Las Politicas

After capturing the big super tuesday states of New York, California, New Jersey, and Massachusets, Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been showered with bad news. Senator Obama has won all the primaries and caucuses since, in places as geographically and demographically diverse as Maine, Washington State, Louisiana, and Nebraska, indicating his broad appeal.  He has outdone Senator Clinton in fundraising efforts by a margin of 2 to 1, and has generally dinged up her aura if inevitability.  The latest tribulation comes in the form of a letter written by two New York State legislators rebuking Senator Clinton for allowing her campaign manager, Patty Solis Doyle, to step down in a campaign staff shake-up. The Clinton campaign has admitted that it is counting on victories in both Texas and Ohio on March 4th to keep it in the race.  If Ohio’s Rust Belt blue collar voters do what they’re expected to do, the state should fall into the Clinton column, but if latinos in Texas feel slighted by the change of campaign manager, it could cost HRC dearly. 

Above is a picture of her on the phone saying “hello? inevitability? why have you been such a stranger lately?” 

Dr Studly    

As February 5 approaches all that have an interest with the election process are waiting to see what will unfold. Two time presidential hopeful, John Edwards has dropped out of the race, Giuliani did not fair well at all and now has dropped out of the race as well. If Giuliani endorses McCain then McCain will then receive Giuliani’s donors…which is a paramount to another victory for McCain. It’s well known that several conservatives do not approve of McCain…which includes Tom DeLay. DeLay was tremendously vocal about his disdain for McCain’s moderate Republican principles and said that he would destroy the Republican Party. I have, but one question for DeLay…Why aren’t you in prison already? Moderate Republican principles are working to the detriment of the Republican Party? You keep telling yourself and Abramoff that. That being said, McCain could lose some serious points with ultra conservatives to Romney, thus dealing a serious blow to his campaign. McCain should just continue with painting Romney as desperate and that should work. 

How bad was Giuliani’s campaign? Almost laughable really considering how much money he had behind him. He was in Florida for a ridiculous amount of time….something like 50 days.   

How significant was Hillary’s win?  Impressive enough considering that Florida is sans delegates for Democrats. So was it a good win for Democrats? I would say so. According to exit polls a whopping two thirds of voters rejected Bush’s “handling” of the economy which was evident in the turn out. 

Next Tuesday will be wild in terms of American politics.  

Caroline

By winning the coveted endorsement of Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama has scored a hat trick of endorsements from Irish-American Senators. First came John Kerry, followed by one of my favorite Washinton politicians, Senator Pat Leahy from Vermont.  He’s the tough old Irishman who, as Caroline put it, got really worked up during his questioning of Alberto Gonzalez last March.  Now comes the Ted Kennedy endorsement, accompanied by two endorsements from the next Kennedy generation.  Apart from the ethnic component that i find personally interesting, the endorsements indicate a desire within the Democratic party establishment to break with the Clintons and present Obama (O’Bama?) as the face of the party going into the future. 

 - Dr Studly

As I am sure it has become increasingly evident to most…. competition between Obama and Clinton is acrimonious to say the least. Heated exchanges between Hillary and Obama have now spiraled into what many are saying is Bill Clinton’s campaign against Obama. Many political commentators believe that, Clinton… the first president that the black community of the US strongly identified with is vying to destroy the first would be black president.

His visibility on the campaign trail, which includes angry lectures to journalists and reporters…to his many campaign speeches prompted the Onion to post the headline “Screw it, I’m Running for President Again” All joking aside…could Bill’s visibility work to Hillary’s detriment? Maybe so…because as we know now, Obama won South Carolina. Was it Obama’s rallying the Democratic racial core or was it Bill’s attack on Obama? I would say a mixture of both.

Caroline

Three major contests and three different winners…at this point the Republican nomination is anyone’s game. Mitt Romney won his native Michigan as many predicted, but others thought differently because McCain won Michigan in 2000. Republican’s are now in the throws of fighting for South Carolina on Saturday which includes Fred Thompson. Most of the voting public, I’m sure are unaware that Thompson is still in the race. Fred should one: give up the ghost and two then endorse McCain as everyone is sure he will eventually do anyway.  Huckabee believes that his Iowa victory proved support among the social conservatives and that their continued support will aid in his eventual nomination. On Romney’s victory, Senator McCain said “Michigan welcomed their native son with their support,” A tad snide perhaps, but Romney still one in state where McCain had worked diligently for voter support. 

Over the course of past six months, voter issues have changed from national security to economic distress. Economic distress was the mitigating circumstance in regards to voter turn out in Michigan. Issues such as abortion took a backseat and Romney fixated on his problem solving skills on business and economic practices that he implemented as a former Massachusetts governor.  

After South Carolina and Nevada, February 5 will be the super Tuesday of all super Tuesday’s…it will be a maelstrom of political activity.  

Caroline

The US border patrol announced this week that they will be recruiting potential employees from the African American communities of the United States. Later this month  the first team of  black recruiters will begin their process of travelling from Texas to Virginia in order to enroll black citizen’s in the border patrol program.

From the AP.

“They are confident the Border Patrol’s compensation package — which includes pay starting at $35,000 and increasing to $70,000 in three years — will sway black applicants who have historically shunned the agency and today comprise only 1.2 percent of agents guarding the border.

The search is part of the Border Patrol’s continuing recruiting effort to meet President Bush’s mandate of boosting the force to 18,000 agents by December.”

Above is a picture of “ A Texas Gent in Foggy London Town”. Though the Texas Gent is in London this image alone would work as any sort of recruitment in Texas. 

Caroline

After poor finishes, Gov. Richardson announced yesterday that he would be dropping his presidential bid. Not surprising, but he stated that will be returning to his post as Governor of New Mexico.  

I thought that once he announced his dropped bid he would say that he was vowing for a position as a possible running mate. Last summer I heard rumblings that he may run as Hillary’s running mate.  I thought that partnership would be an unstoppable force…as a Mexican American and a woman. Both Clinton and Richardson have a life full of political experience. Maybe, America has not seen the end of Richardson and a possible run in Washington. 

Caroline

 Thanks in part to some great presents from my family I will be reading two books that I will post on when I am finished with. Dr. Studly got me an itunes gift card and specifically told me to educate my mind. So I bought “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn. It has been revised to include the Iraq War. I’ve been listening to it while driving and doing housework. I also was given Bob Woodward’s “The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat”. Since High school I have been obsessed with Nixon and Watergate. This book gives a more in depth look at Mark Felt and the reasons behind his covert mission to ruin Nixon.

 I got other presents not related to politics that are great.  

Caroline

I saw “Charlie Wilson’s War” today and I suggest that everyone go and see the movie. Good book and good movie!

“It’s absolutely astounding the lengths to which the Justice Department have gone to try and figure out what I did in a hot tub in Las Vegas. If they had put the same resources into drug trafficking… there would be half as much heroin coming into the United States as there is now.” -Charlie Wilson

Caroline

It’s that time again…that time for opposition of candidates to find out unpleasant facts about family members or past skeletons in closets. Mike Huckabee is now a prominent name as a candidate in the election and opposition research has found out some unpleasant facts about his son David.  David, it seems has partaken in some rather un-Christian like behavior which includes “disturbing the peace” and animal cruelty.

David while attending camp and also working as a camp counselor when he was 17 found a stray dog that he proceeded to hang and obviously kill. The psychopathic episode culminated in, David being dismissed from the camp and no charges were pressed. The most recent in David’s troubling behavior occurred when he boarded a plane with a loaded gun at Little Rock airport in April of this year. David was arrested, sentenced, but only served community service.

Caroline