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By Brendan Loy
South Bend Tribune: "Clinton, Obama neck and neck in Hoosier state." (Hat tip: TPM.)
The cited poll has Hillary up by 3%. A different poll a few days ago showed her up by 9%. In any event, a close race in Domerland.
By Brendan Loy
"There is no such thing as a pledged delegate." --Hillary Clinton.
This is fascinating -- truly fascinating. Hillary has painted herself as a champion of democracy, both by promoting the supremacy of primaries over caucuses, and by insisting that the illegitimate Florida and Michigan primaries should count, lest millions of voters be disenfranchised. But now, by arguing that the delegates elected in any and all primaries and caucuses shouldn't be considered "pledged," she is quite literally advocating the disenfranchisement of all voters in all states.
After all, what on earth can the purpose of those primaries and caucuses have been, if not to produce "pledged delegates"? What was the point of bothering to have elections at all, if their results can be so casually disregarded when it comes time to actually choose the nominee?
As a technical, procedural matter, of course, she's right: the delegates aren't "pledged" to follow their state's result. Just as there can be "faithless electors" in the Electoral College, there can be "faithless delegates" at the convention, and there's no legal mechanism to stop them from casting their votes however they please. But that's a legalistic, proceduralist argument, which isn't what Hillary is driving at here. She's making a legitimacy argument. She's contending that "there is no such thing as a pledged delegate" in an attempt to convince people that it's perfectly okay for her to try and "flip" Obama's delegates -- that there's nothing normatively wrong with doing that, and so she shouldn't be criticized for it.
Which is fine, if that's what she wants to argue, but then she ought to be called on the carpet for the inevitable logical extension of her argument, which is that Democratic voters have no binding role in the selection of their own nominee. All the primaries and caucuses were, according to Hillary's logic, strictly advisory in nature. Somehow, I don't think Democratic voters will go for this. (Nor is it remotely consistent with her own statements about Michigan and Florida, the popular vote, and many other things.)
This isn't the first time, of course, that Hillary has raised the possibility of "flipping" pledged delegates. But she's never put it in such stark terms until now. In my mind, it's one thing to suggest, as she has implicitly done before, that she might try to flip some pledged delegates if the overall delegate result appears unjust for some reason (e.g., not in line with the "popular vote"). But it's another thing entirely to dismiss the whole concept of pledged delegates as being altogether meaningless. Her underlying strategy may be the same in both cases, but the rhetoric in the latter case is vastly more inflammatory. "No such thing as a pledged delegate." Think about that. Really think about it. She might as well be saying to the 28+ million voters who've already cast ballots in Democratic primaries and caucuses: "Your votes didn't count. You elected nobody and nothing."
Obama needs to hit back on this, hard. It should be the easiest thing in the world to spin Hillary's comment as appallingly antidemocratic. It'll be easy because, unlike the vast majority of Hillary's spin, it's actually true.
By Brendan Loy
You know what makes me, like, totally love my cable company? When I leave work 2 1/2 hours early so I can be home when they send a tech over to check on our malfunctioning high-speed Internet -- supposedly between 3:00 and 5:00 PM -- and they never show up, because they couldn't reach me by phone, because, as it turns out, someone made a typo and transcribed my area code as "830" instead of "860." Yup, I'm absolutely freakin' thrilled with Comcast right now. [/sarcasm]
UPDATE, 11:50 PM: A guy at Comcast's executive offices just e-mailed me: "It was too late to call, but I wanted to apologize for the Comcast experience that you have had. I have asked that my contacts in your area reach out to make sure you are fully taken care of for your troubles. It is unacceptable that we created that experience for you, and I will make sure to share the feedback."
Sometimes it's nice to have a blog with a decent-sized audience! Heh. I never expected by whiny kvetching to actually get results. I am blogger, hear me roar! :)
By Brendan Loy
In case you somehow missed it, Bradley beat Tulsa in the CBI yesterday, to force a decisive Game 3 of the best-of-three "championship series." The Braves and Golden Hurricane will meet again Friday, in Tulsa, to determine who's number... um... let's see here... 65 + 32 = 97... who's #98! Go Bradley!! :)
In case you're wondering, attendance was 9,014 (out of a capacity of 11,060), up from 7,337 (out of 8,355) in Game 1. That ain't half bad for a tournament that looks at the NIT and thinks, "If only we were that cool." I wonder if Game 3 will be a sellout?
Meanwhile, in news that's sure to completely and utterly soothe Marquette fans who are upset about losing Tom Crean to Indiana, the Marquette women advanced to the WNIT final for the second time in three years. They'll play in-state foe Michigan State on Friday for the WNIT championship.
Man, if only I had more free time, I'd totally run pools for these lame-o tournaments... :)
UPDATE: Ahem. I mixed up my Marquettes. Although there is a Marquette in Michigan, the Marquette in question -- Marquette University -- is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sorry, my bad.
By Brendan Loy
In an e-mail this morning about possible travel plans for the Fourth of July, I referred to Loyette as "a six-month-old," then added: "OMG, she's going to be six months old!! That's DOUBLE her current age!! She'll be going to prom and heading off to college before I know it!! AAAAHHH!!!! :)"
This brings to mind the Blue Plate Special last Friday, when I was holding Loyette in the back of the room, "dancing" with her to the old-timey bluegrass music -- and a vision popped into my head of our father-daughter dance at her wedding someday. Argh! Why must I think these things?? The pre-nostalgia is killing me! :)
By Brendan Loy
Man, oh man, would they ever look old if they were up against, say, an Obama-Webb ticket.
By Brendan Loy
Memphis's backup point guard, senior Andre Allen, has been suspended from the team for a violation of team rules -- reportedly, he failed a drug test -- and will not play in the Final Four.
Allen is described as a "tenacious defensive player who comes off the bench to be a stopper. ... Not having him is a big deal with Memphis facing UCLA's Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook on Saturday."
According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, head coach John Calipari "did not rule out the possibility of Allen... becoming available Monday if the Tigers reach the NCAA championship game."
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