Hillary Clinton just won West Virginia, by at least thirty percentage points.
Now, Clinton claims that no Democrat has won the presidency, since 1916, without the help of West Virginia. While her claim is technically true, she seems to be arguing that West Virginia is (1) a Democratic stronghold and (2) a key to victory. Both are incorrect. Anyone who argues that West Virginia is a “Democratic stronghold,” which any Democratic candidate can expect to win, hasn’t been paying attention to politics since 2000.
Apparently, Reverend Hagee has apologized for his controversial comments… about Catholics. Not about Jews, and not about gays. I’ve written about this before, and I still think it’s ridiculous that relatively few talk about McCain’s extremist links. Don’t think he’s that bad? First, here’s a video:
And if that’s not enough, a user commenting at NYT’s “The Caucus” assembled this list of links below - great thanks to you, Jake, if you read this:
Washington University at St. Louis is about to confer an honorary degree on Phyllis Schlafly, the woman who believes that there’s no such thing as marital rape. As she put it, “I think that when you get married you have consented to sex. That’s what marriage is all about.” How delightful. This is also the woman who killed the Equal Rights Amendment (apparently, America is NOT about equality). A couple other Schlafly gems:
On sexually transmitted diseases (she’s for them): “It’s very healthy for a young girl to be deterred from promiscuity by fear of contracting a painful, incurable disease, or cervical cancer, or sterility, or the likelihood of giving birth to a dead, blind, or brain-damaged baby (even 10 years later when she may be happily married)”
On diversity (she’s against it): “Many years ago Christian pioneers had to fight savage Indians. Today missionaries of these former cultures are being sent via the public schools to heathenize our children.”
On feminism: “Men should stop treating feminists like ladies, and instead treat them like the men they say they want to be.”
And the rest are self-explanatory:
“Sex education classes are like in-home sales parties for abortions.”
“Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women.”
“When will American men learn how to stand up to the nagging by the intolerant, uncivil feminists whose sport is to humiliate men?”
Wow.
Contact Wash U (information here). Wash U, every year, graduates thousands of women who will go on to contribute to advancing human knowledge and building a better society. Phyllis Schlafly, who thinks that they should have stayed in the kitchen “where they belong,” does not deserve to share the stage with them.
You may remember Barr from such low points in American history as the hypocritical “impeach Clinton because he’s the only one of us having an affair” fiasco, and the passage of the draconian “Defense of Marriage Act.”
So why am I excited? Think Nader. But conservative. Bob Barr has the same appeal to selected elements of the Republican Party that Nader has to elements of the Democratic Party. In many ways, he’s more conservative than George W. Bush. And he’ll be running as a Libertarian, a party with intellectual bona fides and support from right-wing talk radio (just ask Neal Boortz). In a party that distrusts McCain as “too moderate” for them (see my earlier post), Barr is just the thing we need to either throw the general election into disarray, or spread McCain’s already weak funding just a little too thin.
Also, I’ve met Bob Barr. I worked for a friend of his, Georgia Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-Ga 11th), a very nice man (although opposed to nearly all of my political beliefs), before I came to realize exactly where I fit on the political spectrum. Barr is a forceful personality, and will campaign well (provided he gets on the ballots). Be sure to get him on the ballot in Florida and Ohio!
Religion has always been an integral part of American culture, but to argue that it is an integral part of American democracy is to vastly overstate the point. I cannot stand to see politicians arguing that religion alone is responsible for American freedom, American morality, or American successes. The American polity, and the system that defends it, is unique and independent from religion.
That’s why I was less than thrilled to read this speech, by failed presidential candidate and panderer par excellence Mitt Romney. In Mittens’ mind, “freedom requires religion.”
Another short post today, because I’m in the middle of a 24-hour take-home exam. Don’t worry, it’s open book, no cheating here :-).
Well, McCain and Obama have picked their general election strategies, including how they want to define their opponent: Obama will define McCain as Bush the Third, and McCain will define Obama as an out-of-touch elitist. These are both tried and true strategies, and both candidates have given the other ample reason for their opponents to succeed. McCain’s famous Bush hug (above left), his “100-years-in-Iraq” gaffe (it may be out of context, but that doesn’t matter in politics!), and his cozying up to the administration during the past seven years of hell will not serve him well. On the flip side, Obama’s “bitter” gaffe and his Jeremiah Wright connections could make the “elitist” label stick. Will it? Which adverse definition will succeed?
Now, I’m an optimist, but I’m calling this for Obama.
A couple of people have asked, in comments, why scientists get to define science so as to exclude the supernatural. The answer is, science is that which you can prove, either by observation or by reasoning, and the Panda’s Thumb has an excellent post up today about how evolution encourages scientific knowledge to grow through the asking, testing, and answering of important biological questions. Please check it out.
Another note: the minute we allow the scientific method to be watered down in our school system by the forced teaching of intelligent design & other forms of creationism, this is what we have to lose, and this is what’s at stake: the value of reasoning as a method of inquiry.
With increasing certainty, November will see John McCain, the old guard of the Republican party, facing off against Barack Obama, the young, resurgent populist wing of the Democratic party. It’s hard to see how McCain’s age will not be an issue.
But I didn’t expect it to become an issue by his own creation:
I came across this on a Google banner adspace: an animated clip featuring young, fighter pilot McCain. Apparently, the McCain campaign is tackling the issue of their candidate’s age by… denying its existence. While it’s not exactly on par with “Cindy McCain’s Homemade Recipes,” this is still an impressive little bit of spin.
Several themes of the Hillary/Obama contest are likely to remain relevant for the general election. Among them are two of Hillary’s favorite canards: (1) that Obama lacks experience, and (2) that Obama is an elitist. At least that’s the lesson of the GOP’s new anti-Obama attack ad, described at the The Caucus today.
His momentary break from the campaign trail, and return in triumph to Washington, D.C., should give him a chance to allay some of these concerns, if he plays his cards right. Suggestion to Mr. Obama - start acting magnanimously, and start making the right kinds of connections in your campaign.
The statue to the left - outside of the New York Supreme Court building at Madison Square Park - bears the caption mentioned in this title.
This statement - an iteration of the fundamental guarantee of the due process clause of the Constitution - embodies democracy’s greatest defense against tyranny: that every law ought to be tied to reality through wisdom.
The question, of course, is what is wisdom? In what manner of wisdom
must the law find its basis, for it to not be a menace to democracy? It goes without saying that one man’s wisdom is another’s folk tale, and accordingly, I think the law oversteps its bounds and enters perilous territory when it reaches beyond the most fundamental baselines of society. The law that rests on subjective morality rests on dubious ground indeed, and is liable to collapse upon itself, like Vortigern’s Tower, with no Merlin to prop it up.
Progressive political thought, spin, and a reaffirmation of the foundational values of equal justice and reason.
Ames Grawert is a law student at NYU and a New Yorker. His experience ranges from law to ancient history, and includes a tiny bit of science.
R. Timothy Brady is a composer and a New Yorker. He has written an award-winning opera, Edalat Square, which will be performed in Houston, Texas this summer. He is also the founder of the Soulbird Music Project, a collaborative charitable organization focusing on the nexus between music and human rights.
Hillary Clinton just won West Virginia, by at least thirty percentage points.
