Z Politics

After the Rev. Wright controversy Hillary Clinton managed to sneak ahead of Obama in head to head match ups against McCain. But Obama is back to looking like the more electable candidate (at least in terms of the popular vote).

From George Washington to Abraham Lincoln all the way to Jimmy carter and George W. Bush all forty-three Presidents of the United States of America have been white men. But for the first time there is a very real possibility that the next President won’t be a white man. Even if the Democratic Primary process doesn’t get sorted out until the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August the nominee will not be a white man.

I think this is long overdue, but I still worry that this country isn’t ready to elect a President that isn’t a white man. This country has been run by white men for far too long. Most of this country is not white men. Think about it 50 to 51 percent of the population is women. Then fact in African-American men, Latino Men, Asian Men, Middle Eastern Men and Native American Men and in the end White Men are a minority in this country yet they hold most of the wealth and power. How  messed up  is that?

Now White Men find themselves as the ones with the power again? How? By being the key swing vote this year. So it doesn’t matter if it’s Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama as the democratic nominee white men have to be convinced that one of them is presidential material or John McCain, a white man of course, will be the next President.

How ironic is that? Even when the candidate isnt’ a white man the power rests with white men because they are the key swing vote. That makes them important and powerful. So in the end having an African-American or a Woman nominated doesn’t really take the power away from white men. They keep it by default. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.

While the Democrats keeps attacking each other John McCain continues to get a free ride. John McCain was looking like a president touring and towrl dand the polls show it.

Hillary Clinton looks better tha Obama in all but one of the latest polls…This could go on till July. Is it worth it?

After a brief break race and gender have once again become issues in the Democratic Presidential primary race.

This is no surprise to me but all over the place people are acting shocked. Democrats are so naïve. With Americans approval rating of Bush in the basement and many Republicans reluctant to vote for John McCain the White House was basically on a platter for the party. But as Randi Rhodes says only Democrats can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Democrats were so caught up in the idea of making history that they failed to look at what I consider the most important factor…electability. Poll after poll showed the most electable Democratic candidate was  John Edwards yet he was never able to finish higher than third after Iowa.

So many people I know said a variation of the following statement, “It would be so cool to have a woman president.” Or , “It would be so cool to have a black president.”

Call me square but all I thought was “Wouldn’t’ it be cool to have a democratic president. So we could actually get things done.”

I find it mildly amusing that while people said it would be cool to have an African-American President or a woman president there was never much of a push to elect this countries first Latino president. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was all but ignored.

Another thing I find amusing is that both Obama and Clinton have resorted to a scorched earth approach when it comes to pointing out the international diplomacy history of the other one. Once again one need only look at Bill Richardson to see real international experience.

But that doesn’t matter. Democrats wanted to make history. I just hope that the history that is ultimately made isn’t that John McCain becomes the oldest elected President in American History.

None of this means anything if the old white guy beat the woman or the black guy.

Scorched earth be damned Hillary Clinton looks to be more electable to three out of the four latest polls.

It’s hard to post this one because Obama has one survey that Hillary doesn’t. What that improved his average so take the Cook poll with a grain of salt.

Moving on. Clinton is starting to narrow the gap a bit. She does better than Obama in the Newsweek poll (by 1%). But she get blown out of the water in ABC news poll (by 8%). Head to head again McCain Obama still looks better than Clinton but is starting to show that she too could win (but Obama would likely win by more)

Survey USA recently did a polls of all fifty states to see what the electoral map would like with both a McCain/Clinton and a McCain/Obama election. The good news is both dems win but with a mix of different states.

First cup Clinton:

What I like about this map is that that Hillary wins the big 3 swing states. Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. I also like that she puts Arkansas and West Virginia into play. New Mexico going blue again is also a plus. But I worry that under Clinton Oregon and Washington go red for the first time since 1984! And the fact Michigan goes red is worry-some. It means that Clinton HAS to win Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. No room for mistakes. And I find it ironic that New Hampshire went for Clinton in the primary (and thus keeping her campaign alive) and according to this survey McCain would win it.

Here’s how the map would look with an Obama/McCain match up:

What I like about this map is that Obama puts a number of traditional red states into play like Colorado, Nevada and Virginia (which hasn’t been blue since 1964). Not to mention North Dakota! NORTH DAKOTA for crying out loud, that’s what I call crossover candidate. New Mexico and Iowa going blue again is great news. And I love that he o\potentially goes well enough in Nebraska, NEBRASKA, to split their electoral vote. Ohio blue is good. What I don’t like is that he looses Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

I am very happy that right now it looks like both Dems will win. But the numbers again favor Obama…With all the electoral votes counted Clinton wins 276 to 262 and Obama wins 280 to 258.

Clinton wins by getting three big states and Obama wins by getting one big state and a lot of little states. Clinton wins 19 states Obama 24.

It’s a matter of taste but I like the way that Obama map looks. More blue in the middle of the country means a less divided country.

For the first time Clinton pulls ahead of McCain in the average of the head-to-head match ups. Also for the first time she does better than Obama in one poll, the Rasmussen has her down 1% to McCain compared to 2% for Obama. Still Obama remains ahead overall. His average has him up 5.5% against McCain compared to 0.3% for Clinton…Is she starting to right the ship? And is it too late?

With Hillary Clinton winning both Ohio and Texas on Tuesday the democratic primary race is once again in question (although it looks like Obama will win the Texas caucus which will basically cancel out the gains Clinton made in the primary).

There is a great deal of debate about what to do with Michigan and Florida. Two states who broke and agreement they made with the DNC in 2006 and scheduled their primaries before February 4th.

May people (myself included) think these states should just re-vote. After all only Clinton was on the ballot in Michigan (a sneaky move on her part not taking her name off the ballot). And there was no official campaigning in Florida (although Clinton did make a few “fund-raising” stops in Florida the week before the primary). Clinton thinks the results should stand.

One thing is for certain the democrats need to figure out what to do with these two states. John Kerry won Michigan by 3% of the vote. Democrats can’t afford to let Michigan flip. And we all know how important Florida is.

What if Clinton got her way and Michigan and Florida counted as is.

Michigan has 156 delegates. Clinton won 55% of the vote and “undecided” got 40% of the vote. Presumably the people who voted “undecided” were voting for Obama or Edwards. But since Edwards has suspended his campaign let’s give the 40% to Obama. If that’s the case Clinton gets 85 delegates and Obama gets 62.

Florida has 210 delegates. Clinton won 50% of the vote, Obama 33% and Edwards 14% (the day before he dropped out). With those numbers Clinton gets 105 delegates, Obama gets 69 and Edwards gets 29.

How does that affect the totals…Adding the results of Michigan brings Obama to 1,651 and Clinton to 1,614 and Edwards to 55. Obama would still be ahead. And while Edwards 55 delegates seems small they could end up being significant should he decide to endorse.

So while counting Michigan and Florida would help Clinton close the gap it wouldn’t put her back on top.

I love Drew Barrymore. I always have. She is a survivor who took a career as a washed up teen star and become a successful producer.

I commend her for giving $1 million to charity.

BUT. Let’s be honest $1 million isn’t that much to her. That’s only a fraction of what she made off of one “Charlie’s Angels” movie.

What I would like is see a celebrity donate a lot of money (for them not for the average person). The only time I can think of a celebrity doing this was when Steven Spielberg took all the money he would have made from “Schindler’s List” and donating it to holocaust causes.

Good job Drew but you could do better.

Also I am so sick of celebrities being commended for doing charity work in Africa. Is it needed there? Yes. But you know what there are people living in these people’s backyard who need help too.

I am a teacher in Los Angeles. These celebrities live in the Hollywood Hills yet less than 10 miles away there are children who have to sleep on the floors of their homes so they aren’t hit by stray bullets from drive my shootings. They can’t walk to see and feel safe because they my get jumped. This is happening in the city these celebrities live in but they choose to spend go to Africa.

They have the time and money to help people here and people there. But it’s not trendy to do work in America. It would probably be just too shocking in Americans really had to see what is going on in their own country. So our celebrities go to Africa and continue ignore what is going on right under their nose.

Angelina, Brad, Drew, Madonna, George why don’t you help out at home too?