What Stood Out This Week - 1/27-2/2

We're getting into primary election crunch time, and with two major early primaries (one for Dems and one for Pubes) it was yet another busy, busy seven days, dear B&E readers. Let's see What Stood Out This Week...

The Quitters

Rudy Giuliani - Having staked his candidacy on Florida, Floridians responded, awarding him a bronze for a distant third place, just a point or two above Mike Huckabee. The voters got to know Rudy and discovered that, sure enough, he's completely unlikable. He immediately turned around and endorsed John McCain. His reward will be the cushy Secretary of Dickhead position in the cabinet, should McCain win the presidency.

John Edwards - John Edwards came in third in the South Carolina Democratic primary. He said, "Onward!" until three days later when he placed first in media interest of dropouts, soundly defeating the "Feh" heard in response to Rudy's announcement. (Rudy was like, "Guys? Hello? I'm out. Hello? 9/11?") Edwards' issue this campaign has been poverty, and he was the only person talking about it. Who gives a shit about the vast personal wealth, the giant house, and the $600 haircut? The man truly cares about poverty issues.

I found myself surprisingly disappointed by Edwards' withdrawal. Because I felt like he didn't have a shot at the nomination I must've been guarding myself, but I'm saddened by his new absence, and the Democratic Party will be lessened without his voice. Because they want his delegates, both of the other major candidates (sorry, Mike Gravel, you're just not quite major) have heaped praise upon him and have promised to take up his cause. If Edwards gets more than lip service from those two, then his campaign has been worthwhile indeed. He's yet to endorse anyone.

Edwards' quitting had one other effect on me: I'm un-undecided.

The Democrats

So that leaves us with two Democratic candidates (again, sorry, Mike Gravel). Barack Obama decidedly won the South Carolina primary, after an ugly week of back-and-forths between both Clintons and Obama. He followed up his victory with one hell of a good goddamned speech (and I completely agree with Titivil's assessment).

Hillary and Barack both seemed to realize that the ugly campaigning wasn't helping either of them. Their post-South Carolina debate this week was so tame the only media coverage I saw was a NY Times article discussing how they seemed to be trying to out-nice each other. Dullsville, from a media point-of-view.

Really, this week they've just been campaigning like hell in preparation for Super Tuesday (that's this Tuesday, B&E readers, so if the list includes your state, don't forget to vote!).

Barack's buying TV in New York (that's Hillary's backyard, Barack! Oh, shit!), and the ads are OK, I guess. They feature him giving speeches, which as already stated is a particular gift of Barack's. I haven't seen any Hillary ads yet, although I've heard she's buying some. She should really trounce Barack in New York, and it would be quite telling if she doesn't.

Republicans

John McCain won Florida, defeating Mitt Romney (man, I love it when that guy gets 2nd place after spending a shitload of his own money), followed by Bye-bye Rudy and Mike Aw-Shucksabee.

McCain's now a clear front-runner, and unlike the Democratic side, this is causing less harmony. Mitt's saying McCain can't be trusted to be a true conservative (not that Mitt's ever been a true anything - except maybe a Mormon), and Huckabee is going through Super Tuesday at least, asking the faithful to get behind his candidacy.

Mitt's attending Mormon leader funerals and putting another $35,000,000 into his own campaign (OK, so maybe there's a part of me that wishes I could flush money down the toilet at the rate Mitt can), and hoping for the best on Super Tuesday. I think McCain's probably gonna wipe the floor with them on Tuesday.

Huckabee has begun to be marginalized by the media, but my workplace enjoyed a viewing of this ad with Chuch Norris. It demonstrates a sense of humor not found in most presidential contenders. It's almost too bad he's bat-shit crazy. He sure is likable that Huckabee. So is Chuck. And check out those pearly whites. Man, those are some shiny veneers. For my money, the best bit is the "Chuck Norris approved!" moment at the end.

Independents?

So here's the million-dollar question: If McCain wins the nomination as I predict, will the Christian right run a third party candidate?

And here's another little tidbit...

You might be surprised to learn that I'm on Ralph Nader's email list (I'm on a LOT of lists). Nader had endorsed John Edwards, something no one was announcing too loudly. So John's now out. On Wednesday, Nader launched a 2008 exploratory committee website.

I'm an enormous fan of Ralph Nader's work. Without him we wouldn't have safety belts in cars, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Freedom of Information Act, and many, many other outcomes from the work of a life-long consumer advocate.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I voted for Nader in 1996 (Clinton had proven himself to be too conservative for my tastes) and 2000 (Gore had sewn up New York, and at the time Gore was playing to the middle, something he no longer does). Nader's 2000 campaign is wrongly maligned with losing the election to Gore. If Gore had run even a mediocre campaign, with or without Nader, Bush never would've gone to the White House. And lest we forget, Gore did actually win that election.

Now I fear that Nader is marginalizing himself. His legacy is becoming about running for president instead of about doing what he's always done best. His reasons for running are hard to argue with: he's not wrong that corporate America has a stranglehold on our electoral process. But I fail to see how running for president is the best way to fight that beast.

I love you Ralph. Please don't run again.