This is what democracy looks like

Challenger Edwards Wins Stunning Victory Over Long-Time Incumbent Wynn

Kos sums up the bigger picture well:

As I wrote time and time again, we don't have the money to buy off our politicians, and the bad Democrats know we're not about to start voting for Republicans. So the only way we can hold our caucus accountable is to send notice that we will primary them. And sure, they may survive such primaries. But sometimes they won't.

We'll be working this fall for "more" Democrats, but today we struck a blow on behalf of better Democrats.

Our caucus is once again on notice. If they continue to serve corporate interests rather than their constituents, if they insist on remaining aloof to the nation's popular sentiment, they'll get booted in a Democratic primary like Joe Lieberman in 2006 and Al Wynn in 2008.

A win in Maryland, but a message sent to the entire democratic congress.

PS: This is a little late but as some of you know, I've had some sort of flu that has basically put me out of commission since Wednesday afternoon. But now it's on the way out... just like Al Wynn! Damn! Ok, that sucked, but I'm still not 100%, so give me a break.

Go Donna Go!

Crappy whether means that results will be coming in late. You can follow those results for the rest of the night at the post. I was planning to head over to their election night party but being somewhat sick and the bad roads got in the way.

In other news, Obama with a clean sweep, and as E correctly pointed out in the comments a few posts ago, this is serious business for him. Clinton is in serious trouble, and even if she wins Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania (the only states she is still way up in the polls)... she now needs to do so by an almost impossibly large margin. No positive way to spin that, but Mark Penn, knock yourself out.

This just in: Tim Russert states the winner of Pennsylvania will come down to "white men with guns and boats". That horrifying image speaks for itself, but I can't resit:

The Visual Representation of the "Russert Equation"
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VOTE!

Long lines at the polls very VERY early this morning when I had to vote, so take that for what it's worth. And if you've been reading here at all for the last couple of months-it shouldn't be too much of a surprise who I voted for in the presidential primary today. But if you're in Maryland's 4th district- be sure to vote for Donna Edwards, who is challenging Al Wynn for his congressional seat. I've been volunteering for her campaign over the past two months- she is the real deal- great on all the issues and it would be a massive boost to the progressive movement to have her in there instead of Wynn.

So Vote!
Vote Obama!
And if it's an option vote Donna Edwards!
It's been a long time since your Maryland/DC primary vote actually mattered! Enjoy it while it lasts!

Sunday Reading

Two interesting articles from two of my favorite political writers, David Sirota and Matt Taibbi. First Sirota discusses the intersection of race and class, and what that means for Barack Obama:

In most states, polls show Hillary Clinton is beating Barack Obama among voters making $50,000 a year or less -- many of whom say the economy is their top concern. Yes, the New York senator who appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine as Big Business's candidate is winning economically insecure, lower-income communities over the Illinois senator who grew up as an organizer helping those communities combat unemployment. This absurd phenomenon is a product of both message and bias.

Obama has let Clinton characterize the 1990s as a nirvana, rather than a time that sowed the seeds of our current troubles. He barely criticizes the Clinton administration for championing job-killing trade agreements. He does not question that same administration's role in deregulating the financial industry and thereby intensifying today's boom-bust catastrophes. And he rarely points out what McClatchy Newspapers reported this week: that Clinton spent most of her career at a law firm "where she represented big companies and served on corporate boards," including Wal-Mart's.
...
"If Obama started talking like John Edwards and tapped into working-class, blue-collar proletarian rage, suddenly all of those white voters who are viewing him within the lens of transcendence would start seeing him differently," says Charles Ellison of the University of Denver's Center for African American Policy.

That's because once Obama parroted Edwards' attacks on greed and inequality, he would "be stigmatized as a candidate mobilizing race," says Manning Marable, a Columbia University history professor. That is, the media would immediately portray him as another Jesse Jackson -- a figure whose progressivism has been (unfairly) depicted as racial politics anathema to white swing voters.

Remember, this is always how power-challenging African-Americans are marginalized. The establishment cites a black leader's race- and class-unifying populism as supposed proof of his or her radical, race-centric views. An extreme example of this came from the FBI, which labeled Martin Luther King Jr. "the most dangerous man in America" for talking about poverty. More typical is the attitude exemplified by Joe Klein's 2006 Time magazine column. He called progressive Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., "an African American of a certain age and ideology, easily stereotyped" and "one of the ancient band of left-liberals who grew up in the angry hothouse of inner-city, racial-preference politics."

The Clintons are only too happy to navigate this ugly cultural topography. After a rare Obama attack on Hillary Clinton for supporting policies that eliminated jobs, Bill Clinton quickly likened Obama's campaign to Jackson's, and the Clinton campaign told the Associated Press Obama was "the black candidate." These were deliberate statements telling Obama that if he talks about class, they'll talk about race.

And so, as Marable says, Obama's pitch includes "no mention of the class struggle or class conflict." It is "hope" instead of an economic case, bromide instead of critique. The result is an oxymoronic dynamic.

Obama, the person who fought blue-collar joblessness in the shadows of shuttered factories, is winning wealthy enclaves. But Clinton, the person whose globalization policies helped shutter those factories, is winning blue-collar strongholds.

Second Taibbi's piece looks back at the disgusting acts of Harry Ried and Nancy Pelosi in refusing to actually oppose the Iraq war:

There was much public shedding of tears among the Democratic leadership, as Reid, Pelosi and other congressional heavyweights expressed deep sadness that their valiant charge up the hill of change had been thwarted by circumstances beyond their control — that, as much as they would love to continue trying to end the catastrophic Iraq deal, they would now have to wait until, oh, 2009 to try again. "We'll have a new president," said Pelosi. "And I do think at that time we'll take a fresh look at it."

Pelosi seemed especially broken up about having to surrender on Iraq, sounding like an NFL coach in a postgame presser, trying with a straight face to explain why he punted on first-and-goal. "We just didn't have any plays we liked down there," said the coach of the 0-15 Dems. "Sometimes you just have to play the field-position game...."

In reality, though, Pelosi and the Democrats were actually engaged in some serious point-shaving. Working behind the scenes, the Democrats have systematically taken over the anti-war movement, packing the nation's leading group with party consultants more interested in attacking the GOP than ending the war. "Our focus is on the Republicans," one Democratic apparatchik in charge of the anti-war coalition declared. "How can we juice up attacks on them?"

The story of how the Democrats finally betrayed the voters who handed them both houses of Congress a year ago is a depressing preview of what's to come if they win the White House. And if we don't pay attention to this sorry tale now, while there's still time to change our minds about whom to nominate, we might be stuck with this same bunch of spineless creeps for four more years. With no one but ourselves to blame.

Both articles are worth the read. On to Maine! Let's go for the sweep!

4.3 Million Worth

As reports come out that Hillary Clinton's staffers will go without pay for the next month and that she is loaning herself 5 million dollars to keep this thing going, it's good to know that not everyone is feeling the burn. Not only is chief union busting/Blackwater defending creep Mark Penn still taking his pay, but his it's been revealed that his firm "Penn, Schoen and Bertland received 4.3 million dollars for their work, and that figure doesn't even include another 1.5 million owed that has yet to be payed. But if she wasn't paying him 6 million dollars, who would she get to come up with brilliant spin like this:

"The more that Senator Obama has shifted to becoming an establishment campaign based on endorsements, people said, `You know, it's really Senator Clinton who has the ideas for change,'" Penn told reporters.

Well that may sound incredibly stupid but in fairness to Penn that 4.3 million wasn't by commission, and since he's getting his payday win or lose he's probably fine with mailing it in every now and then. Call it the Vince Carter method, it seems to work out ok for him. Oh wait, nevermind.

Super Tuesday

So I've wanted to write a lot especially with this day coming up, but I've been just to busy and exhausted to do so. But while were getting the results tonight, yesterday one of the better election watchers Chris Bowers predicts a horrifying scenario:

From this point, quick math shows that after Super Tuesday, only 1,428 pledged delegates will still be available. Now, here is where the problem shows up. According to current polling averages, the largest possible victory for either candidate on Super Tuesday will be Clinton 889 pledged delegates, to 799 pledged delegates for Obama. (In all likelihood, the winning margin will be lower than this, but using these numbers helps emphasize the seriousness of the situation.) As such, the largest possible pledged delegate margin Clinton can have after Super Tuesday is 937 to 862. (While it is possible Obama will lead in pledged delegates after Super Tuesday, it does not currently seem possible for Obama to have a larger lead than 75). That leaves Clinton 1,088 pledged delegates from clinching the nomination, with only 1,428 pledged delegates remaining. Thus, in order to win the nomination without the aid of super delegates, in her best-case scenario after Super Tuesday, Clinton would need to win 76.2% of all remaining pledged delegates. Given our proportional delegate system, there is simply no way that is going to happen unless Obama drops out.

So, there you have it. Unless either Obama or Clinton drops out before the convention, there is simply no way that the nominee can be determined without the super delegates. In the broadest definition of the term, "a brokered convention" is a convention that is determined by super delegates instead of nominating contests. Through a deadly combination of a primary calendar race to the bottom and an anachronistic method of delegate selection, we Democrats seem to have already arrived at that point. Short of one candidate dropping out, there is simply no easy way that this situation can be resolved. Given that Michigan and Florida combine for 313 pledged delegates, it is likely that this situation won't be resolved without severe bureaucratic fighting on the DNC rules and by-laws committee, or even a credential fight at the convention itself.

And why should either candidate drop out? Clinton has a large lead in super delegates, and can make a real argument over the Michigan and Florida delegations. Obama, by contrast, will probably lead in pledged delegates at the end of February, and will be able to raise significantly more money than Clinton. And so, we are at an impasse.

My instincts tell me this is a complete disaster, since it will shine light on complicated bylaws and the questionable democratic nature of the delegate selection process instead of on voters. As fascinating as it might be for political junkies, it is not the kind of image Democrats need. We need to figure a way out of this situation in a hurry.

And on that depressing note here's hoping for an Obama landslide tonight to prevent that kind of disaster. It looks like a small loss overall would be a good finish for Obama, since the states that follow super Tuesday are polling his way. I'll update later once the results have come in.

Updates

10:40 - So unlike every other primary so far... (surprised by Iowa, really shocked by New Hampshire, angry enough to kick a bike helmet over a house after Nevada, and surprised by the margin of win in South Carolina)... the results were mostly what I was expecting.

10:50 - Hillary Clinton mentions unions in her speech and you can't be sure but I don't think she's was being sarcastic.

12:30 - Hillary Clinton takes California... so that takes the only knockout punch left off the table. The real shocker of the night has to be Huckabee's performance. That kind of leaves Romney with no where to go, and the GOP in complete, fucking chaos. Hilarious! If Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter trashing McCain wasn't good enough. So no huge upsets, but a great position for Obama heading into the next primaries, while the republicans are on the verge of civil war. All in all, not a bad night.

How good is this guy?

• 4 Goals(Including OT Game-winning Goal)
• 1 Assist
• +4 Rating
• 5 Hits
• 1 Broken Nose
• 2 Sets of stitches (cheek and lip, from separate incidents)

What more can you say. The kid is special. He's the most skilled player on the ice, but he likes to truck people as much as he does score goals. (After being drafted #1 overall, a reporter asked him what he wanted the Washington fans to know about him he only said: "I play physical") I've talked to a few people about this type of thing before, but he's like what Lebron is to the NBA, and what Sean Taylor was to the NFL. Someone with Ove's skill set, speed, agility and balance was not meant to be in a 6-2 220 pound frame. But in those rare cases when you do get that combination of strength and skill, you feel like you are witnessing a force of nature... and last night sure was an example of that.

And like JP said, with the season he's having, maybe it's time to bring out the H-word. All I know growing up as a DC sports fan, I've never seen a player in any sport dominate like this. Not even close.

Oh yeah, what did Ove say about last night?

"Today was special day," Ovechkin said after the team doctor went to work on his nose, which he broke for the fifth time. "I broke my nose, I have stitches, I score four goals. Everything go to my face."

Amazing. Maybe 13 years wasn't long enough...