What If Clinton Forces Second Convention Vote on Obama?

I am not by any means an expert on political convention procedures, Republican or Democrat, but I do know that somewhere in the process, if a first vote doesn't produce a clear nominee, pledged delegates are released to vote their own minds.

What happens to the ever so well-crafted numbers that the media has been throwing at us for months now if the first vote doesn't produce a nominee? What happens if Hillary Clinton gets enough delegates in the remaining primaries to deny Barack Obama the majority he needs to claim victory?

Yes, I am aware that the Democrats use "Super" delegates who ostensibly are free to vote their consciences, and that as of today Obama was claiming that he had more than Clinton.

But a lot can happen between now and convention time and Super Delegates are in play right up to the instant they vote. So that number can change overnight, and if Obama doesn't have enough committed delegates to get the nomination on the first vote, what happens next?

At what point do the committed delegates get released from their commitments, regardless of whether they are committed to Clinton or Obama?

Based on most of the opinions I have heard from the political scene in recent weeks, Clinton will win West Virginia handily, Kentucky by a decent margin, as well as Puerto Rico, with Oregon, Montana and South Dakota up for grabs.

So essentially, we'll finish up the Democratic primary season in something near a dead heat, with Obama a tiny bit ahead in the committed delegate count, but not over the top.

That however, doesn't include the primaries in Florida and Michigan that Clinton won but the Democrats aren't counting.

And please, don't bore me with this "Obama didn't run in Michigan" nonsense. Who's fault is that? Yeah, His!

How typically Democratic in concept. The man didn't do what he needed to do to win all the states regardless of the technicalities involved, so now he is a victim of his own system?

Obama doesn't get any Michigan numbers because he wrote that state off and that is too bad. But the Democratic party is cutting its own throat by excluding the opinions of millions of voters who could care less what the bigwigs in their party did with their primary schedules.

That is not helpful to Obama, nor is his "victim" attitude.

If you include Clinton's victories in Florida and Michigan in this count, the whole picture changes.

Obama's playing the race card repeatedly isn't helping him either. He won big in North Carolina because nearly half the Democratic voters in North Carolina are black, and 90+ percent of them voted for Obama.

But nationwide, blacks account for one-eighth of the population and while it certainly is desirable to have a large voting bloc in your camp, and the voice of African-Americans certainly should be heard and heeded, that percentage can't win on its own.

Here is the dirty little secret that most political newscasters and commentators don't want to address in their unending quest for political correctness.

White people by and large are pissed at Obama. Many whites would have voted for him early on. But first his wife bad mouths a country that gave her opportunities to excel in one of the most prestigious of Ivy League schools, and an annual income that is 10 times higher than most wage earners; then Rev. Jeremiah Wright goes out rapping smack about whitey and the USAKKK.

Then we find that his other associations are less than savory, what with federal trials involving close Obama friends and supporters, and unrepentant terrorists in his circle of backers.

White people, not white liberal Democrats, or even unaffiliated left-leaning voters, but run of the mill white people, many of whom often don't vote, are angry with Obama.

I don't see this as racist either! I believe there are huge numbers of white Americans who are more than willing to vote for a qualified black person, man or woman, as well as a woman of any race.

But they want qualified people representing them. They want people who really are post-racial, not just posturing and then displaying age-old racial stereotyping in private.

A wide range of viewpoints comes into this site or my emails every day, and even when I disagree with the authors, I heed where they come from and what kind of demographic they represent.

Virtually all of them are angry with Obama. He does not have the support of the veterans, he does not have the support of the active military, he doesn't have the support of non-Democrat blue collar workers especially independents, and what with his latest shot at John McCain's age, you can bet the senior citizens aren't going to be on his side either. They're seeing him as just another upstart who wants to discount and discard their years of sacrifices, contributions and knowledge and shove them off to the side whenever their votes aren't needed.

Frankly, not only do I not see Obama getting elected, if he is nominated I wouldn't be surprised to see a backlash vote against him from many fronts, including those who don't usually vote, and thus usually aren't included in the myriad polls the pundits use to try to tell us how to think.

I don't believe I am the only person out here who sees this. I believe Hillary Clinton's camp is well aware of it, even though her advisers say otherwise, as is Obama's. Neither has the best interests of the Democratic party in mind, so neither will give up unless they are down, out and still getting stomped.

So it is conceivable that we can see this fight go right to the convention floor, and regardless of the delegate count at the moment, it all can change in the super delegate numbers. That change could occur if the Democratic convention goes beyond the first ballot.

Turn Off (NUMBERS) and Tune Out (George Carlin)

Reprinted from The Talon
http://talon.eaglesup.us/

In 1984 I attended a George Carlin comedy show and he was so funny for so long that by the time intermission rolled around my sides ached and I was afraid I would break a rib from laughing so hard.

Back then, Carlin was funny.

Seven years later I saw another of his routines in a much smaller venue. The only good thing I can say about that show was that the warm-up act was really, really good, and far outshone the main event.

What happened in between? First, Carlin dumped the long list of scatological and sexual references that had grown out of the original Seven Words You Can't Say on Television for more sophisticated, philosophical, pseudo-intellectual humor.

I realize that his previous humor had been juvenile and low brow, but it was still funny. Occasional cuts at the government or society were included and he often hit on something or another that we Americans do that seemed strange or funny if we took the time to think about it.

Then somewhere along the way Carlin started taking himself seriously. He seemed to think he had become a philosopher, wise and worth heeding. He poked fun at everything American, and everyone who was part of the mainstream. We were all foolish, myopic, brain-dead losers devoid of original thought. He was the only clear thinker among us.

Which was why his show suffered, his audience dwindled and he was playing much smaller venues.

Then, one night last week, when I was working late in my office, I turned on the television only to see Carlin doing an HBO special. He looked very old, ill in fact, stooped, and raspy. He was predictably ridiculing everything and everyone that was not him. He took shots at the president, he took shots at the Republican Party - unlike Lewis Black who hammers politicians of all stripes with equal vigor, Carlin just picks on Republicans - and he lambasted corporate America which according to him is responsible for all the world's ills.

Then, in a mere soundbite that left me both shocked and angry, Carlin ridiculed America's war dead whose remains rest in cemeteries around the world! His implication was that they had been suckered into fighting for our country, and died like so many mindless lemmings, for trumped up causes that they didn't have the sense to avoid.

Considering that most of the cemeteries for America's soldiers on foreign lands are for WWII veterans, this statement was all the more shocking. I have never heard anyone ridicule those who served in WWII as though they had a choice about where and when they would stand up to Nazis, fascists and the Japanese.

I have always believed we also did right in standing up to communists in Korea and Vietnam. They were no better than the Nazis and fascists. For some reason, the wars in Korea and Vietnam became issues of debate, while for most of the world's citizens who lived during WWII, there was little question about the where and when of fighting.

It was even more shocking that this criticism of our war dead came from a guy who has grown rich availing himself of the very freedoms that so many Americans died to preserve. Fighting against forces who, if they had prevailed, most definitely would NOT have allowed Carlin to say the things about them that he says about us.

I turned off the Carlin show because I was so outraged at him and HBO. The next non-news show I watched was on Friday night when the show NUMBERS came on at 10 p.m. That show started out as a crime drama in which two brothers, one an FBI agent, the other a brilliant college math professor, work together to solve major crimes.

Nice concept - for a while. Then, like most TV shows, the character development stretched into who was sleeping with whom, some scenes approached soft-porn, and a decided anti-military twist emerged.

The proof of this was a segment last year in which a Marine veteran of the Iraq War comes home and shoots two murderers. He takes off for Mexico, and stays there until last Friday's show when members of his unit try to track him down so he wouldn't spill the beans about all the mayhem, torture and slaughter they had engaged in against innocent civilians in Iraq.

Mortars leveling homes filled with innocent women and children, Marines shooting civilians for no reason and torturing the unfortunate until they begged for death. Oh Yeah, that's our guys all over.

I couldn't help but think back a month when Eagles Up and other pro-troop organizations stood vigil in Silver Springs Maryland as the Iraq Veterans Against the War attempted to re-create John Kerry's infamous Winter Soldier investigation from back in the 70s. That was when he and others of his ilk lied about the conduct of American soldiers in Vietnam, branding us as baby killers, murderers and worse.
Investigations later revealed that nearly all of Kerry's "witnesses" were liars, who didn't serve where and when they said they did, or at all, but that was never widely publicized.

In Maryland we demanded that the IVAW "witnesses" identify themselves by name, rank, unit, time and place in Iraq, other witnesses who saw what they said they saw, and further demanded that they agree to testify under oath to the alleged atrocities they allegedly witnessed. None would. Their event was a bust.

A bust just like the ill-conceived cases against the Haditha Marines and other members of the armed forces who have been falsely accused of war crimes in Iraq. Cases that are falling likes houses of cards. Never fear though. The left owns Hollywood and if they can't damage the American military one way, they'll do it another.

I turned off NUMBERS just as I had turned off Carlin, and I can guarantee that my family won't be watching it any more either. There are other things to do on Friday nights. We can rent a movie, or maybe even turn in early. I have several seasons worth of Magnum P.I. shows that are always worth watching that are far better entertainment than the slop CBS is offering up.

I recommend that course of action for anyone who cares about our military and our veterans. When I say No More Vietnam's, I mean no more sabotage and treachery, in the media, in the government, in politics and in the entertainment industry.

As for Carlin, he just reminds me of an irrelevant curmudgeon. And eventually he go the way we all will go and take his ill temper with him. But since Andy Rooney already has a lock on the curmudgeon identity, it looks like the only thing that will be left for Carlin's tombstone is "Irrelevant."

American Values in Morton, Ill.; Jesus Christ Appearing at the Bushnell in Hartford.

Are you are feeling a bit anxious about America's core values? Is Congress upsetting you, the news media infuriating you? Does it seem as though the end of rational thought as we know it is imminent?

Then I suggest you put down what you are doing and travel to Morton, Illinois for a refresher course in common sense and community values.

I was there this past weekend, just about as close as you can get to the Heartland of America, to participate in ceremonies and events associated with a visit from the Moving Wall, a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I was a guest of Larry Stimeling and American Legion Post 318, and to put it as succinctly as possible, these people know how to put on an event. Larry was the point man for a four-day series of panel discussions, commentary from Vietnam Veterans, entertainment, and the opportunity for Americans from throughout the area to visit the scaled-down duplicate of the memorial in Washington.

Larry and his associates left nothing to chance, and from the moment that Jerry Agles picked me up at the Peoria Airport to take me to the Ashland Best Western in Morton I knew I was in the presence of a class event. I highly recommend staying at the Ashland Best Western if you are in the area - and check out O'Flaherty's in the hotel if you are hungry or like a wide selection of Irish beers.

Larry and Jerry, with a lot of assistance from Morton American Legion Post 318 and Lodge #352 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, put in a yeoman's effort, and the final result was well worth it.

I have spoken at many events over the years and usually there is a core group of workers who do most of the heavy lifting to arrange things, with more helpers showing up as the event unfolds. That is not an insult to anyone, it is just a reflection of human nature.

Once the event is underway it takes a lot of hands to make sure it goes smoothly, handing chores such as transportation, meals, information assistance, helping put up and take down the wall, and filling in wherever needed.

But as I was putting final touches on the speech I was to deliver at the closing ceremonies on Sunday I looked at the back of the event program where the groups, businesses and individuals who had contributed were posted. I was amazed. The list was HUGE!

It seemed as though the entire community was in on the planning or execution in some way or another. Restaurants donated food, individuals and groups donated money, politicians from all parties were in abundance and wholly supportive - and I didn't see any of the political posturing that cynics expect at these events either. It was clear to me that Morton, Illinois represents an America that many of us yearn for, but that the mainstream media seems to be going out of its way to claim no longer exits.

Based on what I saw in Morton this past week, the media is wrong - again. How surprised are we at that?

To sum it up, I was privileged and honored to be part of a moving and important event in the nation's heartland. I hadn't been to that part of the country previously, not counting Chicago. But I made some friends there and you can bet I will be back to see them in the future.

Jesus Christ in Hartford

Do you believe in omens?

Well then, tell me what this would mean to you.

I board a plane in Peoria, Ill., to take a quick hop up to Chicago's O'Hare Airport where I will connect to another plane that will take me to Connecticut.

Just before the door of the plane closes (the one in Peoria) a passenger enters - a minister judging from his collar and the cross displayed on a chain hanging around his neck.

His assigned seat is next to mine. We exchanged pleasantries and then he went to work on his papers, maybe his next sermon, and I went to work on my crossword puzzle which is what I do when I fly.

The trip to Chicago is uneventful, we deplane, both end up on the shuttle from Concourse B to Concourse C, and all the way to my gate he keeps popping up. I'm beginning to wonder just what is going on, and then he disappears. I was only about 20 minutes away from boarding time on my next flight and I soon forgot about the last one.

I boarded the next plane, and took my window seat about two-thirds of the way toward the back of the plane, after which I started people watching, one of my all-time favorite leisure activities. After a while I noticed a group of young people, college age to mid-20s or so, heading my way.

I wasn't sure what to make of them, especially when a young man with a very deep voice who liked to sing "Yippee Ki O, Ki A," took the seat next to me. "Maybe spring breakers on their way home from somewhere," I mused. But as more and more entered the aircraft it was obvious that more and more of them knew each other, and I speculated that maybe they were a rock-n-roll band with a large entourage.

When the plane was full and everyone seated, one of the group who was behind me asked the man next to me how many performances they would be doing at their next stop.

By then my curiosity had overcome my good manners and I couldn't stop myself from asking "What are you performing."

OK, are you ready for this? Remember what I said about the first flight in the company of the minister? Well for the second part of my flight I was smack in the middle of the entire national touring company for the hit musical Jesus Christ Superstar!

Think someone is trying to tell me something?

As it turns out, my aisle mate was Darrel Whitney, a personable guy from Erie, PA, who plays the High Priest, Caiaphas.

Mary Magdalene was right in front of me, Pontius Pilate was across the aisle, the show's musical director was right behind me, and Jesus Christ, in the person of Ted Neeley who has played the role numerous times on stage and screen over thirty years, was three rows in front of me! I felt strangely ... secure, even when the ride was bumpy.

Darrel and I talked a bit and found out: he knows a lot about military aircraft which was an area of common interest; he eventually wants to teach social studies and do voice-overs as a second career; and that I studied Shakespeare in college and reviewed Jesus Christ Superstar for a Connecticut newspaper when the touring company came to the Bushnell Auditorium in the 90s.

Darrel invited me to come see the present incarnation of the show, which follows the traditional version - imagine that, Jesus Christ Superstar, now in its fourth decade, and was considered avant garde theater when it was first produced, actually has a "traditional" version.

This may seem like a lot to absorb, and I guess it is. Some people will see my journey as an omen, or at least a message, others will say it is sheer coincidence and I am making too much of it.

Nonetheless, I will be going to the Bushnell Auditorium in Hartford one evening this week to watch Jesus Christ Superstar. I'll also be taking my family, since my youngest has yet to see the stage production and I think she'll enjoy it.

Make of that what you will.