Saturday, March 1, 2008

Deep in the heart of Texas

The race to win the Democrat Presidential nomination continues to bemuse the psephologist in me. Take Texas for instance. It has a primary (126 delegates up for grabs) and caucuses(67 delegates). With the help of The New Republic's Lone Star Primer all has become clear. How many delegates each State congressional district gets is based on how they voted in the last 2 National Senate elections. The more Democrat votes, the more delegates. This is supposed to give Barack Obama an advantage over Hillary Clinton because more blacks turned out than hispanics. Simple, isn't.

Now to participate in a caucus you have to have voted in the primary. If that sounds like double-dipping you're right. Two votes for the price of one. (If you're not sure how a caucus works then go back to square one.)

Texas has had a unique Presidential history during my lifetime. John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum is in Austin. Presumably George W. Bush will build his own museum there too. I can't imagine what books would be in the library. His father's library is in College Station half way between Austin and Houston.

At least the weather shouldn't keep them away.

Sphere: Related Content

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Enemy Combatant sez...

Kevin, absolutely bloody go for it, son! Was last in Austin in 2003 and the Hype Machines were cranked to 11 shilling the Iraq invasion. Sat on a high stool in Schlotsky’s Deli on the main drag that leads up to Capitol Hill and used their free computers to email “my attorney” about the insanity that was unfurling before my eyes. Every third vehicle, I kid you not, was sporting a HUGE Am. flag, most on poles protruding out and up from the rear passenger windows. Much honking, yeee-hawing and thumbs-upping and this was just a week-a-day lunchtime.

For once I kept my usually loud mouth shut having mercifully read the mood from a thousand and one Western movies of my youth. Anyway, if the mob at LP don’t respond (got here from their open Sat thread) I’m sure the pol. junkies at Poll Bludger blogspot’s Sep threads would be most appreciative of your thoughts and observations.

Btw, legendary bluesman and original member of Muddy’s band, Pinetop Perkins, is at Antone’s on Thursday nite if you like that sort of music. He’s into his nineties now but to witness the respect given to him from his fellow musos and the crowd would be more than worth the price of admission. It’s a great joint when it’s cookin’.
Good luck, and if you’re flying out of Austin, make sure you’re clean shaven or you could cop a full body search.

Back to Top