Posted by justingerman in 2008 Election, 2008 Presidential Election.
Tags: Barack Obama, Convention Delegates, Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, Ohio Primary, Pennsylvania Primary, Ron Paul, Super Tuesday, Texas Primary
Both former presidential candidates Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich easily defeated their respective primary opponents on Tuesday. Paul secured 70% of the vote and Kucinich got 50% with his four opponents splitting the rest. Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman had the best showing with 35% of the vote. Last week I predicted Kucinich to win but he got a higher percentage and beat Cimperman by more than I predicted.
Hillary’s wins in Ohio and in the Texas primary will likely continue her campaign indefinitely despite the fact that it is literally impossible for her to win the majority of pledged delegates. Hillary won the primary vote in Texas 51-47%, but for a reason that defies comprehension there is still only 41% reporting for the caucuses over 48 hours after the vote took place. As of now Obama is up 56-44 in the caucuses. If these caucus results hold, Clinton will have picked up 92 delegates in Texas compared to Obama’s 91. My prediction of 52% of delegates for Obama to 48% for Clinton was off due to Clinton’s stronger than expected primary vote in Texas. But still, that ain’t too bad right?
Anyway, Clinton’s “big win” gained her only 12 delegates on Obama’s total. Obama now leads Clinton by 144 pledged delegates and 109 when Super Delegates are included. The overall totals can be found here. Considering the fact that Obama raised $55 million in February and there are rumors that he has 50 Super Delegates about to announce their support in the coming days means that this race is essentially over. Fifty Super Delegates will give Obama the lead in pledged and unpledged delegates and considering the fact that every remaining state except Pennsylvania is very favorable to Obama there is every reason to expect that he gains heavily in pledged delegates. Break down the delegates yourself with this nifty little tool from CNN.
Basically it’s a little unfair to ask Hillary to drop out after Tuesday, but to quote her husband, “This is the biggest fairly tale I’ve ever heard.”
Posted by justingerman in 2008 Presidential Election, Gaming.
Tags: 2008 Presidential Election, Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, Gaming, George Allen, John McCain, President Forever 2008, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani
A couple months ago I layed out $20 for President Forever With Primaries, which is basically just a simulation game for the
entire 2008 Presidential Election cycle.
Though fairly simplistic, this game can likely provide hours of intrigue for political nerds. The game is turn-based and each turn you can choose if and where candidate travels to barnstorm or give speeches or if your candidate will do debate prep, issue knowledge or campaign strategy. Also you can set and change your campaign themes and positions on issues, as well as make appearances on a number of different talk shows. However, the debates and talk shows are pretty disappointing, as you can’t affect, at all, how your candidate performs during the actual debate, only by how much debate prep you do ahead of time. Also, candidates can do particular things to create news events and random news events can occur that benefit or hurt particular candidate. Campaigns can also attempt to frame the news events in beneficial ways for their candidates. Often funny headlines such as “Pop Artists Have Concert for Duncan Hunter,” can occur.
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