Fuzzy Delegate Counts

If you wanted to know which candidate was leading in delegates, where would you look to find out? CNN? New York Times? Well, it turns out that depending on where you look, you will in fact get a completely different answer.

Delegate Counts as of 6am:

- NBC News:
Obama 861
Clinton 855
Obama +6

- CBS News:
Clinton 1118
Obama 1112
Clinton +6

- ABC News:
Clinton 1118
Obama 1095
Clinton +23

- AP:
Clinton 1095
Obama 1070
Clinton +25

- Fox News:
Clinton 1084
Obama 1054
Clinton +30

- CNN:
Clinton 1100
Obama 1039
Clinton +61

- Mydd.com:
Clinton 1046
Obama 940
Clinton +106

- NYTimes:
Clinton 912
Obama 714
Clinton +198

Ya, only slightly ridiculous!

On a side note, the world will wake up this morning to the following headlines:

USA Today: Obama sweeps Dem races
Toronto Star: Obama sweeps three states
International Herald Tribune: Obama gets convincing wins in 3 states
Times of London: Barack Obama trounces Hillary Clinton
Sydney Morning Herald: Clean sweep for Obama
Le Monde: "Super samedi" pour Obama
Al Jazeera: Obama sweeps primary contests

So in case you weren't aware, the whole world is rightfully watching the US primaries very closely. This fact seems to come as a surprise to most Americans though.

~BT

Liveblogging South Carolina Democratic Primary #2

Polls are about to close and I just watched a great interview that Keith Olbermann had with South Carolina Representative James Clyburn, the House Majority Clyburn commented on the injection of racial politics into the race and the backlash from voters that is being seen in the exit polls. It seems that South Carolina voters, regardless of race, were displeased with the negative campaigning and bickering between the camps.

Christy Hardin Smith over at Firedoglake.com had this great post about the influence of the economic disparities on the racial divide that the media has been focusing on.

Shaila Dewan (whose reporting I generally love) had a glimpse of economic disparities along the racial divide in South Carolina today that is worth discussing at length. She focuses on a town called Orangeburg -- Mr. ReddHedd and I always joke that all roads in SC lead to Orangeburg because, truly, they all seem to do just that when we are driving down that way. And this struck me in her piece:

“My cousin works at McDonald’s,” she said. “She said some people like working there because they get benefits. That’s what they go for now.”

Because Orangeburg is a blue county in a red state, it has been visited by all the Democratic candidates, some more than once. Health care, gasoline prices and trade imbalances are all pocketbook issues here....

Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a state legislator who represents part of Orangeburg County, said some of the unemployment among blacks stemmed from poor education by the state’s money-starved rural schools. The school system was recently portrayed in a documentary about education along Interstate 95 called “Corridor of Shame,” a phrase Mr. Obama used in the debate in Myrtle Beach on Monday.

“The issue is education and the effect of a lack of a quality education on the level playing field,” Ms. Cobb-Hunter said.

I'm hearing so much economic uncertainty and fears across the economic divide -- and from readers everywhere across the country. Much more than concerns about any other issue at the moment, and I'm wondering if this election cycle is going to sustain an "it's the economy again, stupid" line of electoral questions all the way through -- or whether this is a temporary outgrowth of market/housing volatility. Somehow, I think the questions are going to keep on coming for quite a while. Anyone else sensing that "kitchen table" pocketbook politics is going to be key this year?

Any doubts that the media is enjoying stoking the race versus gender questions? Read on. Jeffrey Feldman has a thought-provoking piece on indentity politics worth your time today, which makes an excellent riposte.

And the winner is...

~BT

Tragedy at Virginia Tech will have major implications

At 7:15 yesterday morning, the first shots were fired in what has turned out to be the worst shooting rampage in US history. According to the NY Times:

Thirty-two people were killed, along with a gunman, and at least 15 injured in two shooting attacks at Virginia Polytechnic Institute on Monday during three hours of horror and chaos on this sprawling campus.

There has been some really incredible coverage so far. I just saw a CNN interview with a female student who was able to survive by playing dead in the classroom. She was one of four people to leave her class alive after preventing the shooter from re-entering their classroom by blocking the door.

Even Bush suprised me with this appropriate comment:

"Our nation is shocked and saddened by the news of the shootings at Virginia Tech today...Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning...When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community."

As the story continues to develop, there are still so many unanswered questions:

• Who is the shooter?
• What was the motive?
  
• Were the two bomb threats from last week related to today's incident?
  
• Why wasn't the campus immediately locked down?
• Why weren't students warned sooner?
• Could the second round of shooting have been prevented?
• Was the University and police response bundled?

While the list of questions grows, this tragedy has already had major political implications. It has fully consumed the news cycle for a full day now and will at least continue through the next week as more information slowly comes out.

One major result is that the following stories have been wiped off our television screens and newspapers:

• The bombings in the Green Zone in Baghdad
• The Don Imus extravanga that was just heating up
• The innocence of the Duke lacrosse players
• The Prosecutor Purge and calls for Gonzales' resignation
• Escalating rhetoric between Bush and Congress on Iraq War funding

I had planned to blog about a number of these items and since they have quickly become "old news", I will try to approach them in a more in-depth manner and spend more time on each.

This tragedy also raises some important questions for Penn. What would Penn have done in this situation? Could we h even handle such a major catastrophe?

According to Penn's Division of Public Safety, Penn Police would be prepared for a similar incident. That is crucial because at the end of the day, Penn students are wondering: " what if something like that happened here?" I know I did.

I am definitely confident that DPS has and will continue to work exceptionally hard to ensure our safety. I really hope they actively communicate how prepared they really are and reassure the Penn community.

~BT