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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

News Roundup, 3/27/08: The Nomination Station

On Wednesday: Mike Gravel became a Libertarian candidate for president, Puerto Rico got in on setting their primary earlier, and several Democrats talked about their (very different) ideas for deciding the Democratic nomination.

First, Gravel. To get the nomination he'll have to get it at their convention. I would have figured him for a Green or a Socialist before I would have figured him for a Libertarian. As he is in favor of universal health care, I will be curious to see how he mounts that in his speech in a few months.

If you have worries about the Democratic nomination, and what the prolonged, high-octane primary will do to the Democratic Party, you aren't alone. Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen is starting to freak out a little about the potential for damage to the Party, and he's pushing an idea for a superdelegate primary in June so that everything is decided as far ahead of August as possible.

Bredesen says that Dean isn't crazy about the idea because it smacks of a backroom-greyhair-bigwig type deal, and asserts that an all-superdelegate decision will be seen like that anyways, and there's no chance for anything other than a all-superdelegate decision, so why not do it as soon as possible?

To listen to Harry Reid, though, we have nothing to worry about. The Senate Majority Leader says that when it comes to deciding the Democratic nomination before the convention, "things are being done." Which isn't really an explanation that's chock full of details, but hey, how often does the Senate Majority Leader get to be cryptic?

And of course, if all that fails and the Party just can't decide, some people think Al Gore will rise from the quagmire and seize the nomination. We don't make the news, folks, we just report it.

No matter what happens, John McCain is going to have the difficult task of selling the American people on the idea that George Bush deserves a third term. He's going to need a lot of money and a strong message to even begin to do that, and plenty of Republicans are worried that he's not moving fast enough on either score.

Puerto Rico showed up to the Early Primary Party a little late and didn't have much room to work, but they took a stab at it anyways. Now they are no longer the final nominating contest, having moved their caucus from June 7 to June 1 and changed it to a primary. Now the final decisions will come from South Dakota and Montana.

Lastly, we discovered that sales of new homes took a turn for the bucket in February, but at least we were able to find that out. It is starting to look like we won't be allowed to know what's going on in Iraq lately, whether the news is good or bad.

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