Presidential Horse Race: True reflection of America or media manipulation?

Just read this CNN article about the race being a statistical dead heat. Last week some polls had Obama up in double digits. What is going on here, in my opinion, is a news media driven by the entertainment side of the 24/7 news business. This new poll made me shake my head and wonder who was really wagging the dog.

In the poll with just McCain and Obama compared together, Obama leads by five points. When you throw in Nader and Barr, it dwindles to 3 points. One reason why I am skeptical of this polled is that Nader polled at 6% and Barr at 3%. Now since the margin of error is close to these third party percentage vote totals, it is more than likely that these third party candidates don't have this much support In 2004 Nader got 465,650 votes while the Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik received 397,265 votes. I can't see that changing very much this election cycle. Nader is old news and Barr might spoil Georgia in a close race.

Here in Missouri, the Libertarian Party is the only established third party in the state and a lack of a more liberal third party candidate may have an impact, but most people when they get behind the curtain in the voting booth will usually vote for major party candidates.

BTW, I tried to set up this blog on Wordpress or b2evolution on a host server. But I found out it's a lot harder than it seems. I'll stay on Blogger for now.

Family Leave Act - Clay Sr. says Hillary had nothing to do with it

William Clay Sr., former Mo congressman, was one of the chief sponsors of the bill back in the 90's. He claims that Hillary Clinton had nothing to do with it. In a St Louis Dispatch article, Clay Sr. said there wasn't really much os a need for lobbying.

You know, she might of "help" Bill Clinton write a speech or provide some unofficial advice. Is this one of those resume exaggerations? Sure it is. But it is not the blatant lie about landing in sniper fire and being whisked away when it is clear you were not. We have to be careful not to equate an exaggeration with an outright lie. One is clearly different from the other. A lot of people, especially Clinton supporters, are pointing to Obama's "exaggerations" to some how excuse Hillary's Bosnia lie. This is very Karl Rovian in the sense that he would deflect any criticism from the administration by pointing to his critic's alleged bad behavior. Never mind that he was comparing apples to walruses, that didn't matter.

Mo 9th Congressional Convention in Audrain county

It was a rainy and stormy night....ok, it was raining, but I'm not writing a fictional piece with a cliche beginning. I attended the Mo 9th Congressional Convention in Mexico, Missouri. A couple of friends and I drove up there from Columbia as Obama Alternates. We tried to make up a song to sing as we were driving up in the rain, but couldn't find many words that rhymed with alternate. We arrived in one piece and spent some time talking and conversing with other delegates. I was stumping for William Monroe to be the make Obama Delegate. Bill is a public health nurse that works in Columbia, but lives in Fulton. Before the vote, there were delegates that didn't show up so alternates were chosen to fill in. My friend's wife and I were picked to be delegates and had voting privileges. It is funny that she became an alt a month earlier only because she didn't want to walk home and decided to join her husband at the county convention in February. Democracy is about showing up it seems (attributed to Wayne Brekhus).

Speeches were given, the holy trinity of Truman, FDR, and JFK was invoked, and in the end Bill won the delegate seat. Robin LaBrunerie of Columbia won the female delegate slot. Missourian story is here.

I must say I thought the process was fun and hope to have more fun at the State convention on May the 10th.

Latest from the Artisan

Bill Monroe let everyone know about the upcoming tabling for Barack Obama at the Twilight Festival in Columbia. Rebecca Schedler announced that she was starting up the local Edward's campaign here. More info on that as I get more on it. There will be a fund raising party for Democracy for Missouri at Craig's house on September 27th. Donations will be asked to donate a quarter every time a candidate mentions 9/11.