Non-Paper Daily, 2.24.09

*Tonight, President Obama gave a semi-State of the Union address to both houses of Congress. I was on the road for the speech, but read a bit about it and apparently it was came across well... or even better than well. Health care reform and "let's not give up" seemed to be big themes. Here's the text. Those who saw it, thoughts?

*Hillary is killin' it around the globe. She's a star. That said, her comments about pushing human rights discussions in China onto the backburner while we figure out the economic situation were dead wrong. Now, more than ever, is the time to press the Chinese into action. They still need us more than we need them, so why not do some arm twisting to get the Chinese into (at least) the 20th century?

*It is my mom's birthday today. I arrived back in La Grande for classes at EOU and to celebrate with her. Happy birthday Carol!

Obama Takes Superdelegate Lead

Yesterday Barack Obama overtook Hillary Clinton in the number of superdelegate endorsements. For a couple months Obama has been pointing to his lead in the popular vote, in the number of states won, and in the number of pledged delegates won, but he continued to trail in superdelegates. In fact, Clinton's lead here gave the race a false sense of closeness. However, after his strong showing in North Carolina and near-win in Indiana, Obama has been picking up handfuls of endorsements. Using any legitimate measure Obama has locked up the nomination, now it's just a matter of how Clinton will end her campaign.

Bravo to both candidates. With the exception of a couple slides (Wright, lapel pins, schmoozing with right-wingers, etc) this campaign has been a fantastic display of two extremely talented candidates, both of whom would have been great presidents. Now it's time to turn up the pressure on McCain and win in the fall!

Obama Wins

Yesterday Obama was the big winner: Indiana was a virtual tie--he lost by 14,000--and North Carolina was a blowout--he won by well over 200,000. Obama came out with more pledged delegates, more popular votes, and more superdelegate endorsements. Furthermore, he did all this after weathering multiple storms: the Clinton gas-tax pandering, the rehashing of Reverend Wright's comments, and a big Clinton victory in Pennsylvania. Clinton will no longer catch him in the popular vote even if Michigan and Florida are counted. Clinton cannot catch him in state's won. After so much having been thrown at Obama, he still did well at the polls. This may have finally shown that the argument that he is unelectable no longer carries water.