Schools are closed across Northeastern Minnesota today, including the college where I work. I get another day (two in one week!) to catch up my ungodly to-do list.
- One item on my to-do list is to compile the results of the Dylan Days Creative Writing contest. We should be announcing winners soon. We run five categories (open and student fiction, open and student poetry and one-act plays) and got about 750 entries from all over the world. The quality of the entries this year was excellent. Stay tuned. (And check out Dylan Days, May 22-25 in Hibbing).
- The PUC was supposed to meet yesterday to render a couple somewhat important decisions about Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Energy Project. I’m trying to find out what happened.
- For national political junkies, I am now of the opinion that Barack Obama supporters need to brace for a Pennsylvania disappointment. I still think Obama is likely to win North Carolina and has a good shot at Indiana, but I am getting a big time “Ohio” vibe from the Pennsylvania tracking polls. Clinton’s numbers, even during bad news cycles, remain rock solid at 48-50 percent. The only real chance at knocking her out of the race will come in the first week of May with N.C. and Indiana. After that comes a string of Appalachian primaries where the Clintons are revered like Hillbilly royalty. She can run the table and would still likely lose the nomination, but oh how the press will chatter. I am an Obama fan but my desire to end this primary “contest” has more to do with party well-being and the potential stomach ulcers that come from watching too much cable news these days.
All this and more shoveling today …
I started the campaign season being a Hillary supporter. As things have progressed, I’ve watched Hillary (and more frequently, Bill) take the low road. Obama has stayed pretty consistently on the high road, with a couple of Hillary induced detours that he quickly corrected. That alone made me switch camps. I now see Hillary as a tired old hack.
It’s too bad. I thought she weathered the Monica Lewinsky thing with grace. She came back and found a solid political career. But the more she shows her unwillingness to throw it in, the more I realize I don’t want her for President. The last thing we need is a third term of an a-hole who won’t listen.
On the other hand, I’ve come to appreciate her diatribe for what it accomplishes for Obama. That’s right. Her continued growling just makes Obama look better all the time. And it keeps McCain out of the news. In the end, she is going to make Obama the candidate who wins, despite political pundits who say this is the time for the Republicans to “make hay.” Wrong. The more we see of Obama weathering the mudslinging, the more it is apparent he is the President we need.
Go-bama!
I hope you’re right. The last round of flak over Obama’s “small town” comments was interesting. Her talking points were almost spot on identical to McCains. Maybe it’s good to have the training exercise, but at some point the discord makes it harder to roll out the GE campaign.
I’ll say this though, Obama is not a perfect candidate, but he is remarkably honest and consistent — something you don’t see often in the high level politicians these days.