• Part 1:  Hillary Clinton's Michigan Power-Play
  
• Part 2:  Hillary Clinton Wins Michigan
• Part 3:  Hillary Clinton Wins Florida (Uncontested) 
• Part 4:  Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party Superdelegates
• 
  

Obama and the Voters vs. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party (part 5)

 

• Part 6:  Hillary: Out of Options
• 
  

Obama Pulls Ahead in Delegates Won from Primary Elections Votes

Three states held primary contests on Saturday, Feb. 9 2008:   Nebraska, Washington, and Louisiana.  Listen, it wasn't even close.  Obama won by at least 20% in each state and in NE and LA he won with a 2 to 1 ratio.  Incidentally, the Virgin Islands had their primary and Obama won all three delegate votes there, too.

How the Minority "Middle" Coalition

Perpetuates Unpopular Policy

In my last post, I showed the four quadrant political belief scale.  I think this tool is a much more accurate descriptor of political beliefs and indentities than the traditional yet simplistic "left vs. right" paradigm.  Left and right may be good ways to describe general business and economic policies, but they do not begin to address social issues and personal liberty issues.  In the 2008 election, the left/right paradigm is failing to explain why liberal Obama and conservative Ron Paul agree on ending the war on terror, the war on drugs, and the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act.

 

Most polls show the voting population oppose to these policies and programs, but the myth has been established that the "bipartisan middle" comes to overwhelmingly support any legislation related to expanding the government's spending. 

 

This "middle" is nothing more than the respective authoritarian wings of each party acting in coordination. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Middle here is the group that comes to agree on things that end up being unpopular with the general population - things that tend to be of a strategic nature and may or may not require undue sacrifice from the population in terms of wealth and liberty.

Libertarianism is often described by its most devoted followers and its most critical detractors as an extremist ideology bent on abolishing all forms of government.  While this may be true for some small segment of ideologues, libertarianism is really more accurately described as a gradual spectrum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Based on the criteria at http://www.politicalcompass.org, this graph shows the
gradual nature of libertarianism - and my interpretation of where a few candidates 
fit into the scale. 

 

Obama and the Voters vs. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party

• Part 1:  Hillary Clinton's Michigan Power-Play
  
• Part 2:  Hillary Clinton Wins Michigan
• Part 3:  Hillary Clinton Wins Florida (Uncontested)
  

• Part 4:  Hillary Clinton and the superdelegates
  

• Part 5:  Obama wins Elections:  Hillary wants More Party Support
  
• Part 6:  Hillary: Out of Options

(Part Four in a series examining how Hillary's campaign goes beyond the voting booth and into the very power structure of the Democratic party itself.) 

California is starting to return results and it looks like John McCain and Hillary Clinton are going to be the big winners on Super Tuesday after all...  

Hillary Clinton vs. John McCain ?

C'mon America - you can do better than that!  Right!?

 

Yeah John, we're confused too

Some progressive academics and activists are still scratching their heads, wondering how Ron Paul came to be such a phenomenon that could transcend party lines.  I don't think it should too confusing, or even seen as a threat for the progressive movement.  If anything, it might be their best ally against corporate-sponsored Democrats and Republicans.

There is a distinct possibility that local progressive initiatives would have a better chance of success under a libertarian national policy. 

Most people would honestly love to live in a peaceful world.  If given a choice between conflict and co-existence, most segments of society would prefer to live in a world of trade and international co-operation.

But that doesn't mean its going to happen.

Bumper sticker political slogans are incredibly important to American political discourse (unfortunately).  Those who wish to get elected know they will do best by summarizing or distorting their plans and positions into a neat little sound-byte that sounds truthful in a way that can't typically be debated as concisesly as the original slogan can be repeated.

I guess when you're running for office, votes are more important than an informed electorate having an intellectual discussion of the issues at hand.

When I woke up this morning I was quite surprised to find out that McCain had won the Florida Republican primary.

I posted early about why I was confident that Romney would win Florida and apparently my mistake was in assuming that Florida's closed primary would actually be - well, closed.  Actually, maybe the primary wasn't so closed after all, and this would completely explain McCain's win.

I had predicted that Romney would win Florida - obviously, I was wrong about that one!  McCain took Florida with a significant 5% lead, and this launches him to first place in the Republican delegate race, even when only counting Florida at half of its total delegates.

The rumors circulating are that Rudy Giuliani will be dropping out of race soon, but then again, the media likes to report the demise of candidates until it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy.  It does remind me of the 2-3 times that CNN reported Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter would quit before they ever actually did.

In this case, Giuliani did actually put himself in a tough situation - his strategy was to win big states full of less conservative voters:  Florida, NY, California.  With a big loss in Florida, this is a big loss to his strategy and campaign in general.  Will he endorse someone, and will the endorsement have any effect?  We'll see this week, probably.

Hillary also had her win in Florida, but this probably won't matter much as the state has been stripped of delegates and she risks angering party leadership by breaking party rules to campaign here.  Now, Mrs. Clinton will probably begin her legal campaign to get the Michigan and Florida delegates seated.