Political Crack

Primary Results Thread

Crack Van needs a break so we can get all thesmells from last time out of the curtains.

But post your thoughts here.

Kansas going Huckabee is fucking hilarious. They’re so pissed off at McCain, these conservatrolls, these immataure chickenhawk fuckwits, they might actually end up nominating this guy, and I know, I know, we should take seriously the idea that this guy is considered mainstream, butI can’t stop laughing. It’s akin to the feeling I get when I’m filling up the Saturn of Love next to a Hummer H2 and the Humron has a look on his face like he’s trying to pass a grapefruit. I just want to hug him for bringing me that much joy.

There’s something I’m kicking around for my column a bit, that I want to kind of throw out there and see if it marinates well: That the longer the Democratic contest goes on, the longer the two candidates spend competing with one another to be better Democrats, the better it is not only for us but for them as well. They get comfortable in the big chair, and we get comfortable with them around. Ask me six months ago if I’d be feeling remotely as fuzzy about Hillary as I am, ask me if I’d be as impressed by Obama, and I’d have said fuck no, on both counts. Familiarity is breeding comfort, not contempt.

And that’s all I got right now. Talk to me.

A.

24 thoughts on “Primary Results Thread”

  1. Hi A,
    May I suggest you loudly exclaim when next to the hummer, “I can’t believe I spend a whole $20 to fill up my tank this month!”
    Question about the primaries, why the gigantic changes between abutting states in the votes Tuesday? As a weak example, Missouri was basically 50/50 Clinton Obama. Kansas was 3:1 Obama (of course, Kansas is a caucus state where Missouri is mostly vote) but then look at Idaho. And frankly, I don’t see that much difference between MO and KS.

  2. I’m pretty happy with the protracted campaign, as well. It gives the media something they love — a contest! — so it gets free coverage for both candidates. And in this instance, the contest is all about promoting progressive ideals. I am thrilled to have our values put before the country day after day.

  4. damn, looks like my TX primary vote will matter this time around, and I was planning on voting Edwards as a show of support (much like my Howard Dean 2004 vote)

  6. About ten percent of the results are in, and Huckabee– who didn’t campaign in LA– is up 44-38 percent over McCain.
    Obama is up 52-38 over Hillary, and I don’t think Orleans parish has any precincts reporting yet.

  8. I dunno, A. I think no matter how long it goes on, HC is still going to be a centrist with her hands deep into corporate pockets and her head deep into the established power structure. And Obama is going to still be woefully under-experienced.
    And neither of them will have the commitment to the American underclass that Edwards does.
    Doesn’t mean I won’t support the Democratic candidate whoever it is, or that I won’t be happier about one of them than I was six months ago, but it does mean I don’t think they are going to change their stripes.

  9. The media tried to give Republican voters McCain as nominee on a plate.
    Republican voters: DO NOT WANT! I CAN HAZ HUCKABEE!

  10. On Huckabee, I’m not so sure that it is chickenhawk conservatrolls who are voting with them, but maybe the religious right.
    I just had birthday cake with my family (central Indiana; I’m the only one with a college degree; my parents are moderate-leaning Democrats, the others definitely conservative). My sister, her daughter and son-in-law (their kids homeschooled by their mom who got pregnant at 15) all like Huckabee. I asked how they could be considering someone who didn’t accept (for a better word) the theory of evolution. They all looked at me like I was insane – even my mom isn’t sure about evolution.
    I felt like I was in the twilight zone. I wondered who Huckabee’s supporters were, it is scary to know they are in my family, educating their own kids.

  11. If the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are important to this USA, then vote for the Professor of Constitutional Law so that the damage BushCo did to both can be fixed. That’s Obama. And he’s for Unions and the working man and the under-privaleged as witness his Community work as a young man in Chicago. More, he wasn’t president of the Harvard Law Review for nothing. We need someone like him…he’s a motivator and will not tolerate underhandedness from anyone in his campaign.

  12. Back from the caucuses in WA. I’ve caucused in every presidential election since 1988, add up every person who caucused in my neighborhood each time and that will be barely half of the number that showed up this one time. We had at least 250 show up (they were expecting 120) What chairs there were were given to the elderly and moms with babies, everyone stood.
    The precincts were lively but congenial. A few raised their voices but got put back on track right away. We had one dipstick stick his pointed little head into the hall and yell “Commies!” then run away. Laughter ensued.
    My district went for Hillary 3 to 2 in delegates. I’m representing Sen. Obama at the county convention. To think just a few short weeks ago, my heart was for John Edwards. I be fickle, no?
    they ran out of chairs, forms, pens (lost my lucky pen from Japan, dammit) but not enthusiasm. Good Goddess, I feel the power now. It’s like three cans of Red Bull!
    Time to crack open a bottle of good English cider.

  13. Clinton and Obama have to start talking about how they’re going to beat McCain. Dems desparately want the Repugs out, and many on the fence will vote for the one they think is most likely to show McCain the exit.
    BTW, I’m into my annual abstinence, so if you need a designated driver next time you fire up the Crack Van…

  15. I was thinking that if the Dem contest goes until August, that the Republicans will be boxing with shadows for 5 months.
    They swipe at Hillary and<> Obama wins Ohio
    They swipe at Obama and<> Hillary wins Pennsylvania **
    I want Obama, but if it is Hillary, the fact that the Republicans must wait 5 months to open that thick, 20-years-of-dirt file until the convention, will make their attacks all the more transparent.
    ** SOund effects provided by LucasFilm LTD.

  16. I think your thesis re: Dem contest good for Dems is spot-on. The conventional wisdom is that ending internicene strife is critical. Wrong as usual. The truth is that the energy on the Dem side is positive, and that having our two attractive candidates the focal point of the news is a good thing. In about a month people (this means you, Adam Nigourney) will be writing this up, noting that McCain can’t seem to get people to remember that he’s running.
    A well-run primary between desirable candidates can be good for everyone. Well, not the poor person who ends up losing the thing, but pretty much everyone else. We’ll come out of this battle-toughened, focussed, energized — ready to take all 50 states. I’m especially looking forward to getting 50.001% of the Arizona vote.

  18. I think the longer contest is good, for several of the reasons noted above. It’s also good because it gives us poor later states, (VT is Mar 4) a potential to have some say in the process. It keeps everyone engaged and avoids the annoying anointing that gave us John Kerry in 2004. If turnout continues to be high then we send a message to the rethugs that will resonate into the fall, esp if the try to run McMaim. A motivated electorate choosing between two excellent candidates and a demoralized on holding their noses and pulling the lever for the last old white man standing, sounds like a good match up to me.

  19. it can’t hurt to keep the Dems at the top of each news cycle while McCain, with his money problems and lack of ideas, is shuffled into the background for 4-5 months.

  20. A long primary campaign is very beneficial to Democrats, but only if it doesn’t degenerate into total negative campaigning. To both Clinton and Obama’s credit it doesn’t look like it will. But, what will be a disaster is if the “super delegates” overrule the voters and hand the nomination to the candidate with the fewest elected delegates. That would arouse extreme bitterness at the worst possible time. I just hope one of the two has a substantial delegate count lead before the convention starts, and that lead holds up.

  23. Contested primary is nothing but good.
    Obama bloggers trying to make him inevitable and rove trashing Hillary all the time, not so good.
    People need to use their coconuts on this a little bit. Democrats battling it out means news coverage, meantime, that old guy just gets older.
    The reason McCain in winning is that he is the only gopper that has any appearance of viability and of reality. Oh, hold on, just wait there folks, hear me out! A, put down that rock please!
    Compared to all those fundy loons and 9/11 and grampa and Plastico Rommney, what else have they got. McCain is the only one looks halfway competent as a republican. Sure, he’d sell his old mother for a few votes, but he’s at least cognizant of what the president does, and he’s not a relgious nutjob no matter how many times he tells the religious nutjobs that he is.
    And just think about this notion. Denver, summertime, the Convention. Teevee is forced to spend far more time and money with fewer commercials covering the convention. Oh, what’s not to like about that?!

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