No Triple Crown this year

Da Tara wins the Belmont Stakes, Big Brown finishes in 8th place.  

No Triple Crown winner in 30 years, not one this year.  Maybe next year?

Clinton: "Yes We Can!"

Hillary Clinton today officially suspended her campaign and endorsed Barack Obama.  In what I consider to be a great and powerful speech, Hillary was able to weave together the civil rights struggle, women's rights struggle, and four decades of public service to tell all of her supporters to support Barack Obama.  She went as far as speaking to the women in the room and around the country who were hopeful to see a woman as president, that defecting to McCain would be a set back for women's rights.  

Early on, a few of those in the crowd booed, but by the end the overwhelming majority were cheering on Barack Obama's name.  Quite a historical moment, and one can only hope, a prelude to McCain's defeat in the fall.

Based on Clinton's tenacity, and the fire that she still has for this election, I think that it might be a good move for Obama to pick her as VP, so long as she knows where her place is in his administration.  It will be interesting to see how that part of the story plays out, but if she is his VP there is no possible way he could lose, as she would likely deliver states like PA, MI, OH, WV, and AR if she was on the ticket.

Update: When Pat Buchanan calls a speech by Clinton "magnificent" you know it was special.

John McCain must be shitting his pants right now (and no, that wasn't a crack at his age).

McCain OK with spying on Americans

Today the NYT reports that McCain has said he agrees with the Bush Administration's use of wiretaps without warrants against citizens of the United States.  If this man is elected, I expect a further erosion of liberties.  

So next time you pick up a phone, just remember who might be listening, and keep in mind that no due process need be followed.

Obama cleans up the DNC

As of today, the Democratic National Committee is prohibited from accepting money from lobbyists, a rule that the Obama campaign has followed for some time.  It is now his party.  Meanwhile, McCain and the GOP continue to be funded by lobbyists, mainly because they do not have enough citizens backing them to compete effectively without the help of oil companies, drug companies, etc.

Obama Rally in VA

Today I went to the rally for Barack Obama rally at the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA. We arrived at about 2pm in order to avoid traffic (which ended up not being too bad) and were inside by 3pm.

It was very interesting, a very diverse crowd and everyone was generally very nice. I met some interesting people there too. A country/rock band played from 4-5 and then Virginia Governor Tim Kaine arrived. He has been a pretty decent moderate governor thus far and he was one of the first state officials to endorse Obama. He spoke for about 20 minutes. We then waited for another 10 minutes and eventually Barack and Senator Jim Webb both appeared simultaneously.

Webb started talking, he and Kaine were both pretty fiery guys. I hope that Obama picks either Jim Webb or Mark Warner as VP: having a Virginia Democrat as a running mate would provide very good balance as they are both moderate and also are lively enough to help deal with John McCain. Also, in Webb’s case, he is a former Marine who also served in the Reagan administration so he has good policy experience in both republican and democratic circles.

Obama spoke for about 40 minutes. Like most speeches from politicians, he used a lot of language I had heard before but customized it very well good for Virginia. I believe that Virginia is key to this election and will do what I can to make sure that Virginia’s electoral votes go to Obama.

Tonight's Speeches

Obama - officially declared himself to be the nominee for the Democrats.  He stressed unity and also welcomed Hillary's supporters.

McCain - boring speech, not much substance.  He did not seem quite himself tonight; he had very little fire in his speech and seemed to be dreading this coming contest.

Clinton - what a nut job.  She did not concede even though she congratulated Obama with getting the most delegates and said she would make a decision within a few days.  What planet is she on?

The Democratic Nominee

Obama has now clinched, so say all of the media outlets. 

McCain looked very old and tired in his speech.

Obama Clinches Nomination!

Barack Obama has now clinched the Democratic Nomination, per the AP.

He should be giving a victory speech later tonight, but it will be Hillary's speech that will be interesting.

Will she officially suspend her campaign?

Will she officially concede?

Will she come out forcefully for the VP spot?

We should have answers to these questions within the next few hours.