Howard Dean: "Git 'er done!"

Howard Dean, party chair of the Democratic Party, wants either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race once the primaries are over. I say that this needs to play out like it's supposed to. Let the process settle this like it's supposed to.

Thing is, the Dems made the "superdelegate" system PRECISELY to settle issues like this. That the two candidates happen to both be representatives of the classic Democratic "victim's group" makes this all the more interesting, because the superdelegates are in the painful position of having to decide who gets the nod and who gets left behind.

What we have, then, is a classic case of one being hoisted by one's petard. The only way that this could have been set up any better is by having been written that way! To me, that's proof enough that there is a God! :-D

Clinton to Obama: Let's have a Lincoln/Douglas style debate

This is my 450th post of my blog. Just thought you'd like to know. ;-)

Hillary Clinton recently challenged Barack Obama to a Lincoln/Douglas style debate. The Obama campaign basically responded with "We've debated 21 times already - a primary record". If I were Hillary, I'd respond with something like "And you'll debate for a 22nd time, and a 23rd, a 24th, and a 25th time until the Democratic party has an official nominee. And to be mentioning a debate count almost comes across as whining. I say 'man up' and get down to it."

I believe that Obama should accept this challenge, because the voters no doubt have more questions now about him - largely due to stuff about him or people that he associates with that has raised questions about him and his character. Since he's asking us to vote for him for president, we have a right to know what we're getting. Also, because he is more articulate than Hillary, he could utilize this to his advantage. This could really turn things in his favor if he plays his cards right.

Also, he might as well get some practice in, because if he is the nominee, he'll also be debating John McCain - maybe even 21 times. He and his camp really need to stop mentioning how many times it's been - because we're bitter and we need some reason to stop clinging to our guns and our religion. So far he hasn't given us a reason yet to let go.

Pennsylvania primaries are today!

Today is the primaries for the state of Pennsylvania! Go out and vote. Vote early and vote often!

My hope is that Hillary Clinton wins, so that this contentious primary season can continue. While she is behind in the delegate count, she is not behind by much. She's given a very small chance of winning the nomination, but this is probably her only shot at this. I think she should see this out all the way to the party's national convention, if need be.

Hopefully by that time, the Democrats will see how futile and destructive their devotion to mindless political correctness is, and they will finally let it go and get back to being a real party again. So far, supporters of Barack Obama are still crying "racism" for virtually all criticisms of him, and the supporters of Clinton are still crying "sexism" for criticisms of her.

What this shows is that political correctness still has too strong a hold on the party, and that it still needs to be burned off. Thus, the solution is to keep at this primary season until even the Baracks and Hillarys can see that mindless political correctness is destroying the party. We might not get another opportunity like this to force the Democrats to see what PC is doing to the party.

And thus, I say, "Go, Hillary, Go!"

Barack Obama's favorite show?

I think I now know what Barack Obama's favorite show is. It's "King of the Hill". I say this after his comments at a fundraiser in San Francisco in which he referred to us regular folks who have been undergoing hard times as "clinging to guns and religion". Heh. That's funny. For him to say such a thing anywhere - but especially to a group of wealthy, like-minded individuals - suggests the possibility that he might view the show as a reference source for what "the rest of us" are up to now. Yep, we're just a bunch of Hanks and Dales and Bills and Peggys and Luanns! :-D

Hey, folks - check out this list of characters from King of the Hill and see which one you might be!

The Coming Storm: Poll of what's most likely to hit us next

So what worldwide disaster is most likely to hit us next? That's the topic of the new poll.----->

Will it be a world war? Or an epidemic like the 1918 flu? Or how about a financial disaster like the 1920's depression? Or - perhaps the long-prophesied effects of global warming finally come home to roost. What do you think? Vote in the poll, and if you wish, send me a comment and let me know what you think.

Blog news

One more class to teach tomorrow, folks. After that, I shall relate my experiences in that class. I've really enjoyed it so far. It's also the reason that I haven't posted as much. But I will post something either tomorrow or Thursday. Election stuff keeps coming up that I want to comment on!

New blog feature!

Check it out! ------------------------------>

Now this blog site allows the posting of polls!

Cool, eh?

I'll think of other polls to post at another time. In the meantime, enjoy!

Election news

Sorry I've been slow in posting, but I am still teaching a blogging class at this time. There is one class tonight, and the last one is next week. More on that at another time. Let's go ahead and hit one news item on the election.

Dr. Condolezza Rice once again denied rumors that she is interested in the VP nod from John McCain (who has not even publicly listed potential candidate). The articles I came across, though, said that she "left the door ajar" - suggesting that she might be interested if circumstances play out in the right way. I think that she would almost have to join McCain, or that he would have to at least select another woman or a male minority candidate, because otherwise the Dems are going to go non-stop with either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton being the "first black/female candidate" while pointing out that the GOP once again has "two white guys" on their ticket.

McCain has nothing but the election to lose and everything to gain by encouraging Dr. Rice to join the ticket. And what a historical moment that would be to have a black or female candidate on one ticket, and then a black AND female candidate on the other ticket. If Dr. Rice is indeed on the ticket, then it might make it that much more important for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to consider sharing the ticket. What's that saying about politics making strange bedfellows? I think it would have to apply here.

Obama and Clinton need to stop defeatist talk

In this election season, we have had something unprecedented in our nation's history. Not only do we have a black candidate for office, we also have a female candidate. As with most elections, things have gotten tense and contentious at times. Each is trying to treat the other like a rival candidate - but not too much, because one doesn't want to be accused of racism on the one hand, and sexism on the other. And the GOP candidate keeps apologizing whenever he feels that one of his supporters made a comment that MIGHT possibly be construed as racist or sexist.

It's for this latter reason that conservative blowhard Rush Limbaugh has been conducting his "Operation Chaos: Rush the Vote", so that the two Dem candidates can rough each other up, because it's okay if they rough each other up, because each belongs to one of the Democratic Party's classical "victim's group" - namely, blacks and women. Limbaugh figures that if the GOP won't lay a finger on them, then the two Dems will have to "bloody" each other up. It's why his radio show has been encouraging normally GOP voters to vote in the Democratic primaries so as to keep Hillary Clinton in the race. I discuss Operation Chaos in another blog entry, so refer to that.

Anyway, there have been times when either Obama, Clinton, or some of their supporters have expressed their frustration with words along the lines of "Maybe this country isn't ready for a black/female president." Know what that is? It's defeatist talk. Both of these candidates need to realize something: Not just the black candidate, not just the female candidate, but BOTH candidates beat out white dudes to get to where they are! So HELL YEAH, people are ready for either a black president or a female president!

So they and their supporters need to shut such stupid talk up, because it comes across as whiny. Not only that, whichever candidate ends up losing will have to keep from saying "People turned me down because I'm black/female!" The reason for that is because, as the first representatives of their respective "victim's group", they need to lose with dignity. That is, they need to show that their "victim's group" is capable of handling their loss in a manner that suggests that "the people have spoken, thus the case is closed". No whining, no fussing that there was cheating or voter manipulation, or Rush Limbaugh messed them up, or any of that nonsense. As precedent-setters, they need to set the precedent on how to handle losing. And throwing tantrums isn't going to cut it!

Given the tone that the election has had so far, I don't anticipate a graceful exit from happening, but hey, at least I told them what to do.

Sports, continued

Last time I talked about football. Today it's basketball.

Locally, the Dallas Mavericks are close to not making it in the playoffs. They're one of the bubble teams that has to not only win, but depend on the other bubble teams to lose. Not only that, they are without Dirk Nowitski for maybe a few more games - games in which he is desperately needed. The Mavs started slipping after the Jason Kidd trade, and while it's easy to just blame Kidd, it's not necessarily his fault. Someone like Kidd is different from what the Mavs are used to, and his entry into the team is disruptive to team chemistry. Adjusting accordingly is going to take a while - maybe more than the games we have left in the season. Come post season - if we are in it - perhaps the Mavs are going to have to learn very quickly, or they're going to get bounced out faster than Eliot Spitzer was as governor of New York.

In the meantime, the college basketball playoffs are going on, and I couldn't care less this season. No more of my teams are in, so I don't care anymore, other than to show the BCS how a playoff series should go. For that reason alone, I hope that the Final Four is as exciting as this year's Super Bowl. In local sports news, TCU's men's basketball team recently let go of Neil Dougherty after six seasons. In those six seasons, he had only one 20+ wins season. He's a decent guy, but he wasn't cutting it as a coach. It was time to try someone else.

I miss Billy Tubbs, though, and his high-speed and high-scoring style of basketball. It wasn't Billy Tubbs that TCU hired, though, but Jim Christian from Kent State. During his six years, he's been winning, and I hope that he carries that over to here. In the last month of the basketball season, former coach Dougherty had encouraged fans to come to the games, and some did. But it's not enough to cite school pride to bring fans to the game, the home team also needs to win games, and that they didn't do enough of. Here's hoping that Christian will make a difference.