A Little Of The Old In And Out



(image via theatlantic)

In: The Superdelegates. The pendulum swings. After Indiana and North Carolina -- the last two big electorally-rich states -- there are more superdelegates at stake than regular delegates. From TheHill:

"The fight for Democratic superdelegates moved to the House floor on Thursday as Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) spoke to dozens of Democrats in the House well.

"Obama, increasingly looking like the Democratic presidential nominee, strode into the House chamber just before 11 a.m.as the House was beginning a series of votes. Obama, who was greeted with hugs and backslaps, slipped in the side door along with what appeared to be only his security detail.

"'I wanted to see what's going on over here,' Obama, wearing a broad smile, told reporters. 'I hear there's a lot of action on this side.'"

More here.



(image via AOL)

Out: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Junior Senator from New York has, since South Carolina, run a stealth racial campaign, carefully calculated to rasp Obama's front-runner status. As a player in the filthy Arkansan politics of the 1970's, this is not so much of a surprise, but the side she ended up on is. The fact that she -- and her husband -- are now willing to throw away their legacy as "The First Black President" at a long-shot chance at the nomination is, frankly, astonishing, proving, once again, that Republican criticism of the amorality of the Clintons in the 90s was, in hindsight, probably dead on. They will rationalize any behavior -- no matter how morally dirty -- to justify the acquisition of Power. From Ben Smith of Politico:

"There's always been a racial dynamic underlying Clinton's claims of electability: the argument that working class white swing voters might not -- for whatever reason -- vote for Obama.

"Her campaign has been stating it with striking bluntness in the last couple of days, though. Yesterday it was Geoff Garin, and today Clinton in an interview with USA Today:

'I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,' she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article 'that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.'

"'There's a pattern emerging here,' she said.

"Now, the press has talked about the race in these terms constantly, so I won't feign shock. But it's a bit strange to hear it so bluntly from the candidate's mouth, and probably not a great way to endear herself to African-American voters."

Indeed. More here.



(image via dailygalaxy)

In: Stan Lee. Fortuna, that fickle Goddess, has honored Stan Lee with longevity enough to see the fruits of his creative mind, which influenced generations of Americans, to dominate the popular imagination in the most impressive manner. From TheFreep:

"At 85, Marvel superhero creator Stan Lee is hardly spending his senior years waxing nostalgic about how he created Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four and two heroes hitting the big screen this summer: 'Iron Man' (burning up theaters now) and 'The Incredible Hulk' (opening June 13).

"'Virtually every major character that I created at Marvel is being turned into movies,' Lee says in his POW! Entertainment offices in Beverly Hills. 'When I go to the theater to see these, I'm able to just sit there and enjoy the movies without thinking, 'Hey, I created that.'

"Lee is dreaming up new characters every day. He has turned his likeness into a Japanese anime hero for a graphic novel, signed a deal to create a line of comics for Virgin mogul Richard Branson and is developing animated series around Ringo Starr and Hugh Hefner."