What's more boring than a debate? A debate with celebrity cut-aways!

Well, it's been a while for blogging for me. I tried to get a job -- to no avail, but that'll come a bit later. For now, let's talk politics!

Well, for the Democratic Party, it was an exciting night last night as the two Democratic candidates apparently of any worth (sorry Mike Gravel) left in the race had a debate sure to be full of conflict and fire and passion and...WHAT??!?



Smiles? Jokes? They were even acting nice to each other? Where is the anger? Where are the skeletons in the closet?



Obama attacked a Republican?! Wow, he really IS a Democrat after all...

Really, this was how the blogs have been handling what was a pretty pedestrian, lackluster debate. People on the news as well said it was substantive and very nuanced, when I saw talking point after talking point. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't think two people sticking stubbornly to the same points they've had for months should be thought of as nuance. But, who cares what I think? In any case, it's always good to hear candidates tell the GOP that we fight back against their smears, so good on them for that.

Now to polls, which pollster.com provides very handily.

While I plan to give you an overlook at the state-by-state Super Tuesday polls tomorrow when I am not doing three things at once, here's a quick look using a chart that shows states that took polls within the new year and who in the Democratic primary is leading who, and same for the Republicans.

Now, since the picture placement function is giving me fits, here's a lowdown if it's too hard to notice...these are all 08 polls, state without 08 polls are excluded from the chart. The dots show on which candidate's side the poll of a certain week fell upon and the red line is the median of all the 08 polls for the state in terms of margin. Those markings on the right are Clinton-leading states, those on the left are Obama-leading states.

Obama is as of this week, out of these recently polled states, only apparently leading in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia and his home state of Illinois, leaving Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Utah, New York, Missouri, Tennessee, New Jersey, Arizona, California, Minnesota and Connecticut in Clinton country as of now. After he won South Carolina, Obama's bounce may be quickly scanned over by looking at the most recent polls, those with the darkest dots, and comparing them with the earlier polls, especially those of the week before. Not scientific but I think it can be a simplistic and yet helpful indicator nonetheless.

And now the two top Republican candidates, Romney and McCain. McCain on the right, Romney on the left. Here conventional wisdom says it's McCain with the bounce after winning South Carolina and then winning Florida.


Obviously a few ideas come up.

1) Obama's bounce doesn't make the race THAT much closer. He still has a lot of hard, hard, HARD work from tonight until Tuesday, as he is down big in California, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, and Massachusetts. Tennessee, if the poll is accurate, actually rejected his bounce from South Carolina so the nomination may still be Hillary's to lose.

2) Romney has, if I were to draw out an arbitrary number, 10% chance of not getting his ass handed to him on Tuesday. I know, I know, he has tens of millions he can dump into a campaign at a given moment, but his brand is so tarnished right now that it seems his ads aren't working, his campaigning won't help, and the media is still notorious behind McCain to the point that I don't see why a reasonable person would think Mitt Romney will be on the ticket in the general election unless McCain feels he really needs to try to get the Mormon voters in droves and nominates Romney as VP. Won't happen though, mark that one down.

Another thing I thought of, though, caught me a bit by surprise.

3) Would an Obama/Clinton ticket work? I like to frequent the blogs of other black political junkies, especially Too Sense and Jack and Jill Politics, and it seems on J&J, the word is bloggers of color that were behind Obama when the race-baiting began are not planning to vote Hillary. I was unsettled by this because I think the Republicans represent something much worse than Hillary Clinton in terms not only of the policy issues, but also in terms of the precedent Republicans would continue if they were able to win on fearmongering, and the use of the "liberal" tag once more. I think beating the Republican nominee in John McCain who they think is the most electable with the Democrat they hate would be a good thing for beating back the neocon spin machine and is worthwhile. The argument against black liberals voting for her is that her campaign race-baited Obama, which I see as true btw, and that she is therefore completely undeserving of black votes. It's a catch-22 for me, and I wonder what your thoughts are.

So I think it's Hillary-McCain and Hillary has a good shot at winning if she has someone who can bring wit, ferocity and yet a good, clean face to the ticket. Her attack style is, at least in this primary, often too much, too relentless, too ferocious, and it turns off people. Having a more humorous, somewhat gentler sort of attack that is still consistent, would work in her favor, to me lending a VP opportunity to someone like Joe Biden.

McCain might want someone who may actually help him on economic issues, so I see an opening for Huckabee, though I don't know if it'll work out very well in terms of getting out the vote. I'm just saying it's hard to talk straight talk when you're number 2 is completely batshit insane. That's all I'm saying.

Little note: Did anyone see all the celebrities CNN kept cutting to? That, to me, was the proof I needed to know the debate was bullshit. That means that CNN was willing to allow many, many bouts of prolonged clapping to justify cutting to celebrities, wouldn't you think? Here let me try...

Now try to concentrate while reading the rest...mwahahahaha!

PERSONAL:
Speaking of people trying to land a job, I've been looking at a whole host of employment opportunities (stupid business speak is all I know from 9, er 10-5) and have turned up jack in terms of actual job offers. Maybe you can help. I have a couple places where I interviewed (supposedly did well) but have gotten no job offers in a couple weeks. I contacted the hiring manager last week and was told a proposal to hire me was sent to the Exec. Director, so now a week after that email no offer. What should be my strategy on this? Forget about it, pursue aggressively...? I'm confused and a bit worried, but meh. That's all I can think of for now.