airwon's Blog

Paglia hearts Palin

2008-09-10T06:00:19Z

I wouldn’t call Camille Paglia a moderate thinker but she certainly is an independent one who seems to get off on going against orthodoxy. During the primary, I refused to read her pieces for Salon.com because she was a Hillary hater and an Obama supporter. From what I could tell, her disdain for Hillary and love for Obama was based on the conventional conceit that Hillary represented the past and that Obama represented the future. I kinda thought that Hillary represented the present. Now that Sarah Palin is thrown into the mix, it seems that Paglia’s dark and Dionysian side sees a new future. Paglia hearts Palin.

Is Paglia representative of the white female demographic, who according to the ABC/WaPo poll, shifted by 20% over from Obama to McCain after the convention? Paglia is white, 61 years old, lesbian, and an academic. She does not fit into any of the neat groups that the pollsters are looking at for movement in the polls - “Hockey Moms”, Wal-Mart Moms”, “Hillary Democrats”. In political terms, I guess she is a “post ideological” Democrat. Something Bill Clinton talked about, while trying to move the Democratic Party to the middle.

Ultimately, Paglia may still support Obama but clearly she is seduced by what she calls Palin’s “muscular feminism”. Frankly, I translate that as sassy, hot, and powerful. As long as Palin proves to be ideologically tolerant, I can easily see someone like Paglia tolerating an enthusiastic vote for McCain/Palin.

"Fresh blood for the vampire" Camille Paglia

Axelrod And The White Working Class

2008-04-24T14:45:01Z

Yesterday, Axelrod down played the role of the white working class vote.

“The white working class has gone to the Republican nominee for many elections, going back even to the Clinton years. This is not new that Democratic candidates don’t rely solely on those votes," he says.

Axelrod said the problem is older voters. Maybe he means older white working class voters? I don't know.

Whatever he meant, it seems that he has his facts wrong. It is true that Democratic candidates don't rely solely on those votes. But it is also true that the last Democratic candidate to win the White House did win the white working class vote.

Again, Ben Smith points to this article:

John Halpin and Ruy Teixeira:
"Keep in mind that Bill Clinton actually carried white working-class voters in both his successful presidential campaigns (by a single percentage point in both instances)," they write.

One Wo/Man One Vote?

2008-04-23T22:36:06Z

If the super delegates decide to give Hillary the nomination, you can bet that many will be outraged. Some will use the over turning the will of the people argument.

It seems unlikely that the super delegates will have the courage to vote for Hillary if she is behind in pledged delegates and in the popular vote.

But the popular vote argument being pushed by the Clinton camp is important because there is still the possibility that she may over take him in the popular vote count while loosing in the pledged delegate count.

Leaving the accurate popular vote count argument for another time, the pledged delegate count is not based on a one wo/man, one vote concept. Smaller states have disproportional delegate representation. It is based on a concept of "fairness".

Ben Smith ( I know you all hate him) points to an article about DNC rules that illustrates how pledged delegates do not represent one wo/man, one vote.

In a comprehensive, and funny, article detailing how tweaks to party rules have shaped the presidential campaigns, Josiah Lee Auspitz highlights a delegate quirk that Obama has been able to exploit:

In the least populous jurisdictions, Wyoming and the District of Columbia, each delegate stands for about 4,000 and 5,000 Democratic presidential voters respectively, whereas in Ohio and Florida a delegate represents about 17,000 Democratic presidential voters. Obama’s accurate claim that he has won “more states” and “more pledged delegates” must be tempered with the fact that his tally, assuming he wins upcoming races in South Dakota and Montana, will include eleven of the twelve most “over- represented” states on a one-person, one-vote standard. Rhode Island is the only such state in the Clinton column. Of the twelve most “under-represented,” Obama has won only four.

Joe Scarborough and Hillary Hate

2008-04-03T23:10:54Z

It will not be a surprise to anyone that many Hillary supporters feel that the MSM has been extremely favorable to Obama during the primaries. Much of the grievance is targeted toward MSNBC, which is commonly seen by many on the left as a counter to the right wing agenda promoted by Fox.

It is counter intuitive for Democrats to praise Fox for its objectivity as Rendell did earlier in the week. I don't agree entirely agree with Rendell's sentiment about Fox but I do feel that the lines have become less determined.

Joe Scarborough on MSNBC is a good example. He is a man with a history and an agenda, and neither Hillary Clinton nor his audience may know it, or much like it.

Help!

2008-04-03T18:26:18Z

How do you insert html (link), when posting a blog? Seems to work in the comments but not in the blogs????

sorry please ignore again

2008-04-03T18:13:10Z

http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en

ggg

test just ignore

2008-04-03T17:59:16Z

this

Gallop Poll Gives Hillary An Edge

2008-04-03T15:30:08Z

The Gallop poll is consistent with conventional thinking. Clinton and Obama draw from different groups when facing McCain.