Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Indiana Primary Part II


I watched the returns on CNN May 6 and the group of them questioned repeatedly Gary Mayor Rudy Clay about why it took so long for Lake County to present election results.
Finally, still calm, he explained three of four times about the absentee vote. He said he wanted to be careful not to disenfranchise anyone. Mayor Clay actually said to them, "I have told you three or four times..." so patience was a virtue--in a whorehouse! Wolf just kept passively aggressively asking the same question over and over again.
Jeffery Toobin kicked it off, actually, with "it is a shame and a disgrace about what is going on in Indiana right now."
He said it was "totally unusual" and accused vote counters in the county of taking a page out of the "old days of Chicago politics" (what is that supposed to mean!?") nearly accusing them of holding back votes.
The grousing by CNN actually surprised me. They appeared to be familiar with old time election coverage but I guess they have forgotten about the past and like the lightening quick MTV broadcast age. Sorry. I am trained in print journalism so I was used to waiting up late on election nights and drinking coffee.
However, Toobin took issue with all of Lake County withholding vote totals because they were still counting absentee ballots. There were more than 11,000 to count still, way late into the evening. I guess the CNN staff figured it would rapped up early like in other states. The midnight deadline CNN was given, I suspect, was Indiana time.
The machine votes were held until the absentee ballots were counted properly.
In spite of all of this, the CNN coverage was the best ever. I know their ratings had to be high. I was so delighted to watch the whole thing churn out with the gripes and the whining and unbleached opinions! Everyone was so real last night. My stomach was in knots!
Thanks CNN.

Lake County's vote return was the largest ever for absentee voting.
As the returns chunked in, it was clear that Indiana was not the decisive victory Hillary was seeking.
Pundits said that Obama White Women made up 39 percent of the vote. It was speculated that they didn't like the whole shots-of-Crown-Royal think when she was out with Evan Bayh at a bar in Crown Point.
Pundits went so far as to say Hillary's camp would have to come up with another revelation on Barack to get a Clinton win.
Matter of fact, her speech, delivered in Indianapolis was more conciliatory than victorious. She expected a big win and that didn't come. She, instead, just barely won.
Barack, on the other hand, enjoyed a resounding victory in North Carolina, rounding the whole night out with a stirring speech that revved up his supporters even more. Congratulations, Sen. Obama!

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