News Roundup, 5/21/08: The Results are In

Last night the states of Kentucky and Oregon held their presidential primaries. Sen. Clinton won the Kentucky primary with 65% of the vote, while in Oregon, where turnout was reported to have been over fifty percent, Sen. Obama obtained 58% of the vote with 89% currently reporting. Additionally, Sen. Obama claimed a major milestone in the Democratic primary last night when he stated in a speech in Iowa that he had obtained a majority of the pledged delegates that can be allocated through the primary and caucus process. This is, of course, not counting Michigan and Florida delegates, which Sen. Clinton insists on counting in the primary calculations. Both candidates are still several delegates short of securing the nomination, and the primary process continues.

Meanwhile, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain will have some company on the campaign trail. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel says he expects President Bush will begin to campaign for and with John McCain in the near future. The McCain camp has yet to confirm or deny the existence of President Bush.

Also, because it is a new day, we can report that the McCain campaign has lost an additional staffer. Chief strategist and media advisor Mark McKinnon has resigned because he did not want to work against an Obama candidacy. The question now is how and if the message from the McCain campaign will begin to evolve.

Sen. Joe Lieberman continues to try and remain relevant. In a letter sent to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Sen. Lieberman requested the removal of several pro—al-Qaeda videos from YouTube. Dr. Schmidt responded to the senator by pointing out that so long as the videos did not advocate hate speech or violence, they do not violate any of Google's posting guidelines and there is no reason for their removal.

Rep. Tom Cole has had the hard task of running the NRCC this year, meaning it has been his job to help Republicans get elected to the United States House of Representatives in the 2008 general election. After three special election losses, several Republican insiders have been calling for his resignation — calls which Minority Leader John Boehner has dismissed. Those insiders are now turning on Boehner in addition to Cole.

Finally, Sen. Ted Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. People with similar prognoses are usually given anywhere from less than a year to five years to live. No matter what the final results are for Sen. Kennedy, his lifetime of service to the American people and the dream of creating a fair, just country where no person is left out in the cold will live on forever.