#18 AoD

Back on Tuesday March fourth, the primaries in Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island went underway. In the end, after an eleven to zero winning streak, Senator Obama won only in Vermont. Senator Clinton won Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island, her first victories since January. Senator Obama played down his losses because he still holds the largest number of delegates. Both senators have insisted that they have the best credentials to "go head to head against McCain." Because of his winning streak, Senator Obama has a lead that will be hard for Senator Clinton to overcome. Senator Clinton won approximately fifty-five percent of the vote in Ohio and just over half in Texas. Senator Obama still has about the same lead as he did on the morning of the primaries. Within the four states, Senator Clinton got at least 115 delegates while Senator Obama got at least eighty-eight. Senator Obama has a totoal of 1,307 delegates not counting the superdelegates. Senator Clinton has 1, 175 and it takes 2,025 to win the democratic nomination. Next up: Wyoming and Mississippi. Wyoming is offering twelve delegates and Mississippi is offering thirty-three. The next prize after that will be Pennsylvania with 158 delegates. Both Senators offered their congrats to John McCain who triumphed in the Republican race. On to Wyoming next Saturday then Mississippi the following week. With Senator Clinton still in the race, things are going to start heating up, literally.

#17 AoD

Senator Hillary Clinton, has been having a rough time in the political race letely. She is still hoping that she can win in Texas and Ohio on Tuesday. In the debate in Clevland, Senator Clinton went after Senator Obama with full force. She accused him "of distorting her record on trade and health care in mass mailings to Ohio voters." Also in Boston, Clinton outlined her plan that she will follow so that she can beat Obama in Texas and Ohio on the fourth. She said a big part of her plan will be to focus on the experience gap between the two senators. She has already spent almost 130 million of the money for her campaign. After her Even after the debate, Senator Clinton did not seem to make the shift that she wanted to so that she could turn her campaign around. The race is still in favor of Senator Obama. "With a week left, the debate provided what might have been her final opportunity to find an effective line of attack against Mr. Obama."(Adam Nagourney, The New York Times.) Throughout the debate, Senator Obama was lucky enough to be the one candidate with very little to prove. Senator Clinton has seemed unable to knock Senator Obama off of his very high pedestal. Senator Obama has remained a very elusive target to Senator Clinton. Whether or not she can unravel the "mystery" of Senator Obama may detirmine whether or not she can beat Senator Obama in Texas and Ohio on Tuesday, March 4th. By this time next week, we should know whether or not Senator Clinton will continue in the presidental race.

#16 AoD

In the political race for the presidency, things have not been going very well for Senator Hillary Clinton. She has already lost eleven straight caucuses and primaries to Senator Barack Obama. Not only that but her financial situation is going down the tube. She has spent excessive amounts of money on food and lodging for her campaigning group. Unless she can win in the primary in both Texas and Ohio on March fourth, she will likely not make it to becoming president. On Thursday February 21, Clinton and Obama faced off in a debate in Austin, Texas. Clinton accused Obama of political plagiarism and said that he represented, and I quote, "change you can Xerox." One of the issues they spoke on was their dissagreement of the change in Cuban government. They also argued on the healthcare issue stating that Obamas plan would leave 15 million Americans uncovered. At one point, the debate audience booed at Clinton. In addition to losing 11 primaries, Hillary Clinton also lost the overseas competition for those Americans living abroad, as weel as she is is now behind on the number of delegates needed to become a presidential nominee. When the two senators met in Los Angeles to debate, they were politely dissagreeing but their debates have become hit and run cases, accusing eachother of distorting the truth for their own gains. Right now Obama is going strong and unless something changes drastically, Hillary Clinton just might be out of the race to become our next president.

#15 AoD

Thus far since Super Tuesday, senator Barack Obama was has an 8-0 winning streak. If he is able to take Wisconsin and Hawaii this Tuesday, he will have a 10-0 winning streak. He was the first to be put on ther air in Wisconsin and released tv spots. The Clinton party however, retaliated by launching the first tv attack ad in the race. Both are fighting over the blue-collar workers in the badger statebut Obama recieved a labor endorsment and is hoping to catch a lager one from the Service Employees International Union. Clinton however is going to need a large push to regain her previous momentum. Since his victory in South Carolina, Obama has been able to solidify his support on the left. He has been able to get many endorsments from multiple sources. One reason that many senetors and other big whigs are leaning towards Obama is because he is considered a stronger, less polarizing election candidate. There has also been a major moval of superdelegates from Clinton to Obama. It could become worse for the Clinton campaign if there is an upset in ohio or Texas come March fourth. Because of all that is happening, the Clinton campaign has plenty of reason to be worried. As always though, we will have to wait and see what happens. Things could change at any time.

#14 AoD

This past Tuesday, 2/5/08, was the day known as Super Tuesday. Of the Super Tuesday states, Barack Obama won thirteen and Hillary Clinton won eight including American Samoa. The total amount of delegates on Clinton's side is 845 while Obama's is 765. To claim their nomination, they would nees 2,025 delegates. Obama's winning states were: Connecticut, Georgia, Alabama, Delaware, Utah, Illinois, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Idaho, Alaska, Colorado, and Missouri. Clinton's winning states were: New York, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arizona, and Arkansas. Clinton won in California mainly because of the backing from Hispanic voters. Obama won in Alabama and Gerogia because of the strength from black support. Clinton was winning with a slight edge from women and white voters but now she is having a stronger appeal among the hispanic population. Not suprising, the majority of Obama's votes came from blacks. On the opposite side, John McCain won 613 delegates, Mitt Romney had 269, and 190 for Mike Huckabee. However it takes 1,191 delegates to win the GOP nomination. McCain was going strong with independents andRomney was getting approximately four in ten votes from people who were considered conservative. McCain won the states of California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri, Delaware, and Arizona as well as Oklahoma and Illinois. Huckabee won in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and his home state. Romney won in Massachuttes and Utah but also gained victories in North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Alaska and Colorado. McCains victory in California caused a crushing blow to Romney. McCain was able to pile his lead up because nine of the Republican contests were winner take all. Also recently, Democrat John Edwards dropped out of the race for president. Unless something changes it seems that either Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John McCain is going to be the winner of the presidental election.

#13 AoD

Recently Ted Kennedy decided to Endorse Senator Barack Obama in the race for presidency. The supposed reason that Kennedy decided to endorse Obama was because he viewed as racially divisive comments from former president Bill Clinton. Also, author Toni Morrison has begun to endorse Obama. He said that it was only because of Obama's personal gifts. Back on tuesday, Hillary Clinton won the primary in Florida however, because no delagates were chosen, it did not help her as much as she wanted. Her victory however was good for her campaign after her big defeat by Obama in South Carolina. In Clintons campaign, there has been a dispute with former president Bill Clinton because many think he has been running the campaign instead of Hillary. Some have come to believe that Hillarys campaign has been more of a co-presidency since Bill entered the picture, which causes Hillary to not look like a strong female leader. It was suggested that Mr. Clinton take a more positive tone and support Hillary more on the sidelines. Coming up in a few days is Super Tuesday. Because of the states stampedeing there may be problems in terms of stalled tallied and much confusion. On an edn note, John Edwards announced on Wednesday that he was drpooing out of the race for presidency. He said that it was time to step aside “so that history can blaze its path.”

#12 AoD

Just this past week, Senator Barack Obama beat Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democrat primary in South Carolina. He won beacause his campaign staff as well as himself, did their work. What supposedly helped him was that about half the voters were black. South Carolina was Baracks first victory since the Iowa caucus beack at the beginning of January. In south Carolina, precint votes show Obama in the lead, Clinton in second, and Edwards in third. However Clinton is in the lead overall, with Obama in second, and Edwards still in third. Next up is Super tuesday on February fifth which will take place in New Jersey. This will be the earliest presidental primary in history. There will also be primaries and/or Caucuses in twenty-three other states which is why February fifth is known as Super Tuesday. As of now the latest polls show Clinton ahead of Obama for the Democrats and McCain ahead of Giuliani for the Republicans. Chances are that Super Tuesday is going to reveal the finalists in the race for the presidency.

#11 AoD

For this post I am going to focus on finding an issue or something related that I want to follow. One of the bigger issues that I could focus on is the primaries. It is practically inevitable that the Democrats will win the next election. What I could focus on is the tension between Clinton and Obama. It would be an interesting issue to follow because Clinton is the first woman who has come the closest to becoming president. Obama on the other hand is the first black person to run for president. Both parties being considered minorities will make this election a heated one. On another hand I could follow the Iraq war. It has been a difficult issue over the past few years and it happens to be one of the only issues I am interested in right now. However, by following the primaries I might get a better feeling of how the Iraq war will go. Chances are, no matter who wins, our troops will be pulled out so the question is, “What will happen to Iraq when our troops are pulled out?” Other than these issues, there is nothing else that intrests me enough to blog about.

#10 AoD

My cohort has just started Political Science and Sociology as two of our classes. It deals with the way politics work and how the government is run as well as how society and people live and interact. This in general, relates to Arts of Democracy because they also deal with similar issues. Arts of democracy and sociology relate because they both look into how people interact and how they live. Arts of Democracy and Political science relate becuase Arts of Democracy look at the basics for the democratic system which in turn is used in politics. Seeing as we are only a day into the class, I do not have a deeper understanding of how the the three classes relater but as ther quarter goes on I believe that I will start to see more of the connections. On another note, I was able to apply the arts of democracy to my life during Christmas break. My parents decided to let my little brother and sister choose cat that they wanted to get. They did not argue about it but I could tell that they were getting close to a confrontation. I stepped in and tryed to help them settle the matter. My sister wanted the black cat and my brother wanted the orange one. My brother gave in regardless of my assistance. However, my sister wanted to name our new cat too. I suggested that it was only fair that my brother get to name it since he did not get to pick it. Luckily we were able to avoid an argument becuase of my interference. That is how the arts of Democracy has related to my life in recent weeks. If you were curious by chance, we named the cat Arlene.