Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Halperin plays the Eight Belles card

By Brendan Loy

I expected commenters on my blog to pick up on the Hillary Clinton-Eight Belles analogy in the wake of the horse's second-place Kentucky Derby finish (behind, ahem, "Big Brown") and tragic post-race death. And it figures that Wonkette would also pick up the story, and give it a headline like "Hillary's Horse Dies Embarrassingly." But I'm a little surprised to see Time's Mark Halperin discussing it -- with an unmistakable air of amusement -- on his widely read election-news clearinghouse, The Page:

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP
Hillary Clinton enthusiastically picked a filly named Eight Belles to win the Kentucky Derby and compared herself to the horse. Eight Belles finished second. The winner was the favorite, Big Brown. Eight Belles collapsed immediately after crossing the finish line, and was euthanized shortly thereafter.

Er, well, yes. However, I think we can all agree, Obama and Clinton supporters alike, that whoever finishes second in the Democratic presidential race, we all sincerely hope they aren't, um, euthanized immediately after the deciding delegate vote is cast.

(On the other hand, I suppose if Hillary were to merely break an ankle during, say, a balloon fiasco following Obama's victory, that would complete the analogy without anyone dying -- since humans aren't generally "put down" after breaking limbs. If they were, a certain South Bend tennis net would have been my undoing!)

Anyway, The Huffington Post has more.

Um, and R.I.P., Eight Belles. Election-related snickering aside, it really is quite sad.

Obama wins Guam by 7 votes

By Brendan Loy

The final tally in the Guam caucuses: Obama 2,264, Clinton 2,257. Heh!

That's 50.08% to 49.92%, if you were wondering. Not quite Florida-close -- indeed, an order of magnitude less close, as that race was decided by 0.009%, rather than 0.155% -- but still: seven votes. Wow.

According to Politico, Clinton and Obama will each get four pledged delegates, each of whom has a "half-vote" at the convention, so the tally is 2-2. But Obama's seven-vote victory in the popular vote apparently nets him a superdelegate:

The ticket of Pilar Lujan and Jaime Paulino won the race for Party Chairman and Vice Chairman -- both superdelegate positions. Paulino is an Obama supporter, and Lujan has indicated she'll back the caucus winner.

Presumably that means she'll vote for Obama, despite his extremely narrow margin of victory. And I believe the Guam supers get full votes, rather than half-votes... so, counting superdelegates, Obama earns a net gain of 2 delegates (4 to 2). Three other Guam supers are, I think, still undeclared.

UPDATE: According to the Jed Report, one of the other three Guam supers is for Clinton, one is undeclared, and one hasn't been selected yet.

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

Big Brown wins the 134th Kentucky Derby.

Derby time!

By Brendan Loy

The Kentucky Derby is about to begin. I'm rooting for Denis of Cork because of his Irish-sounding name and Notre Dame connection. My second choice is Smooth Air, because of ESPN's sappy human-interest story about 70-year-old trainer Bennie Stutts. Go Denny & Bennie!

Once again, I'll miss Dave Johnson's call. "And down the stretch they come!"

UPDATE: Big Brown (the favorite, and Obama's third-place pick) won the Derby. But the big story is the tragedy that befell second-place finisher Eight Belles (the filly, and Hillary's pick). Eight Belles suffered a devastating injury, and had to be euthanized immediately after the race. Denis of Cork (my pick) finished third.

And then we're going to Guam! YAAARH!

By Brendan Loy

Barack Obama is leading the Guam caucuses.

UPDATE, 5:29 PM: With all but one precinct reporting, Obama leads 1,951 to 1,748. So Hillary will need a 204-vote margin in Dededo, Guam's most populous village, to overtake Barack and win the caucuses.

Noonan on Wright

By Brendan Loy

Peggy Noonan compares Jeremiah Wright to the Wolfe Tones. A must-read.

(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.)

No candidates at Kentucky Derby

By Brendan Loy

The Kentucky Derby is today, Saturday. Post time is 6:04 PM Eastern.

Alas, my vision of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton making dueling appearances at the racetrack -- in anticipation of the Kentucky primary, two weeks and three days hence -- will not be fulfilled. But Chelsea Clinton will be there! And Hillary did briefly don a Derby hat during a visit to Louisville on Thursday.

Well, it looks better on her than it would on Barack, I suppose. :)

Meanwhile, both candidates have announced their Derby picks, taking the concept of the political "horse race" beyond the metaphorical. Obama is picking Colonel John to finish first, Pyro to finish second, and Big Brown to finish third. Clinton has only announced her first-place choice: Eight Belles, the lone filly in the race. Heh. Girl power!