Texas Is On Fire

This pattern of early voting, in wide margins Democratic, is strongly suggestive of a shift in political winds. My youngest son is in college in Austin. I have a cousin in Midland, actually a couple of them. A lot of folks in Texas have been voting Republican because there were a lot of Republican candidates from Texas. Seemed like a good idea, but not so good right now. Particularly to young folks. The polling place was moved to seven miles from the Texas A&M campus, to keep those damn liberal agriculture and mining students from voting. The students organized a march of two thousand students who walked seven miles down the highway with signs to the polling place so they could vote early. Probably not for the local political machine.

The odd Tom DeLay redistricting ploy in 2002 produced districts that in this election will award disproportionate numbers of delegates to Obama. Who could have seen that one coming? If Clinton loses in Texas, her race is over. If Obama really does raise $50 million in February he will have raised more than John McCain has during the entire primary season. That bodes well for Obama being able to raise more than enough money to stay competitive in any state he wants to contest in the general election. Personally, I'd like to see him advertise even in safe GOP seats, just to improve his overall popular vote count. That matters to people in regard to building a sense of consensus.

I don't want to knock Clinton when she is on the ropes. But there is one point that has been nagging at me. Yes, Clinton did try to get some sort of universal health coverage for all Americans. But what was the result? The situation now is far worse than then. I am not saying that she personally made it worse, but rather that her efforts misfired so badly that they did not serve to put the brakes on the path to where we are now.

Meanwhile oil has topped $100 a barrel, gold it at $945 an ounce, headed toward $1,000/oz. What that means is that our currency has been significantly devalued. What that also means is that other nations are going off the dollar standard and on to Euros or Yen. Not good news for our economy.

Arthur