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Hillary Mathematically Out of It

Hillary’s Math Problem | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 | Newsweek.com

Hillary Clinton may be poised for a big night tonight, with wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. Clinton aides say this will be the beginning of her comeback against Barack Obama. There’s only one problem with this analysis: they can’t count.

I’m no good at math either, but with the help of Slate’s Delegate Calculator I’ve scoped out the rest of the primaries, and even if you assume huge Hillary wins from here on out, the numbers don’t look good for Clinton. In order to show how deep a hole she’s in, I’ve given her the benefit of the doubt every week for the rest of the primaries.

I love definitive articles like this one. Tip of the hat to Jonathan Alter.

Will Google Heart Obama?

Official Google Blog: Presidential campaign trail winds through the Googleplex

… we’ve invited all the presidential candidates to come visit our headquarters in California and share their ideas in town hall-style meetings with our employees.

In February we were honored to host Sen. Hillary Clinton on campus for the first candidate visit, and last Friday we welcomed Sen. John McCain as our second visitor. We’re flattered that the other candidates have responded positively to our invitations, and we’re working to schedule their visits over the next few months.

Just as the Internet poses interesting policy questions, it also helps empower citizens with more information. So, to help potential voters learn more about the candidates and their views on the issues, we’ve posted the complete, unedited videos of these candidate talks on YouTube. Take some time to check out Sen. Clinton’s talk and Sen. McCain’s (as well as a special interview that Sen. McCain did with YouTube’s CitizenTube).


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What? Obama hasn’t been to Google yet? That’s one of those events that seems so inevitable that it’s surprising it hasn’t happened yet.

Obama’s instinctive cautious progressivism will play well at the GooglePlex.

Here’s a hypothetical question for Google employees to pose at the confab: if Larry Page and Sergey Brin offer to let Obama use their 767, will he renounce his “no private jets” pledge?

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Jackie Robinson wore 42

I was a day late on this, but in this case, at least, better late than never.

Jackie Robinson 42

Obama addresses racial issue

Obama seeks to settle racial doubts – Tom Curry – MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON – If the Democrats choose Sen. Barack Obama to be their presidential nominee in 2008, will his skin color and his name cost him enough votes to lose the election? Signaling that he knows this worry is on some Democrats’ minds, Obama addressed the issues of skin color and identity during his tour of New Hampshire last weekend.

The terrible thing is that he’ll never know if race was an issue unless he wins.

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Obama endorses Bears (video)

Major announcement: Obama backs Bears – NFL – MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON – Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, a potential presidential candidate, planned to end weeks of speculation Monday and tell a national audience … he supports his hometown Chicago Bears.

Having some fun with all the political hype, Obama mocked the frenzied interest by taping the introduction to ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between his hometown Chicago Bears and the St. Louis Rams.

“So tonight I’d like to put all the doubts to rest. And tonight, after a lot of thought and a good deal of soul-searching, I would like to announce to my hometown of Chicago and all of America that I’m ready …”

And to top it all of he’s got a sense of humor!

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HuffPo blames Alma Powell for the years 2001 – 2008, in their entirety

Fearless Voices | Bella DePaulo: Barack Obama for President? Who’s the Decider? | The Huffington Post

Colin Powell, had he run in 2000, was poised to be the ultimate uniter. He was a Republican embraced by Democrats, and an African-American adored across the lines of color and creed. In a nation never quite at peace with issues of race, the mere presence of an African American atop the Republican ticket could have offered hope for a better and less fractious country. Instead, the 2000 election split the electorate nearly down the middle, and the candidate with the short end of the popular vote took the White House. Four years later, even more Americans were passionate about politics, but as many seemed driven to the polls by scorn for the opposing candidate as by unmitigated devotion to their own.

When I hear scholars and pundits claim that single men lead “warped lives” until they marry and become magically transformed, and when I read that bachelors “eat poorly, carouse too much, drive too fast,” and when I am treated to the thousandth rendition of the morality tale of how a young and foolish George W. Bush was saved from a life of alcoholism and recklessness by the firm admonitions of wife Laura, I remember Colin and Alma Powell. I think about what might have been, had it not been for the restraint of a spouse.”

This is absolutely ridiculous. So it’s Alma Powell’s fault? Because she asserted herself in an eminently sane and humane way?

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Obama poll says he’s a 23% favorite

From Pew Research:

Though some of this year’s congressional elections are not yet decided,
attention is already beginning to shift to the 2008 presidential race.
Sen. Barack Obama has emerged as the leading rival to Sen. Hillary
Clinton for the Democratic Party’s nomination.

Among registered Democrats, Sen. Clinton continues to lead by a
wide margin ­ 39% of party voters back her, compared with 23% for
Obama. But the margin narrows among independent voters; 27% say they
would like to see Clinton win the Democratic nomination, while 21%
favor Obama.

A
classic "argue it both ways" factoid: on the one hand, twenty-three
percent is twenty-seven-point-oh-oh-one percentage points short of a
popular majority; O has a long way to go.  On the other hand, being #2
this early in the race is not bad at all.

Fratricidal Democrat Calls Obama "Moral Leper"

 Incoming!

They may be leaders for the next few decades simply due to inertia,
but it’s very clear that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are liars who
think nothing of insulting Democratic primary voters who play by the
rules.

The American people know this.  They know that Democratic Senators are moral lepers, weaklings, and that is the only reason we aren’t further ahead when the Republicans screw everything up.\

Democrats crack me up.  Thanks to The Political Pit Bull for spotting this.

Obama More Popular than Ben Affleck

From Monsters And Critics:

Obama addressed a crowd of more than 800 at the California
African-American Museum on Friday.  Then actor Ben Affleck joined him
to promote a state proposition at a news conference at the University
of Southern California….

"It was nice to have Ben Affleck there," said Alexander Shams, a 16-year-old freshman, "but Barack Obama was the star."

Wow, what a backhanded compliment.

He is vulnerable to "pump faking" white voters

White voters have a discouraging tendency to say they will vote for black candidates, then do another thing when the poll curtains close.  Apparently, about five percent of poll respondents do this. This pattern has been seen over and over again in state-wide elections in the last twenty years: Tom Bradley in California, Doug Wilder in Virginia.  According to Earl Ofari Hutchinson on HuffPo,

"a 2006 study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, a Yale political
economist found that white Republicans are 25 percentage points more
likely to cross over and vote for a white Democratic senatorial
candidate against a black Republican foe."

The proverb says white people can’t jump: the question for 2008 is will they pump fake Barack Obama into thinking he has more support than he really does?