May 9th, 2008
There’s little progress to report today. Ongoing plans to take over the world remain stalled. It’s been one of those weeks where you’re waiting to take a step forward, but keep placing one foot behind the other.
It certainly has to feel like one of those weeks for the Democratic Presidential candidates. Persisting despite this show having previously called the results of the 2008 Presidential election all the way back in February of 2007, the campaign season just seems to keep rolling on, making less progress than frozen molasses.
All but mathematically eliminated, Hillary Clinton stubbornly remains in the race.
Remember when she was the front-runner? It was just a year ago when she was the candidate to beat. She had the backing of the Democratic party’s major fundraisers, who ponied up at another thousand dollar a plate dinners, just as they had been doing for the Clintons since 1992.
The conventional wisdom was that she had the nomination all but in the bag. As we went to broadcast this evening she was behind in pledged delegates, primaries won, and in the total popular vote.
So what happened? It turns out that her campaign’s Chief Strategist, Mark Penn, was more of a strategerist.
Mr. Penn advised the Clintons that they just needed to win in a few big states on February 5th, Super Tuesday.
Remember the hype around Super Tuesday? The day that was supposed to decide the nomination? The Clinton team expected to run away with the nomination by claiming an overwhelming lead in pledged delegates to the party’s convention.
It didn’t happen. Not because Mrs. Clinton failed to win the big states. She did. What she and Mr. Penn failed to realize was something not so overlooked by the Obama campaign: Democrats don’t vote like Republicans.
The Clinton strategy relied upon winning the delegates of California, New York, and the other major states. Nice idea, but the Democratic party hasn’t used a winner-take-all delegate system since the early 1980s. Had she been running as a Republican, the Clinton strategy would have worked. If she had been running against Jimmy Carter, in 1976, the Clinton strategy would have worked.
If she was convincingly liberal, the Clinton strategy would have worked. But she isn’t. There’s a candidate who’s actually liberal, and he’s leading in all categories that don’t involve entrenched Democratic party elites.
The persistence of Mrs. Clinton has been frustrating to backers of Mr. Obama, who look to his lead in delegates, the states remaining, and see the ultimate futility of continuing the campaign.
“End this now,” they say, “before it hurts the winner’s chances against John McCain.”
Clinton recently responded that she’s the better candidate because white people are more likely to vote for her. Yes, that’s how far she’s fallen.
Is this hurting Mr. Obama’s chances against McNasty?
Not even close. The real election isn’t happening in November. This is the election. The deck is stacked against any Republican candidate this year, even more so against a Republican candidate who intends to continue unchanged the policies of the worst President in American history.
If John McCain manages to make it to November without breaking a hip, he’s still going to lose by a landslide.
You heard it here first, back in February of 2007, when we called the election for Mr. Obama.
It isn’t February anymore. It’s May, the 9th of May, in Ought-Seven, and this is the Timothy Jordan Show News, abbreviated.
It’s abbreviated because your Senior Political Correspondent here really has been working to take over the world, and those hours are long.
The News keeps coming, unfortunately.
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Bear witness to the clueless, the really clueless. There were primary elections in North Carolina and Indiana on Tuesday. Just over 15,000 voters in Indiana cast their ballots for Mitt Romney, a little more than 5% of the vote going to a man who dropped out of the race several months ago.
Well done, voters of Indiana.
• Votes for Mitt Romney, via Wonkette
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Surprise, surprise, political appointees in the Bush Administration are interfering in scientific decisions at the Environmental Protection Agency.
No, this isn’t old news, although it is. The Union of Concerned Scientists released a new report about interference at the EPA this week.
Scientists working for the EPA have been voicing their concerns. They reported the greatest levels of interference in offices that are involved with environmental regulation, the point where any decisions become effective against pollution.
The influence of major industries on the Bush administration continues unabated despite calls for increased oversight, according to the UCS report.
• UCS, Interference at the EPA
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I nearly handed our Award of Excellence to Sen. Roy Wyden of Oregon this week. Speaking at a communications industry conference in our nation’s capitol this week, Sen. Wyden promised to fight for the principle of network neutrality with every ounce of his strength.
He believes that the current push by major internet service providers like AT&T and Comcast to regulate the content of their networks will open them up to liability for illegal materials, like child porn.
Websites and service providers are protected against liability for the content carried on their networks by a provision of the Communications Decency Act. But, the Senator believes, if they start regulating the content of their networks through paid tiers of service provided, then there’s an element of intention over what’s allowed to pass.
Just something to keep in mind, Comcast. You may get more than you ask for.
• Ars Technica, Senator to ISPs: “Think twice” about ‘Net neutrality… or else
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All I ask for is excellence, and this week, it comes in the form of exposing ignorance.
There was a lot of hype last week about the various proposals for a gas tax holiday over the summer. It was a load of hooey because the two candidates in favor of a gas tax were six months out from the election and in no position to set government policy.
It was also a very, very stupid idea. And it wasn’t just me and every economist who ever has ever lived that thought so.
It was nothing more than a scam, and a bad one at that. But it wasn’t really apparent just how bad until it was presented in the form of a Nigerian email.
“CONFIDENTIAL/URGENT POLITICAL PROPOSAL
Dear Sir,
First we must solicit your confidence in this issue. This is by virtue as being utterly confidential and “top secret”.
We are SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON, the wife of the former United States head of state, PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, and also SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN, friend and associate of current head of state PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH.
We are top officials of the United States Senate Government who are interested in importation of oil into our country with funds that are presently trapped in the FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION TRUST FUND dedicated to improving transportation. We wish to send this money to overseas accounts in the MIDDLE EAST but cannot due to restrictions in Congress Transportation Equity Act requiring that this money must be spent to build roads, bridges and high speed trains.”
Yeah, that’s exactly what they were talking about doing.
It’s stupid, wrong, and anything but excellent. What’s excellent this week is gastaxscam.com.
And that’s the News for the 9th of May, Ought-Eight.