Irish Trojan in Tennessee

For all you delegate-counters...

By Brendan Loy

You can get Wisconsin results by congressional district here. Based on my crude delegate math, I'm coming up with an estimated total of Obama 42, Clinton 32. I explain in detail after the jump.

Anyway, I'm going to bed now, but Hawaii results will eventually be available here and here.

Oh, and that meaningless Washington beauty-contest primary? Those results are here -- though, annoyingly, you have to go to a different page to get the "percentage of precincts reporting" stat. Anyway, with 36% reporting, Hillary has an slight lead! She could move to 3-0 in meaningless primaries! Suggested victory speech: "First we're going to go to Michigan! And then we're going to go to Florida! And then we're going to lose the Washington caucuses, but win the meaningless primary! And then we're going to go to Denver and lose the nomination! YEAAARRH!!!"

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

CNN projects that Barack Obama will win the Wisconsin Democratic primary.

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

CNN projects that John McCain will win the Republican primary in Wisconsin.

The polls are closed

By Brendan Loy

Wolf Blitzer says CNN projects John McCain "will win, will win" Wisconsin. On the Dem side, "the exit polls indicate that Barack Obama does have a lead, but CNN is not ready to make a projection at this point."

UPDATE, 9:19 PM: Fox calls Wisconsin for Obama. Says the "final exit polls" are 55-43 in his favor.

UPDATE 9:22 PM: CNN calls it too.

An Obama blowout?

By Brendan Loy

I want to ignore the leaked, unweighted exit polls, given their history of being drastically wrong (see: the Seven-Hour Presidency of John Kerry; Obama by 4 in New Hampshire; Obama winning Arizona, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New Mexico on Super Tuesday; etc.) ... I want to look away, really I do ... I don't want to blog about them ... but I can't help myself!

I'm hearing that after two waves of data, Wisconsin looks like a blowout in favor of Obama, in the neighborhood of 60 percent to 40 percent.

Also:

Democratic officials with access to exit polls say Sen. Obama looks like he’s headed for a huge win in today’s Wisconsin primary. The polls could turn out to be off, as they have in the past. But the officials’ revelation reflects the chatter in the campaigns in advance of the 9 p.m. Eastern poll closing.

The party officials said that if the trends reflect in the interviews with hundreds of Badger State voters, the news out of the primary will be: Obama encroached deeply into three of Clinton’s core groups of voters — women, those with no college degree and those with lower incomes — while giving up none of his own.

I need a twelve-step program or something. :)

P.S. More here, with (apparently weighted) numbers: 51-49 Obama among women; also 51-49 Obama among households with incomes under $50,000. If those are anywhere close to correct, that's absolutely devastating for Hillary.

Video here.

Cheesehead Tuesday

By Brendan Loy

It's Badger Tuesday... or, as I prefer to call it, Cheesehead Tuesday!

The polls will close in Wisconsin at 9:00 PM EST -- which, coincidentally, is when the Hawaii caucuses will begin. Hawaii caucuses begin at midnight EST and end at 12:30 AM. Oh, and let's not forget Washington state's utterly meaningless $10 million beauty contest... actually, on second thought, yeah, let's forget it. :)

Anyway, in honor of Cheesehead Tuesday, I give you... nearly naked hotties for Ron Paul! (SFW.)

On a more serious note, Fly On The Wall offers an excellent critique and analysis of the the various arguments about legitimacy vis a vis delegates, superdelegates, the popular vote, etc.

And speaking of superdelegates, here is a brief history of how they came into being, and why. Though, on that point, I have a slightly different theory:

HILLARY: "Do you know how the Superdelegates first came into being? They were Pledged Delegates once, taken by the dark powers. Tortured and mutilated…"

[The Superdelegate growls.]

HILLARY: "...a ruined and terrible form of life. And now... perfected. My fighting Automatic Delegates."

HILLARY: "Whom do you serve?"

SUPERDELEGATE: "Hillary!!"

Yes, I suck at Photoshop. :)

Anyway... the other big story of the day is the Obama "plagiarism" scandal, which may -- may -- be hurting Obama in the polls. More importantly, will it hurt him at the polls, in Wisconsin tonight? We shall see.

Personally, I can't believe the media isn't making the obvious connection between this latest example of Obama plagiarism, and the far more blatant example that's been hiding in plain sight:

Can we co-opt a cartoon show's slogan as a presidential campaign rallying cry? Yes we can! :)

Heh

By Rebecca Loy

Check out the comments on this article about Subway's spokesperson, Jared, celebrating his 10th year of endorsing sammiches.

What the?

By dcl

Seriously, if this is true Clinton has lost any chance of my support in any election ever full stop.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: In fairness, the Clinton campaign promptly denied the report in question, and pledged not to try and "poach" Obama's elected delegates. The Obama campaign has also ruled out "poaching."

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean Hillary's supporters in Michigan won't try to poach "Obama's" Uncommitted delegates at the district conventions on March 29...

HD-DVD is dead, Blu-Ray is king

By David K.

Toshiba, the leading manufacturer and proponent of the HD-DVD format, announced today that they will cease manufacturing HD-DVD players, officially ending the high-def format war.  The announcement was expected, as HD-DVD had suffered a huge series of setbacks in recent weeks.  Early last month, Warner Brothers, one of the three studios that were backing HD-DVD (Paramont and Universal being the other two), announced it was switching to Blu-Ray.  This was followed by announcements from Netflix and Blockbuster, two of the three leading video rental companies in the U.S., that they were going exclusively Blu-Ray.  Mega-retailer Wal*Mart had also announced the decision to switch exclusively to Blu-Ray.

HD-DVD looked like it had a good start; its players were cheaper and were selling better than Blu-Ray. However, cheaper did not win out in this generation, as it had during the VHS/Betamax battle a generation ago.  Sony, the major backer of Blu-Ray, ends a long string of failed media formats (including Betamax) with the success of Blu-Ray, but it now must face competition from the emerging digital download market.

In any case, if you haven't chosen a high definition player yet, Blu-Ray is the way to go.  And if you, like me, bet on HD-DVD well, you can still upscale your regular DVD's using that now deprecated Toshiba player.  Now to go watch Transformers on HD-DVD and cry into my popcorn.

#1 Memphis vs. #2 Tennessee? It's on.

By Brendan Loy

Move over, Kentucky. Out of the way, North Carolina. The center of the college-basketball world is the state of Tennessee.

Thanks to losses last week by #2 Duke and #3 Kansas, the Tennessee Volunteers have climbed to #2 in the polls this week, just in time for their Saturday showdown with in-state foe Memphis, the nation's #1-ranked and only undefeated team. The Jay Johnson Invitational is now also the Game. Of. The. Year.

The Tigers and Vols each have one tune-up remaining before the big game: on Wednesday night, Memphis visits 15-9 Tulane and Tennessee hosts 13-10 Auburn. Both with be heavily favored, of course, but even if they lose, it'll still technically be a #1 vs. #2 game on Saturday, since the new polls don't come out until Monday.

Memphis-Tennessee actually almost happened in last year's Elite Eight. If the Vols hadn't blown an 8,000-point lead (okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but they were way ahead) against Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen, the South Regional Final would have been an all-Tennessee affair, with a trip to the Final Four on the line. Alas, that wasn't to be. But hey, a regular-season #1 vs. #2 showdown is a pretty good consolation prize.

Anyway, it should be a hell of a game, and I'm looking forward to watching it. Jay will be rooting for the Tigers, his undergrad alma mater, over the Vols, his law-school alma mater. I definitely know what that's like. :) Personally, though, given that I have no allegiance to Memphis, I think I'll stick with the local boys, and root for the East Tennessee team over the West Tennessee team. Go Vols!

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

Fidel Castro has resigned as president of Cuba, according to a statement in state-run newspaper Granma.