Cultural Cuisinart

Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist and pollster, quit campaign today. All I can say is, it's about time. He made several high visibility blunders when speaking to the press, and apparently he wasn't too popular with a lot of people. Reports from around the web suggest that the rest of the Clinton staffers were pretty happy to see him go.

Salon.com posted a horrifically awful article today entitled "Why Hillary Should Be Winning". It's written by a known Clinton supporter and is full of specious reasoning. Among his complaints is the fact that since the general election is "winner take all" in almost every state, the primaries should play out the same way. He also implies that since Hillary is ahead in swing states that she would be more competitive than Obama in those states against McCain. Lastly, he accuses the Obama campaign of actively trying to "disenfranchise" Michigan and Florida.

Where to start?
1) "Winner take all" is not a democratic system, so it's ironic that he advocates for that while accusing the Obama camp of being undemocratic. He conveniently ignores the fact that Obama is winning the popular vote, even if you count Florida and Michigan, and that it is unlikely that Clinton can win enough votes to overcome that.

2) It's been proven that expressing a preference for one person over another in a primary doesn't mean that that vote is lost if the preferred candidate isn't nominated. Do you really think California or NY are voting for McCain, even if Clinton isn't nominated? Do you think that all those Democratic voters won't support a Democrat over a Republican, even if their preferred candidate isn't in the race?

3) Michigan and Florida disobeyed the rules and are being justly punished for it. To suggest changing the rules of engagement halfway through is stupid, especially when it benefits the author's candidate so. Obama's name wasn't even on one of the ballots! Voters in both states were informed that their vote would have no weight, so I'm sure many of them stayed home. How can he argue that the results of those tainted primaries are a true reflection of the will of the states' electorates? Recent polls show that Michigan would likely be a draw (or even trend towards Obama) - given the choice between Clinton and "Other", a whopping 45% chose "Other", and that was months before Obama's emergence as the front-runner and "candidate of Hope".

Anyway, in non-political news, I'm less than 4 days away from my month long excursion to Hawaii. Yey! I can't wait to get over there, see my family, and enjoy some nice weather and beautiful beaches. For those friends out there reading this blog, post in the comments section if you want me to bring you back any souvenirs.