The Short List

The list is getting pretty short. I was expecting Giuliani to drop but Edwards I had hoped would stick it out for a while... I wanted a little bit of a three-way competition, especially since a lot of the Democratic primaries aren't winner-takes-all.

There's been talk that a lot of the votes that went to Edwards were anti-Clinton votes, but I kind of feel that they were white working class votes that are more likely to go now to Clinton. We'll see how it plays out. Unfortunately, immediately after the Maine Republican caucus, which is from now through Sunday, comes Super Tuesday. So... we'll see. I'm pretty glad he's not endorsing anyone, actually.

My econ professor is talking about "Less beer! More wine!" which yes, is out of context, but is hilarious nonetheless.

The Kennedys endorsement video! I'm a huge fan.

Goodbye Johnny Edwards... I don't think you're going to get a VP nomination again, so ... yeah. Have fun?

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Senator Clinton won Florida today, but that doesn't mean anything because the Democratic National Committee stripped Florida of its delegates when FL got all pushy and moved up its primary before Super Tuesday. Florida did that to make themselves more important, but the DNC just got pissed and decided they'd have none of that. So the Democratic candidates all pledged that they wouldn't campaign in FL until the election today was over, so Senator Clinton announced that she would begin campaigning essentially as soon as the polls closed. Which she did. I mean, she did win.

Murph says that Florida is basically where New York goes when it retires (actually he said something slightly more mean), and that's why Sen. Clinton won there.

I'm glad Senator McCain won, and because Florida is a winner-takes-all system, he got all 57 Republican delegates from Florida. Good job, Sen. McCain! It was pretty close between him and former Governor Romney for a while. When the screen was flashing "TOO CLOSE TO CALL" in red, I had terrible PTSD flashbacks to 2000. I'm still shuddering.

Former Mayor Giuliani did drop out, and is endorsing Senator McCain at a rally in California tomorrow. I don't know how polling has been for Sen. McCain in CA, but it is a Super Tuesday state.

Maine Republican is next?? Then after that is Super Tuesday!

He Shall, From Time to Time...

A few notes before I crash. Though I need to start reading the 200 page book that was due at 9:55 Monday morning and have it done by tomorrow at 5pm. OOPS.

Today was so much fun. Waking up at 7:30 was not fun, dealing with other annoying volunteers was not fun (though dealing with awesome volunteers is fun!), having my shirt be about 25 sizes too big was not fun, but pretty much everything else was fun.

• I think I now know every word to Graceland, I Know What I Know, You Can Call Me Al, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, and Under African Skies. I am pretty sure that some staffer just plugged in his iPod and put those five on repeat. It was pretty awesome.

• Standing on your feet for 5 hours, and then breaking down chairs and tables and pulling massive amounts of packing tape up from the floor is painful.
  

• No matter how much you try to kindly direct people in the right direction, they will go the wrong direction.
  

• You may have bonded with campaign staff while setting up Senator Kennedy's "VIP suite" until 12:30am, but by 9am they have already forgotten who you are.

• Caroline Kennedy can be wearing a dress at the event and you can have no idea of that until you see her on MSNBC 3 hours later. I thought she was wearing a pantsuit because I couldn't see her lower half at all.
  

• If you are 7 years old and adorable (and especially if you are Ethiopian), chances are you can get a volunteer to stick you in the front row.
  

• Senator Kennedy really does scream when he talks. And Congressman Kennedy has plastic hair. I'm a huge fan of the Kennedys.
  

3 hour long nap later, we have the State of the Union! The last one. Lame Duck SOTU. Finally.

I wasn't paying attention too terribly closely because of course those of us watching together got in ... discussions? every once in a while. Though mostly we just made observations about how frequently Speaker Pelosi blinks and how infrequently Vice President Cheney blinks.

Senator Clinton looked pissed at all the press that Senator Obama and Senator Kennedy were getting. Apparently Bill spent all week trying to get Sen. Kennedy to at least stay neutral, which obviously didn't work. Also, red was intense on Senator Clinton, and I kind of think she needs a new hairstyle.

I hate that I'm saying that, because obviously she's a woman and I don't want to be criticizing her fashion just because she's a woman. However, I think one of the funnest things about being a woman in the business/professional world is that we get to wear prettier things than the boys and not get flack about doing stuff like wearing a lavender suit to the State of the Union, while the boys have to wear dark blue or black, have an option of 3 different ties (red, blue, or striped), maybe 2 different shirts (white or light blue), and shiny shoes. So now I'm giving Hillary flack about wearing red. Red suit is fine but she could have balanced it with a white shirt under the jacket? You know, just a suggestion. I guess she's Senator Clinton, she can do whatever she wants.

EXCEPT get a Kennedy family endorsement!! Ha ha ha

Florida tomorrow!

A Proportional Response

Obama won South Carolina last night in a huge way. He had been polling at 40 but pulled out with 55%, while Hillary was 28 points behind him. Edwards had been gaining in the polls all week, especially after he was the only rational voice in the last debate, but it wasn't enough for poor Johnny.

What's happened to the polls this election? It seems unlikely that in the last minute, Obama got the vast majority of the undecideds, which accounted for something like 15% of the voting population. Did all the good pollsters go on strike with the writers? I'm not going to pay attention to polls anymore.

Rumor has it McCain will win Florida, but Romney's up there too. McCain's got the endorsement of Gov Crist, which should help him out with the Cuban vote. I'm predicting (hoping) that Giuliani will drop after he fails miserably in this primary. It'll probably be the best idea for him if he is still hoping for a vice presidential bid.

Clinton's been doing well in FL but I'm fairly certain that the SC results are going to affect that, with Obama's numbers going up and Clinton's going down.

But I'm not paying attention to polls any more.

Obama kicks off his Mid-Atlantic campaign tomorrow in DC! We're most definitely in the last stretch to Super Tuesday.

Monday

Barack Obama is coming to AU on Monday. It means skipping US Presidential Elections and Microeconomics to volunteer, but that's fine because my professors talk about the election all the time. Latin America Since Independence will be more of a problem. Think it will have to deal.

Dying for South Carolina results. Polls don't close for 2 hours. Record turnout!

What Kind of Day Has It Been

Just finished the entirety of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the ending was much less sad than I expected it would be. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme, for making a sickeningly sweet happy ending, because yes, I am a girl, and if you had killed off Amanda Peet, I probably would have had to hunt you down and kill you both.

The thing that bothered me most about this entire series (also known as "single season") is that as I was watching it, I knew that this show was essentially about itself, in that Studio 60 was just too smart to be on the air. Oh, America.

What Kind of Day Has It Been

Is that a question, Mr. Sorkin? Well, here is my answer.

The day began with me begging Murph to let me watch the final 6 episodes of S60, while he tortured me by making me write a paper about what Marx says about the preconditions of a communist revolution. I VideoChatted with my sister and her dog, which caused my roommate to leave the room and go across the hall, and my suitemate to wake up and passively close the door in between our rooms. That was generally worth it.

I brushed my teeth with my new toothbrush, which I really really love.

I mean, I really love my toothbrush. It's great.

I got up around 9, ... 9:30... made a fool of myself because I don't know anything about Russia or Marx or communism, learned how to submit a budget to the AUCC, watched some S60, learned about my kidneys, became "that kid" in Anatomy, watched some S60, accomplished nothing at mock trial, ate some delicious gnocchi left over from last night, talked on the phone for 73 minutes, finished S60, cried to Murph a little. Got bored, decided to read emails from February 2005, discovered an ancient blog, discovered an ancienter blog. Wished on 11:11. Decided to try blog.

So I don't know, Mr. Sorkin, what kind of day has it been?

I think I prefer that phrase as a statement.

South Carolina tomorrow!