In case you missed any of it

The Democratic primary process in eight minutes courtesy of Slate.

And this is the way the race ends...

...not with a bang but a whimper. Up to 40 Democratic super delegates, all previously in support of Hillary Clinton, are to switch their allegiance to Barack Obama over the next several weeks one or two at a time starting with Representative Dennis Cardoza. The 40 delegates believe the race is over and it is time to unite the party behind Senator Obama.

My PA prediction

Hillary wins but by a lesser margin than polls indicate; probably 3 - 4%. She only gains a handful of delegates. She refuses to quit.

Addressing the top issues of the day

As I was comfortably asleep during yesterday's Democratic debate in Philly, at least until that fucking car alarm went off, I was spared having to watch it. I did, however, find the strength to read through the transcript and I can only say - WTF? Did these guys really think that these are the sorts of questions that would be useful in determining who ought to be President of the US?

I took a few notes. The most popular theme seemed to be "why won't you admit guns are sacred gifts from God" with three questions from the annoyance that is Charles Gibson and one from the suave Greekness of George Stephanopoulos. This was closely followed by Mr. G's deep concern about his capital gains tax rates. (He must have some property that he can't unload until there's a new president.) He asked three separate questions about this whilst Mr. S. had one wimpy question about raising taxes when the economy's in the shitter.

Branching out from there we find Obama's choice of pastor to be a popular topic with two questions from Mr. G and one from Mr. S. focusing on why Obama would listen to such a madman and allowing Hillary to admit that she would have honourably run screaming from the church at Rev. Wright's first utterance.

Then Iraq was also popular as Mr. G. wanted to know why these two would even consider pulling out of Iraq as it was obviously the wrong thing to do as the generals on the ground would tell them! Three extremely leading questions here (I wanted to jump out my chair and object but then realised I was three thousand miles away and it wasn't a courtroom.)

I also liked the "why can't you two just get along and pick each other as VP" questions along with the "you don't really think you can beat McCain" enquiries.

But my absolute favourite was the voter video question, selected by Mr. G., that asked "are you and your wardrobe patriotic enough to be President".

Anyone who made their mind up based on this dismal performance from ABC ought to be barred from voting!

Note: Will Bunch isn't full of praise for the performance of the interogators moderators either!

Why Jimmy you old tease!

I'm not absolutely certain but I think that former US President, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Democratic super delegate Jimmy Carter is trying to tell us something. (Why does he hate women so?)

If this is indicative...

...it is very bad news for Hillary. The Public Policy poll shows Obama leading Clinton in PA. Senator Clinton must win my home state, and win it reasonably big, to have justification whatsoever to remain in the race. The poll is a 28 point swing from PPP's findings of just over a fortnight ago. Stunning if true.

Now this is a surprise

Senator Barack Obama's campaign got a rather surprising fillip yesterday with the endorsement of Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey. Pennsylvania is an odd state in many respects and its Democrats reflect that in many ways. The party has a strong, blue collar centrist/conservative Catholic component and the younger Casey owes much of his support that. I would have expected him to come in support of Hillary as she is extremely strong in that sector. We shall have to wait and see what impact this has on Obama's support.

Hillary's "don't vote for me argument"

I am having a hard time getting my head around Senator Clinton's argument that pledged delegates aren't actually pledged to anyone. To me this suggests that there is no reason to vote for the Senator as her "delegate" is just going to go off and vote for someone else, probably me.

Will the king (or queen) maker be a Nutter?

For the first time that I can remember the primary in my home state of Pennsylvania is actually going to mean something and that means that the endorsement of Philly's mayor, Michael Nutter is suddenly much sought after and he has endorsed Senator Clinton, a choice some find surprising.

By the way I can't help decide who will win PA as I have already voted in the Democrats Abroad primary on Super Tuesday. Damn!

So - who do I vote for?

I am sitting at my computer. I have my Democrats Abroad ballot number. I have my Democrats Abroad password. I have the Democrats Abroad website up. I just don't know who to vote for.

Hillary is almost certainly a NO. Too right wing on foreign policy. Too much a part of the inside machine.

Obama. He is a breath of fresh air in many ways. The country might grow a lot by having a mixed race president. His policies are still a cipher to me in many ways. Where I do understand them I either agree (Iraq out now) or disagree (his health care plan will not begin to address the problem). He is also too beholden to the money men (as will any successful candidate until the courts realise that money is not equal to speech).

Or do I "waste" my vote?

What to do, what to do?

You go girl!

Apparently gender trumps everything. It looks like Hillary has garnered, rather bizarrely, the endorsement of right wing whack job anorexic pund-ette Ann Coulter.

So where do I go now?

I have been a Kucinich supported since the early days and, after he dropped out of the race to fight off the challenge to his House seat, I have to reassess my position. I was leaning heavily to John Edwards but now he is gone too! I find both remaining candidates less than satisfactory. Hillary because she is too right wing and too beholden to corporate/insider interests. Obama because he is still too much of a cipher and even where his positions seem to be clear, like on healthcare, I find that we disagree.

I have only until next Tuesday to make up my mind as I will be voting in the Democrats Abroad primary.

Meanwhile here's Edwards's statement.

The news from Florida

Hillary declares victory and marches on. Do you think her campaign understands the primary was just a "friendly" and that she didn't actually win anything (and that she had to cheat to manage that)?

This is not, as yet, an edorsement!

John Edwards has a droll new ad.

This is so 1950

The US Supreme Court has refused to hear a case brought by (my main man) Dennis Kucinich and the Democratic Party in Texas will be able to keep him off of the ballot because he refuses to sign a loyalty oath. Where is Major ______ de Coverley when we need him?

My new imaginary hip white friend

I am not really a supporter of Barack Obama, although I suspect I would vote for him should he become the Democratic candidate, but I have grown tired of him constantly being referred to as the "black" candidate, imaginary or not. He is exactly as white as he is black. Why doesn't anyone ever refer to him as just another white candidate or do Jim Crow rules still apply?

From this point forward Barack Obama is my hip new imaginary white friend and I want no arguements from anyone!

I almost forgot

Some weepy woman won the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire and it was an amazing victory because even though she had had a double digit lead ten days ago she had fallen behind and nobody really likes her and did I mention that it was amazing?

This could run and run.

Planning for the future

When my man Dennis drops out of the Democratic presidential race I might just have to throw my considerable support behind this guy!

Let's talk Iowa shall we?

OK - the results are in (Obama, Huckabee) and the spin is on.

The Los Angeles Times says that the turnout give the edge in energy. The New York Times sees disappoint for Ms. Clinton and Huckabee rolling (if not rocking). A more sober Rolling Stone picks through the numbers to find that Osama Obama did better with women than Hillary did, that young folks turned out (possibly because they thought there might be free beer), God picked Huckabee and Rudy was left kissing Ron Paul's arse. Faux News says that "we was right all along". Auntie tells us that little if anything was decided in the wintry Midwest.

We've probably seen the last of Chris Dodd and Joe Biden on the Democratic side. It seems that no Republican will fold before New Hampshire; even Fred Thompson will stick around but I doubt he will try very hard.

On to New Hampshire!

Rudy the most seditious presidential candidate

At least if you believe this survey from Haaretz that ranks the pretenders to the American Imperial throne based on their loyalty to Israel. Hillary haters will be pleased to see that she comes second. Barack Obama is ranked as the most Patriotic Jew-hater of the remaining contestants which is hardly surprising as he's practically a Muslim, right?