Category: Uncategorized

Here’s an interesting tidbit:

The Center for Responsive Politics, one of the top non-partisan research groups tracking money in U.S. politics, released an analysis of the donations to the candidates (as of the end of 2007, at least). They discovered the following:

MILITARY DONORS FAVOR ANTIWAR CANDIDATES: Individuals in the Army, Navy and Air Force made those branches of the armed services among the top contributors in the 4th Quarter, ranking No. 13, No. 18 and No. 21, respectively. In 2007, Republican Ron Paul, who opposes U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, was the top recipient of money from donors in the military, collecting at least $212,000 from them. Barack Obama, another war opponent, was second with about $94,000.

I wonder how that’s going to pan out now, with “Old Warrior” McCain as the front runner for the Republicans, promising 100 years or more of occupation, and, in his own words, “more wars.”

A lot of different numbers flying around. The important ones:

Delegates: Obama: 838, Clinton: 834.

Obama won Illinois, Georgia, Alabama, Minnesota, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Utah, Kansas, North Dakota, Idaho, Alaska and Missouri. 13 states.

Clinton won New York, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arizona. 8 states.

New Mexico remains too close to call.

The thing that should be kept in mind: Clinton, for the most part, eked out 50-something percent wins in many of her states — states in which she had 20+ percentage-point leads only two weeks ago. She barely held on.

Many of Obama’s wins were landslides (like here in Kansas, for example).

The math and the calendar, I honestly believe, benefits Obama. Clinton isn’t particularly strong in any of the coming states until Texas and Ohio in March — and if Obama sweeps every state between now and then, and continues to set records in fundraising, even those two states are in play.

Of course, I’m sure Clinton will get the lawyers out to validate the invalid wins in Michigan and Florida, which would be slimy and underhanded.

My suggestion, if I was advising Obama’s campaign: Start having Barack make public calls (in the name of inclusion and “every vote counts”) for the national party to go ahead and allow the states to hold genuine Florida and Michigan Democratic primaries in April. Give them a valid voice, instead of a legally-contested one.

The states were punished for moving their primaries up, but let them have legally-recognized primaries after everyone else is done. That way, the people of those states are heard, every candidate has equal access to them, and the important delegate counts can be tallied.

I’d have him start calling for that now, instead of letting Clinton try to back-door her way to an invalid victory.

Wow.

Just got back from the caucus.

The site was expecting 400 people. The site was fire-coded at 650 people.

800 people or more showed up.

They ended up having to count us in shifts, and move us out to let more people in.

In the room, Obama supporters outnumbered Hillary supporters easily 3 to 1. The Obama crowd was diverse– in race, age and gender….and easily had the most enthusiasm.

According to the media reports I’m seeing, it looks like my experience wasn’t an unusual one for Kansas. Currently, I’m seeing most media outlets reporting Kansas at approximately 75% Obama.

I expect that it’s going to be a close delegate count when the nation’s votes are all counted tonight. I think that benefits Obama, because it he’s out-fundraised Clinton, and the coming primaries allow him to concentrate on 3 or 4 states at a time, rather than 24 all at once. This gives those states more “face time” with Obama, and recent results show that the more people are exposed to him, the more they like him.