Archive for April 25, 2008

Hillary Clinton, Rational Actor

A recent article, published on Slate, poses an interesting question – what if we take Hillary Clinton’s “I won’t quit” assertion at face value?

It’s not a pretty picture. Let’s assume that Hillary Clinton will not – no matter what – quit the race. And further assume that she cannot make up for Obama’s delegate lead, as in fact the polls and her delegate numbers suggest.

Now break down the potential alternatives, given that Hillary won’t quit but can’t win. Either Obama quits, reaping (most likely, as the Slate author argues) a firestorm of resentment, propelling McCain to the presidency in 2008, or the nomination goes to the convention. Now let’s look to the convention, and the time in between then and now.

Each additional contested primary has long since stopped giving us new information. Either Obama retains his lead, or Hillary edges him out by a minuscule margin, or she wins a state she was slated to win all along. Given the late hour of the contest, neither candidate is able to “deliver a knockout blow”; the vote tells America nothing. And, unfortunately, the transaction cost for learning this additional nothing is increasing with every contest. Although McCain is shut out of the 24-hour news cycle, media coverage of Obama and Clinton long stopped being positive. Negative sells.

So we’re left with either Obama quitting, giving an illegitimate win to Clinton, or Obama winning at the convention. Between these two choices, I say, “No.” A deal must be struck, and it must be struck now. Talk to your local Democratic leaders. Call headquarters and complain. But we can’t let this go on.

Let this be your last battlefield

Apparently, science has become the newest battleground in the culture wars, with Jonathan David Carson of “The American Thinker” trying his absolute hardest to link “liberals” to unscientific science and the suppression of religion. I post this “article” not only out of amusement, but as an example of how selected “American thinkers” engage in the irrational vilification of science as nothing more than the tool of undefined “liberals.” Read, be puzzled, and return.

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Talking Points – McCain’s Jeremiah Wright

Update: more on Hagee and McCain here.

We’ve all heard about how Barack Obama’s relationship with the controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright, hurt Obama’s numbers in Pennsylvania, and how it may hurt his chances of being elected should he be the Democratic nominee.

But what of the Republican nominee? Is Barack Obama the only one with specious religious friends?

No. Despite calling the big names of the Christian Right (Falwell, Buchanan, Robertson) “agents of intolerance” in 2000, McCain spent a good deal of time actively seeking, successfully, the support of one of the Religious Right’s true hatemongers, John Hagee. This is a man who blames homosexuals for Hurricane Katrina, and the Jews for anti-semitism (it’s their fault for rebelling against God, apparently).

Obama has been forced to “reject and denounce” Farrakhan, and had to endure being called a black racist. Why none of this scrutiny for McCain’s morally dubious religious friends and supporters, bigoted men whose support McCain sought, with full knowledge of their controversial positions?

This is rather like Holmes’ dog barking in the night. The fact that the media didn’t seize on this story is more telling than McCain’s association is, itself. Is it that we expect our Republican candidates, given the stellar past seven years, to associate with bigots, hatemongers, and charlatans, so long as those individuals dress themselves up in the clothes of pious “Christian” men? I certainly hope not, but that seems to be the case. Christianity is not a shield behind which bigotry is entitled to hide – not for Wright, not for Hagee.

If we’re going to scrutinize the Wright & Obama relationship with a fine-tooth comb, the Hagee & McCain connection deserves the same attention. And it may deserve more: if Obama’s relationship with Wright allegedly signified his tacit approval of Wright’s radical views, McCain’s active courtship of Hagee is either explicit approval of Hagee’s views, or at least gives the lie to McCain’s “maverick” identity. Hagee was a political ally, not a long-term friend, and McCain’s attempts to back away from Hagee should be viewed with due suspicion.