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Over the course of the past several months, at turns enthralled and exasperated, we've noticed some unusual contradictions in the voting blocs, or supposed voting blocs, of the two Democratic contenders. Seeing as we may be nearing the end of the election's first phase (you know, when you put it like that it doesn't sound quite so momentous), we're now going to take a look at some of those. Or, just state them.
Obama's coalition
He won urban areas and sparsely populated states. She won rural areas and heavily populated states.
His core constituency was African Americans, but he ran up some of his biggest margins in states that are overwhelmingly white (Colorado, Minnesota, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin). Her core constituency was white blue-collar voters, but she performed best in states with diverse populations.
And so on. We're sure there's some more. Go ahead and tell us some in the comments.
Permalink » | by Vincent Valk
As Wonkette aptly noted over the weekend, Hillary Clinton's pick in the Kentucky Derby, Eight Belles, finished in second. She was also the only female horse in the race, and she lost to Big Brown, for what it's worth. Oh, and then she broke both ankles and had to be put to death on the track.
According to a New York Times/CBS NEWS poll released today, only 24% of voters care "a lot" or "some" about Barack Obama's relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. That's good news for the Obama campaign, right? Sort of.
When there are no new results to report in the race for the Democratic nomination, some media outlets seem to get a little punchy with their political coverage. Or should I say, a paucity of party primaries perhaps pushes publications to pen puerile pages. Nowhere was this playful tone more apparent than in the assonance featured in a recent New York Times story about the resignation of Clinton's chief strategist Mark Penn: "Ouster Opens Opportunity for Obama."
John McCain has a lot of reasons to thank the New York Times these days. Besides for the infamous He-May-Be-Screwing-A-Lobbyist Article, which ironically has helped McCain shore up the Republican base and raise a ton of money, the folks on the editorial side of the paper are also lobbing him softballs.
The generally weird primary season has been especially screwy this time around. First, Hillary Clinton pulled off an improbable upset in New Hampshire. Now, with Mitt Romney's recent Michigan win, it's possible the Republican nomination might not be sealed until March. Such wackiness seems to have made our pundits a little loopy, and the off-the-wall metaphors have started to pour in. (Ann Quinlan of the Fort Worth Business Press was among the first, describing the Iowa caucuses as "evening coffee klatches with a serving of trigonometry.") Here are a few of our favorites:
And the unanimous winner in the Iowa caucuses is … change! Nearly every major candidate cited "change" as the dominant force in Iowa and the press followed suit. While change as a concept is politically neutral and entirely inevitable, it is being invoked as a specific set of undefined values, and referred to as if it were a candidate itself. In fact, if you were to replace the word "change" with the name of a lower-tier candidate—say, Dennis Kucinich—you'd get an interesting view of caucus night in Iowa.
We can be thankful that the new year will bring us the election of a brand new president, but that day is still a good 10 months away. In the meantime, we've got months of discussion about the political "horse race" ahead of us, wherein the media tells us far more about candidates' polling numbers and momentum than anything resembling their platforms and plans. That seems to suit our current crop of candidates just fine—the equine metaphors have been flying for the last few months. One particular come-from-behind horse-of-the-people has been invoked in reference to no fewer than five very different candidates:
Last week, the Thai parliament started discussions on a proposed new law that would require drivers to stop and observe the national anthem when it is played twice a day. While it's a rather eccentric and impractical way to try to boost national pride, the bill is certainly not the only unconventional example of forced patriotism in recent years. Please remove your hat and put your hand over your heart, as Gelf reviews some of the odder cases.
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