{"id":875,"date":"2008-02-05T05:00:34","date_gmt":"2008-02-05T10:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morningseditionists.com\/msblog\/?p=875"},"modified":"2008-02-05T06:38:24","modified_gmt":"2008-02-05T11:38:24","slug":"super-tuesday-open-thread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/2008\/02\/05\/super-tuesday-open-thread\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Tuesday Open Thread"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, Super Tuesday is finally here. Thanks to the withdrawal of John Edwards, I have a few decisions to make today. First off, should I even bother to vote at all? <\/p>\n

It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that long ago that I was a registered \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcno preference,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 meaning I was ineligible to vote in New York State primaries. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually register as a Democrat until after the rat bastard Republicans wasted a lot of time and money impeaching Bill Clinton. <\/p>\n

It takes a while for a change of party to kick in here, so the first Presidential primary I had a chance to vote in was 2004. I voted for Howard Dean and, well, true to form, he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t win. So, this\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be my second crack at putting the curse on a candidate (technically, I suppose, I already cursed Edwards, so maybe I can bring down two people this primary season).<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worse, too, because, unlike the Republican primary, this one isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t winner take all. If it was, I could safely vote for whoever the hell I wanted to (or not at all) \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccuz Hillary is probably gonna win here. But for the primary, my vote actually represents some tiny fraction of a delegate (depending on how many people vote).<\/p>\n

In New York, there are a total of 281 delegates for Democrats. 151 of them are allocated proportionally based on the results of the primary within each Congressional district, either 81 or 85 delegates (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read both; I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if anybody actually understands how the fuck this works, to be honest) are elected at the State Democratic Convention in May (presumably, whoever gets the most delegates in the primary will walk away with them), and 49 (or 45, again, depending on which number you believe) delegates are unpledged super delegates, who will vote whichever way the wind blows (probably most of them will go for Clinton, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccuz, well, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit of a player in the NYS Democratic Party). <\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not confusing enough, of course, so in addition to selecting a presidential candidate, Democratic voters in each Congressional district can also vote for 5 or 6 delegates. We can choose delegates who are supporting the candidate we vote for, or we could, say, vote for Obama while voting for 5 delegates committed to Clinton. Why would we do that? I have no idea, but we could (we could even do it by mistake, and never know we did it). And, not every candidate has a full slate of delegates in every district. So then they pick the delegates some other way. Or something. <\/p>\n

In each Congressional district, a candidate has to get 15 percent of the vote to receive any delegates. And, yes, there will still be six people on the ballot: Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Kucinich, Richardson and Biden. <\/p>\n

So, assuming I decide to vote, then what? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m inclined to vote for Edwards anyway, but is that just throwing my vote away? <\/p>\n

Do I vote for Obama? He was against Iraq as an Illinois State Senator, but once he was elected to the US Senate, he never saw a war appropriations bill he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like. He also seems to have a propensity to duck the tough votes, and declared the Alito filibuster dead before he grudgingly voted against cloture. As Sue posted the other day<\/a>, on the campaign trail, he touts a bill that started out requiring all nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities immediately of any size leak, no matter how small. This came about after a plant operator \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Exelon Corp \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was found to have not disclosed leaks at one of its nuclear power plants. But the reality is that Obama \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccompromised\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the bill to death until it became just a suggestion that maybe the plant owners would let people know about a leak, if they felt like it. Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s staff insists that this has nothing to do with the fact that, since 2003, executives and employees of Exelon have contributed at least $227,000 to Obama’s campaigns for the US Senate and for president, two top Exelon officials are among his largest fund-raisers, and another Obama donor is chairman of both Exelon and the Nuclear Energy Institute (the Nuke industry’s lobbying group). In fact, Exelon’s support for Obama far exceeds its support for any other presidential candidate, and Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, has worked as a consultant to Exelon. <\/p>\n

Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health care plan leaves about 15 million people uninsured, and, according to Jonathan Gruber of M.I.T. (via Krugman)<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153a plan\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6resembling the Obama plan, would cover 23 million of those currently uninsured, at a taxpayer cost of $102 billion per year. An otherwise identical plan with mandates would cover 45 million of the uninsured \u00e2\u20ac\u201d essentially everyone \u00e2\u20ac\u201d at a taxpayer cost of $124 billion. Over all, the Obama-type plan would cost $4,400 per newly insured person, the Clinton-type plan only $2,700.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, as Krugman points out:<\/p>\n

One plan achieves more or less universal coverage; the other, although it costs more than 80 percent as much, covers only about half of those currently uninsured. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then, of course, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rather maddening tendency to embrace the Republican frame on many issues (Social Security is in crisis, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Harry and Louise\u00e2\u20ac\u009d mandated insurance, etc.) while invoking the name of St. Reagan (not that he agreed<\/em><\/strong> with Reagan, of course).<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest problem I have with Obama is something that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have much to do with him. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whining ignorance of so many of his supporters (not all; probably not even most. The asshole minority always stands out, though). They hated Edwards, even as their candidate rushed to incorporate much of Edwards\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 platform into his own campaign, and whine at every perceived slight to Obama, no matter how tiny or obscure.<\/p>\n

But then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hillary. Hillary, who gave a great speech against giving Bush the authority to use force against Iraq, and then voted to go ahead and give it to him anyway – and refuses to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hey, I was wrong.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Like Obama, she continues to vote to fund the occupation, and hasn’t exactly been leading the charge to get us the hell out of there. She didn’t stand up, as Chris Dodd did, and threaten to veto retroactive immunity for telecom companies (neither did Obama). Hillary voted for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment on Iran (a vote Obama conveniently missed), and is beholden to any number of huge corporate donors and lobbyists \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including the insurance companies. Her healthcare plan, while it appears to cover everyone and has subsidies for low income families, is still not a single-payer system, and is still a boon to her friends in the insurance industry. <\/p>\n

I would fully expect a President Hillary Clinton to do any number of things that I would totally disagree with (just as her husband did). But my biggest fear is that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be goaded into bombing somebody, just to prove she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as tough as a man. Maybe I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a wimp, but I wouldn’t mind a little less \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctough guy,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and a little more \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcgentle woman.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to dislike about Hillary. Her posturing, her political calculation, her inability to admit she was wrong (reminds you of somebody else, no?), just for starters. Plus, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been told for almost 20 years now that I should despise her, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sunk in a bit. I wonder, if she was a man \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or even just anybody<\/em><\/strong> else \u00e2\u20ac\u201c would I find her \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 characteristics as discomfiting? <\/p>\n

How much of my unease with Hillary is that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find her particularly likable? And, do I really want to base my vote on who is more likable (who I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchave a beer with,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 so to speak)? <\/p>\n

Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the issue of \u00e2\u20ac\u201c dare I say it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcelectability.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 I can think of few things more frightening than President George W. Bush \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but President John McCain is definitely one of ’em (President Cheney would be another). McCain is a crazy megalomaniac who wants endless war. Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton \u00e2\u20ac\u201c no matter what you may think of her personally \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is absolutely despised by wingnuts and liberals alike. She may be the one person who can drive the wingers to the polls while keeping the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcprogressive purists\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 at home \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or voting for Nader – this year. <\/p>\n

Not that Obama won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t engender a certain amount of hatred and bigotry. There are plenty of crackers, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure, who will refuse to vote for \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcone of them.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 But I think the prospect of a smart woman \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially this particular smart woman \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is a lot scarier to a lot more people than a slightly brown, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcethnically diverse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 man. Hell, everybody loves Tiger Woods, after all. Smart ambitious women, though…. They’re scary bitches. If you don’t believe me, ask Maureen Dowd.<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no debating the fact that the young folks are on the Obama bandwagon, and it’s nice to see the kids all excited about politics. And many of us, um, more mature folks are just plain sick of hearing the name Clinton, I think. Plus, all the celebrities and most of the Kennedys are pulling for Obama, too. Yep, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccool\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to be an Obama supporter, and who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wanna be cool? I’m not sure why<\/em><\/strong> he’s cool. I guess it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccuz he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s different, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna \u00e2\u20ac\u0153change\u00e2\u20ac\u009d everything (although, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure out how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s different, to be honest. I find his rhetoric to be the same pablum I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard a million times before). Frankly, I think he and Hillary are just about indistinguishable. If Hillary is Republican-lite, Obama is Hillary-lite.<\/p>\n

So, anyhow, after lots of hand-wringing and angst, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still no closer to figuring out who the hell to vote for. It would have been so much easier had Edwards stuck around for another week. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be a lot easier come November, too, because either of these two would make a much better preznit than these idiot old white Republican men. <\/p>\n

Today, though, I continue to be at a loss. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in one of the 22 Super Tuesday states, I hope you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve figured out what to do, and that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re certain (if not happy) about your choice. <\/p>\n

As for me, I might just have to sit this one out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, Super Tuesday is finally here. Thanks to the withdrawal of John Edwards, I have a few decisions to make today. First off, should I even bother to vote at all? It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that long ago that I was a registered \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcno preference,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 meaning I was ineligible to vote in New York State primaries. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}