the primary -- even though the caucus only allocated 1/3 of the national convention delegates. That was almost as many as the 1.4 million who voted in the Republican primary.
Caucuses in Michigan and Florida should produce high turnout among Democrats, and generate lots of money for the local party organizations.
Posted by: Richard Pope on March 9, 2008 07:39 PMYou should always vote. I routinely write-in Micky Mouse or some name if I don't like who is running. I thought Dr. Paul was still running, as much as I dislike the guy's campaign, you can write-in his name.
Posted by: WVH on March 9, 2008 08:08 PMI disagree. I think that if one were to read the whole story, any rational thinking person would see how much the media has fallen into the gutter. This reporter was out of line and deserved to be called on it, like McCain did - but people are so stupid that they don't comprehend this because society collectively has little or no critical thinking skills - sad commentary. In the end -we will end up getting who we deserve. In this age of stupidity we live in, that points toward the worst candidate to deal with world in which we live (i.e. Obama or Clinton) and we can kiss our freedoms, $$ and our collective arses goodbye.
With that said, Sen. McCain has to ramp up his campaign and push into the spotlight and take away from the Democrat candidates who are being publicity whores.
Posted by: KS on March 9, 2008 08:31 PM