The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)
Here are links to people who are running for President in 2008 followed by the number of delegates they have toward their conventions (I've removed the candidates who have dropped out of the race):
Yesterday I made my annual pilgrimage to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. This is the third time I’ve gone and I look forward to it every year. Warwick’s Books charters two buses and I did that again. It’s nice not having to drive up and back to LA but it can also be a little limiting: we arrived 5 minutes before the first panel I went to and the woman next to me on the bus had to leave her last session early to catch the bus. On the other hand, the price of the trip includes a swag bag and they bring local authors who lecture on the ride.
It’s held on the campus of UCLA; far and away the best part of the festival is just being on campus with so many people interested in books and publishing. The rest is gravy. Tommy Lasorda, longtime manager of the Los Angels Dodgers was there promoting his book I Live For This! Baseball’s Last True Believer. He’s a great storyteller and I was grateful to be there.
Part of the fun also is seeing the booths of all the different publishing houses and bookstores. They say it’s difficult to get a book published these days but given all the publishing houses that seems strange. So if you’re looking for Theosophical University Press or want to talk with someone from the Ayn Rand Institute this is your place.
One blemish this year is that I’ve noticed a number of people handing out leaflets for activities not related to books. The Jews for Jesus people were there handing out leaflets along with other Christian Churches. Obviously they have a right to be there and I’m not opposed to churches giving out information, but they were on public walkways and sometimes obstructed traffic. There was also a guy screaming about how people need to embrace atheism, especially in the African American Community, since religion is meant to keep people oppressed. Did I mention that he is as white as I am? Then again, UCLA is a public place and I’m not sure there’s anything anyone can do.
On the left side of this blog I’ve tried to keep track of two things: (1) Who is running for President and (2) How many delegates are committed in the Democrat’s race. John McCain has already wrapped up the Republican nomination and the other parties don’t have the primaries.
In terms of who is running, that is getting a little complicated. I periodically try to click on the links to make sure all the candidates are still running. Especially with the independent candidates I get the feeling there isn’t much going on. The pages don’t seem to be updated much but no pages have gone down and nobody has announced pulling out of the race. The one change is that there does seem to be some party hopping. Mike Gravel began the race as a Democrat but has switched to the Libertarian party. On the other side of the aisle, Alan Keyes has announced that he has left the Republican Party but I’m not sure where he is going. Since he is still running for President I’ll keep him with the Republicans until he announces where he is going. Also, Bob Barr has announced that he is thinking of running as a Libertarian but hasn’t decided. I’ll include him if/when he decides to run.
The delegate race is the same mess it’s been all along. I’ve removed the delegate count for the Republicans since there’s no longer a race. Almost every news outlet counts superdelegates who have committed to a candidate; I haven’t since they don’t need to commit until the convention and can change their minds.
It’s not the easiest thing in the world to keep up with this, but I have to confess that I’m loving it. Frankly, it’s democracy in action and I think the Founding Fathers (and Mothers) would be pleased to see it.
In the Christian Calendar today is Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday, depending on your tradition. We Catholics read from the 13th Chapter of John’s Gospel where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. Tonight at mass Fr. Jairo spoke eloquently about the need for leaders to be in service and not dominate.
Alas, this would have been a good sermon for President Bush to hear. As I reflect back on the 5 years we have been at war in Iraq I grieve for the 3992 of our brave men and women who have died (if you’re keeping track it’s 1675 since this time last year) but I also grieve for what our nation has become. It goes without saying that since the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly 20 years ago the United States stands alone as the world’s largest superpower. But in the last 8 years we have not used that power well. We have not been servants, but tyrants. We have treated our allies as subjects (and are puzzled when they do not cooperate with us). We have treated countries like Iran, North Korea, and others as blights on the world worthy only of destruction. And we have treated ourselves as the only country worthy of respect.
Our next president will have an immense job. He (or she) will have to reach out to our allies and mend fences; will have to reconcile with old enemies and prevent making new ones; will have to understand that science is not the enemy and we really do need to face up to global problems like warming and pollution. Our next president will have to see our economy as part of a larger world economy that ultimately should serve everyone, not just the wealthy.
We swear in a new president in 305 days and that day can’t come fast enough for me.
I’ve had great fun (right) trying to follow the delegate count in the election. After a fair amount of searching I decided to keep track of the pledged delegates only, knowing that the superdelegates don’t need to make their choice until the convention. I set up a table to show where each candidate was awarded delegates according to state. I also put a link on the left side of the page. I’ll keep keeping track.
The beauty of buying a car on St. Patrick’s Day is that it’s easy to remember the anniversary. It was two years ago today that I bought my Prius. As of today I have 53,900 miles on it. That sounds pretty substantial and I guess it is, but given my job and the miles I drive for work, it’s not bad. If you’re interested in the math, that comes out to 26,950 per year, or 2,246 per month, or almost 74 miles per day. I’m still getting about 45 miles per gallon and I have one of those coveted stickers that allows me to drive alone in the carpool lanes. All in all, not a bad deal.
I haven’t posted in a few weeks but I’ve been watching. I’ll have more thoughts on the primaries soon, but tonight I found something that is worth watching. John McCain is the presumptive Republican nominee. I don’t plan to vote for him and while I disagree with many of his positions, I do generally respect him. However he has embraced John Hagee who has preached some incredibly anti-Catholic messages. You can see this on YouTube:
I came across this the other day and have been itching to put it on my blog. At last the Bush administration has figured out what to do about the weak dollar.
Last August I wrote that I had heard from the John Bootie campaign thanking me for having a link to his website. I always think it’s a feather in my cap to see that anyone is actually reading this blog, even if it’s someone I disagree with (like John). A few days ago I heard from Matt Cleveland of the Green Party. He asked me to update the web page for Jesse Johnson which I gladly did. He also asked me to add a link to his page. He is providing web access to anyone who is running for office under the Green banner.
I had mixed emotions when I first looked at his site; he’s pretty angry with the Democratic Party for some actions that have prevented some Green candidates from having the access they need. I’m one of those Democrats who still harbors some resentment toward Ralph Nader in the 2000 election. But in fairness I’ve included links on my page for candidates I don’t like, and so I’m including this. If you’re someone who resonates with the Green platform and you’re interested in making a difference, contact Matt. He’s being pretty generous with bandwidth and I commend him.
It’s now a week since Super Tuesday and it appears that the nomination picture is slowly coming into focus. On the Republican side Mitt Romney dropped out of the race; that made some sense as he and Mike Huckabee appeared to be splitting the social conservative vote. Interestingly enough his exit speech talked primarily about Iraq and the War on Terror which was never a major part of his campaign.
This has essentially paved the way for John McCain who is now the presumptive nominee of his party. You would think this would be good news for the GOP but it isn’t. Long simmering hatred of John McCain has boiled over, especially with Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. I have to confess I don’t know much about what they are saying as I don’t have the stomach to listen or read very much.
I’m still trying to keep track of the delegates. It’s become dramatically more difficult and complicated than I thought. I’m writing this before we have the results of the Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. primaries, and as I write (for example), NPR gives Barack Obama 994 pledged delegates and 160 super delegates (for a total of 1,154). CNN gives him 1,181; MSNBC gives him 958. Finally Fox News gives him 1,154. Perhaps the best irony is that Fox News and NPR are the only organizations who agree.
I’m using NPR numbers simply because NPR is the news organization where I get most of my news. Right now I’m attempting to keep track of delegates using an Excel spreadsheet. It’s a good way of keeping track but this type of spreadsheet doesn’t translate well into html or xml. In future days I’m hoping to translate these numbers into a table that I can post.
Speaking of the delegate count, I’ve been doing some reading about why this is so confusing. Earlier I talked about how some places are using projections. I’m also learning a great deal about super delegates and uncommitted delegates. The best explanation I’ve heard is from the NPR show Fresh Air on January 31st. Terry Gross interviewed David Rohde from Duke University. Here is a synopsis of some of his points:
Several of the candidates who have since dropped out of the campaign had delegates. At the conventions those delegates can still vote for their candidate but don’t have to. They are essentially now free agents and can change their votes at will
The states of Florida and Michigan moved their primaries to January against the wishes of their parties. The Democrats say they will refuse to seat any delegates from those states and the Republicans will only seat half of them. That is what they are saying now but there is nothing to stop them from changing their minds and seating those delegates. That could prove to be a nightmare as several candidates didn’t campaign in those states
Of the delegates at the convention, the Democratic Party has designated 796 (20% of the total) as “super delegates.” They are senior members of the Democratic National Committee, current, and former office holders. Bill Clinton, by the way, is a super delegate. We can assume he will vote for Hillary and several of these politician have endorsed a candidate but nobody is bound to anyone until the convention.
In the Republican Party there are also super delegates, but each state can also allocate delegates who are uncommitted, regardless of who wins the primary or caucus.
Had enough? OK, this puts me at odds with many of my friends, but I love all this chaos and complication. It makes for a more interesting race. Hang on, we’ve got months of this stuff.
I’m writing this a few hours before Super Bowl XLII. It’s hard to keep up with everything.
Our friend Ann is a big fan of Groundhog’s Day and sent us three haiku’s. I’ve enclosed one:
Rays of sunlight call Awake, O furry sleeper Has winter now passed?
Here in San Diego, Super Bowl Sunday has brought with it a bit of a dilemma: It was the New England Patriots who knocked the Chargers out of the playoffs. On the other hand, there is no love loss with the New York Giants because their quarterback is Eli Manning. For the uninitiated, Eli was drafted by the Chargers in 2004 even though his father Archie Manning had previously announced Eli would not play for the Chargers, even if he had to sit out the entire season. The Chargers traded him to the Giants but nobody here has forgotten the snub. As for me, well again this year I just hope it’s a good game.
In the political world we are just a few days from Tsumuni Tuesday (also called Super Tuesday) where 22 states, including California, go to the polls. Most commentators think the nominations may be set by Wednesday only because there are so many delegates are up for grabs. I imagine I’ll be staying up late on Tuesday, because it’s not only Tsunami Tuesday but it’s also…
Mardi Gras: Fortunately most of the festivities happen as the polls are closing but it’s my favorite argument that Catholics are the most fun. Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday” and it’s the day before Ash Wednesday. It’s a day for eating, drinking, and exposing one’s self too much because there’s no point in doing penance unless you have something good to confess.
Finally, if you scroll down the left column below all the independent candidates you will find something called a Truth-O-Meter. It’s sponsored by Politifact.com. I heard about them on NPR. They monitor political ads and check to see how truthful they are. Interestingly they allow bloggers like me to place their “widget” on our site without any advertising. This is worth keeping up with.
