Herding Cats

Since last fall, Pennsylvania has added 65,000 new Democratic voters to the rolls, an increase of 1.7%. This compares to the Republican increase of 0.1%. There are now 700,000 more registered Democrats in Pennsylvania than there are Republicans. I can't give you an exact percentage of the total electorate, because the PA Department of State, in releasing these numbers, did not include the number of independents. Therefore, I don't know what the total voter numbers are, and can't calculate a percentage. Nor did the state release county-by-county numbers, so we don't know where the rise is occurring.

**IF** there was no rise to the number of independents, the voter registration split would be 48% Democratic/39% Republican. BUT remember that there are over 750,000 registered Democrats JUST in Philadelphia (compared to a little over 150,000 Republicans) -- so the statewide numbers skew slightly.

For those of you who don't live here --- a lot of those Democrats are anti-abortion, Second Amendment types. I have never "gotten" that, but in the county where I live, Republicans outnumber Democrats almost 2:1, but it's a lot more liberal than the numbers would make it seem. Last night while running a personal voter registration drive at my local bar, I spoke to 3 black Republicans who looked at my Obama button and said to keep up the good work, I could count on them in November if Obama got the nomination -- but who didn't want to switch parties for the primary. Then again, I've got another week, and they're regulars….

Also -- pledged delegate numbers will change this weekend when California certifies their primary vote -- will be a +4 gain for Obama (I think, we'll know on Saturday). Ohio has yet to certify 2 counties. Obama also lost the popular vote but won the certified Texas delegate county by +5.

Good-bye to Eliot Spitzer -- hello David Paterson. Learn to say "no" David -- you've got budget problems, and not everyone can win.

Good-bye to Howard Metzenbaum, who passed away last night at the age of 90.

Hello Al Franken -- presumptive nominee running against Norm Coleman for the junior Minnesota Senate seat, since all your challengers have faded away.

And then we come back to the Clinton campaign. Geri Ferrarro stepped down, and in her note pointed out that she did so just so that she could continue to spew racist bile. She didn't call it that, but turns out she has a history -- she said the same things she's saying now about Obama with reference to Jesse Jackson 20 years ago.

As for the Clinton response, while I would have used less repetition and a slightly different tone -- Keith Olbermann said it best. View the text here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23601041/, and view the video here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23601329#23601329 (IF the video link doesn't work, you can link to it FROM the text page.) Keith is in many ways a Clinton supporter: as he points out in his opening, when he started out with his "Special Comments", there was a lot of flack, and the Clinton family was a great source of support. (The early comments skewered Bush on Iraq in ways you rarely see on TV, and came close to crossing several lines, although I thought they were erudite and to the point) -- but he feels that the Clinton response to blatant racism was so unacceptable that despite any personal feelings he has, a comment was necessitated. Check it out -- there's a reason he's my favourite political commentator.

You may be wondering why I called this "Herding Cats". In Mensa, they talk about the diversity of the membership -- so independent and diverse that trying to get the group (national membership is somewhere around 50,000) to agree to one thing is a lot like herding cats. Much more frustrating for the herder then the cats.

The Democratic party is much the same: we're a REAL heterogeneous bunch. It's what happens when you have the biggest tent. Somehow someone or something has to find a way to herd us all back into one tent. And I'm telling you as a member of lots of Democratic demographics -- that tent's Platform better NOT in any way condone racism. Keith is right -- the Clinton campaign has to come out with something much stronger against the railings of Geri Ferrarro.

When I went to college, there was a group in South Boston called ROAR, which stood for "Restore Our Alienated Rights". Southie was integrating back in the 70's, and when the buses would deliver black children to grade school, ROAR groups used to pelt them with pebbles and rocks as they tried to get into the school building. A bunch of college students (and others) used to put on football helmets and pads and block the rocks as we ran the kids into the school. The bruises were worth it. Back then, we didn't so much self-identify as "Democrats" as we did as "liberals". But like I always say -- it was wrong then, and it's wrong now. (Usually I'm saying it about Vietnam, but it holds for a lot of other liberal causes.)

One final note -- Jack Kervorkian (Dr. Death), having completed his prison sentence, is filing papers to run for Congress. (Michigan 9^th). Some say he killed 130 people, and shouldn't run for Congress. I say Bush has caused the deaths of 4,000 American service men and women in Iraq. No contest. Jack helped suffering people find peace -- Baby Bush sent young innocents to invade a sovereign nation. McCain thinks Baby Bush didn't go far enough. What an election year…….the differences are stark.