Posted by Helen on: 02.06.2008 /
So McCain did very well and Clinton and Obama both did well and are still fairly even, with Clinton a little ahead.
It was neat to hear Obama won Alabama, given the history of the Deep South.
The way things are going, James Dobson might not be able to vote in the Presidential Election at all:
James Dobson, the influential founder of the conservative, evangelical advocacy group Focus on the Family, has delivered a blow to John McCain - by saying he won’t vote for him if he’s the Republican presidential nominee.
“I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are … I cannot, and will not, vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime. I certainly can’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life,” he said.
Dobson said he was just expressing his views as a private citizen - but many of his millions of followers in the evangelical community, who listen to his radio show and read his books, will take it as a signal to do the same.
from here
Comment by: benjamin ady
1Has anyone noticed how James Dobson has become a political non-entity since he threw his weight toward W’s campaign in 2004? Hooray that he’s not planning to vote in the general! I wouldn’t mind a bit if all 87 of his followers decided to follow his example.=)
Evangelicals, more and more, methinks, are waking up and realizing that they don’t *have* to vote to some extreme right wing candidate, and that indeed Jesus had a lot more to say about helping the poor and the sick and the oppressed than he did about abortion or homosexuality.
Comment by: Jim Henderson
2This will help get Obama elected
Thanks for listening to the Lord James!!
I am speaking as well merely as a “private citizen”
Comment by: Helen
3I just realized Obama is leading in ‘regular’ delegates. Clinton leads in superdelegates giving her the current lead overall at present.
As Benjamin points out on his blog, superdelegates can change their mind if they want.
Benjamin, I would think James Dobson still has a big following among Christians who believe like him. But as Jim says, if conservatives follow his lead it can only help the democrats.
Comment by: Julie Marie
4thats so funny! I was just thinking a few weeks ago that the slate of candidates is among the best I’ve seen in my lifetime.
Comment by: Eliza
5Julie Marie, I’ve had the same thought…and from the high turnouts all over the country, it seems like alot of people feel this way!
On another note: severe tornadoes with a number of fatalities in the South yesterday. (Tornadoes are usually least likely to occur during winter; is their occurrence in February another sign of global warming?)
From usatoday.com,
Given Huckabee’s past comments about divine intervention explaining his rise in the polls (there was a post here about that a while back), I wonder how he interprets God’s wishes now, in light of severe tornadoes striking the South on Super Tuesday. The South, which is where Huckabee’s wins were yesterday. (I haven’t found anything online, in a brief search, to suggest he has said anything publicly about God & the tornadoes.) It seems snarky of me to even wonder about this, but IMO it’s fair game given his own past public comments on what he sees as God’s interventions.
Comment by: Stephan
6For me personally, I would reword this to say:
I have never been excited about a presidential candidate before this year. I have always felt that I was voting against the greater of two evils rather than voting for someone who would actually make a difference.
I do not find any of the Republican candidates to be very interesting. More of the same old thing.
I could not ever see myself voting for Hillary. I think the Clintons represent so much of what is wrong with politics in the country that I will stay home rather than vote between her and any of the Republicans. Or I will write in the candidate of my choice.
I was one of the 200,000+ people who voted for Obama in Minnesota last night, and I hope with all of my heart to have the opportunity to vote for him again in November.
Comment by: Helen
7Julie Marie, that’s how I feel too.
Eliza, ever since Huckabee attributed his increase in popularity before the primaries began to God, I’ve been wondering what he attributes his decrease since then to.
I was sorry to hear about the deaths due to the severe tornadoes.
Comment by: benjamin ady
8Yeah. And I wonder to what he attributes the huge difference in voter turnout ‘tween dems and reps?
Or the murder of two children by U.S. forces in Adwar yesterday?
(oh dear. maybe that last was uncalled for?)
Comment by: karen
9I too am thrilled that Dr. Dobson won’t be voting this year. While I hope that every American exercises his/her privilege and votes, I won’t shed too many tears if the Dobsonians follow his lead and sit out the election come Nov.
It’s very interesting what we’re all noticing here, which is that he is increasingly out of step with a country that is more excited about an election than I can remember in my lifetime. That means Dobson’s becoming irrelevant - just a few years after he declared himself one of the biggest right-wing “king-makers” of all time.
Anyone want to join me in a chorus of “ding-dong, the witch is dead”? ;-)
As for Huckabee, maybe he’s thinking that god planned to use the tornadoes to pick up some of his voters and transport them to the polls, but the devil threw them off course.
Seriously - Eliza, Benj, what do you think about Washington state? Are you sensing some support for Obama building there? I almost wish I could take some time off and campaign for him in some of these upcoming states!
Comment by: benjamin ady
10Karen,
It’s hard for me to tell, since I’m hanging around a lot of Obama supporters all the time, since I’m at UW as an undergrad student, and the feeling around here is a *lot* of support for Obama. I did speak to one prof this morning who leans Hillary. But he said he probably won’t caucus (yippee)!
We have a wierd situation here because there’s this primary on the 19th, which doesn’t actually *mean* anything on the Democratic side, and then there’s a caucus on Saturday the 9th, which a lot of people, including some obama supporters, don’t know about–they think voting in the primary is the thing to do. Only in Washington, I guess. So we’re trying to get the word out about the caucus.
Washington State is very strange this way. We have to include *everybody*, and discuss everything to death, and do not one but *two* votes for the same thing, only one doesn’t count. We did *5* votes for a monorail system in Seattle, and it passed the first 4, and then lost on the 5th one and so was cancelled after a lot of money had already been spent. There was a vote on how to repair/replace a piece of aging transportation infrastructure downtown, and there were two options, and *both* were voted down. Stuff like that. Wierd.
Comment by: karen
11Yeah, I know what you mean. We noticed the same tendency when we were in Hawaii. Important things (like completing roads) just don’t get done because there is such an exhaustive process involved in approving anything it never happens. This may be the down side to absolutely inclusive liberal democracy. ;-)
Comment by: Julie Marie
12so okay, I’m going to indulge in a rare snarky moment here. I really hope he is able to witness his irrelevancy.
Back when I was a conservative evangelical, listening only to Christian Music and reading only Christian Books I used to listen to Dobson. I even fell for a few of his hysterical rants against the homosexual agenda (I have some shame and embarrassment about this now)At a certian point, however, I realized that his broadcasts were giving me fewer and fewer useable thoughts, and more and more things to get my knickers in a twist over. I really hate it when other people try to get my knickers in a twist. So–even then, in the midst of my mindset — I tuned him out. (now that I am not embarrassed about!)
Comment by: Helen
13Julie Marie, I used to listen to Focus on the Family sometimes but I never liked the political programs, only the ones about family or personal testimonies.
I always wished James Dobson really would ‘focus on the family’ and stay out of politics.
Comment by: karen
14Me too. In fact, I sent him a criticism of something political he said once on the radio show. In my letter I gave him some pretty good information (IMO) about how what he said was not accurate.
I expected it to end there, but a couple of weeks later I got a note reiterating his argument and a tape of a show where he made the same argument again. I thought it was a strangely aggressive response to a small disagreement I had with him, but he was not willing to concede my point (even though I still think I was right!) ;-)
I just dropped it from there.
Comment by: Eliza
15And more interesting results stemming from Super Tuesday…
I’ve read that overall McCain took about 40% of the Republican votes, with the rest mostly divided between Huckabee & Romney. I keep hearing that McCain is not “conservative enough” for some Republicans, but it’s hard to tell how many voters feel that way.
And now, today, Romney has essentially dropped out. He actually put his campaign on hold, keeps the delegates he’s won so far, which could give him some input in the “kingmaking” (analogous to “sausage making”?) process at the national convention. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Republican turnout and vote distribution with Romney out of the race.
Comment by: Eliza
16And about Washington state…
Most voters didn’t have any idea that it was the caucuses that count, not the primary, until the primary was cancelled 4 years ago based on a legal challenge. (The legal challenge was about whether you had to declare your party preference to vote in the primary, I think. Or something like that. Interestingly, the legal challenge had nothing to do with the vote results not counting.)
You can imagine, it was shocking news to voters, that their official votes in an official election were never intended to count!! I felt kind of shocked that the media hadn’t spread the word on this earlier; it’s just the kind of scandal the Seattle Times would normally salivate all over. I had lived and voted in Seattle since 1990 & had never heard about it before this.
One might imagine that the government (elections board, etc) and the political parties should ethically have some responsibility to make sure the voters know what the actual process is, but the cynic in me observes that the parties in particular probably prefer to have only the most active of the party faithful select the delegates/candidate. I haven’t donated to the state Democratic party since learning about all this 4 yrs ago.
But memories are short, and new people move here, and young people get old enough to vote, and the primary is advertised as occurring on Feb 19th. I’ll admit that there is more attention this time around to the caucases, where to find yours & how the process works, but IMO there shouldn’t even be a primary if it doesn’t count. It’s hugely misleading, & a waste of money.
I enjoyed the caucus process 4 yrs ago, and really really hope to go this year, but I have to work in the hospital on Saturday & might not be able to get out in time to caucus.
Turns out there are 3 situations in which one can turn in a vote to the caucus but not show up. Having to work that day is not one of those situations, but being unable to attend due to religious constraints is. Maybe I can become Jewish by Saturday?? ;-)
Comment by: Helen
17Eliza wrote:
Exactly - how strange. Do any other states have both a primary and caucus and only one counts??
Good luck with becoming Jewish by Saturday. That might be tricky :-)
Comment by: benjamin ady
18Why not =)
But you have to turn that affidavit thing in by today, I’m pretty sure.
Comment by: Julie Marie
19well, gee Eliza, you sat thru all the Lutheran education, that should cound for something :)