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Alright, I’m still at work right now, trying to collect data for a project deadline next month, so I’ve been a little behind on my blogging duties. Nonetheless, I was hoping to “live-blog” tonight’s primary returns — to the best of my ability granting that I’m multi-tasking at work right now.

5:05 CNN has just begun their live coverage of tonight’s primary results, and with Vermont polling just closing, Obama and McCain are projected to win their respective races in this state. This wasn’t much of a surprise: McCain is the expected Republican nominee, and Obama polled strongly in Vermont earlier in the month, with Clinton forgoing the race in favour of Ohio and Texas. I don’t think Obama can take Ohio, and I’m nervous about Texas. While independents can vote in both races, I think Clinton’s recent low-blow attacks are taking a toll on Obama’s support.

Early exit polls in Texas, however, show that Obama maintains strong support (~80%) of African American voters, and has performed well amongst Latinos: 65% supported Clinton to 35% supporting Obama. These numbers are better than how Obama fared amongst Latino voters in California.

5:42 John McCain is projected to win Ohio, which closed about half an hour ago. Clinton and Obama are in a close race, according to CNN, but exit polls seems to suggest that Clinton will pull ahead: according to the question “Who is Most Qualified to be Commander-in-Chief”, 57% responded Clinton. That question is usually a fairly good predictor of who wins the state. Clinton also seemed to pick up the support of last-minute voters. So, that, coupled with state polls that showed Clinton ahead, I think she will be able to take that state.

Which, if I’m reading the political winds correctly, will mean that Clinton will continue on to Pennsylvania, whether she takes Texas or not.

6:00 At the top of the hour, CNN gave us a quick update in Ohio: Clinton 56%, Obama, 42%. That’s with less than 1% of precincts reporting in. But, as I wrote above, I’m pretty sure Clinton will take the state and break Obama’s winning streak of 12 straight victories.

7:06 Six minutes into the debate, Clinton argues that her healthcare plan covers all Americans and blah, blah, blah. She argues that she will make healthcare affordable. But that skirts the dispute over the mailer: what will Clinton’s healthcare plan include as a mandate? Will she require all Americans to purchase healthcare — as is the definition of a mandate? If that’s the case, than how does she get around folks who, under her mandate, have to purchase healthcare but who can’t afford it?

Unless Hillary’s plan exists in a separate world where every American will find her plan affordable. Which is completely unrealistic. By virtue of her mandate that all Americans purchase healthcare, she is going to require that Americans who can’t afford healthcare purchase it.

It’s not a false charge from Obama; her “shame on you” criticism is baseless.

7:10 Is anyone else tired of this debate? Really, neither Clinton nor Obama say anything new on the topic of healthcare. Clinton keeps repeating that Obama has a mandate in his plan: yes, he does. For children, because they can’t make the decision to (or not) purchase healthcare on their own. Does Clinton believe that all Americans should be treated as if they are children, incapable of making their own decision on their own?

Clinton also argues that Democrats fundamentally believe in universal healthcare. That’s true, but Clinton is no more “providing” universal healthcare than Obama is: both plans require families to purchase healthcare — the only sticking point is whether or not that action be mandated or not.

Under Obama’s plan, anybody who wants healthcare will be able to purchase it, but his plan allows Americans who honestly feel like they cannot afford healthcare will not have to purchase it. His plan does not take money from poor Americans, punishing them for being in poverty.

7:14 Clinton raises Obama’s mandate for children — Obama needs to respond: “Hillary, do you believe that adult Americans should be treated like children, like they do not know how to spend their money?” He needs to be that harsh. Please, Obama, bring that up.

Second, Clinton raises the point that Social Security and Medicare would falter if they were optional. True, but Social Security and Medicare have already been criticized for over-taxing lower-income Americans to pay for it.

7:17 Dammit, Barack. Clinton brings up the stat that 20% of uninsured can afford insurance: be straight with her. Ask her if she really believes she knows how to spend Americans’ money better than Americans do?

7:18 Clinton sounds very much like a bulldog on this subject. I think she may be coming off as too ardent, especially because she has nothing substantially different to say everytime she interrupts Obama on this subject.

7:19 The hell? Clinton is actually referring to the SNL skit — implying that the moderators are being unfair to her by tossing her the first question? Oh. My God. Talk about childish: Clinton is just lashing out at anybody within reach. I wouldn’t recommend pissing off the media — but hey, she’s already okay with alienating more than 50% of Democratic voters.

The question is about NAFTA. Frankly, I think Clinton’s back-pedalling from her stance on NAFTA during the Clinton years strikes untrue. Clinton has flip-flopped on NAFTA, being both for and against it depending on the political winds. Although, on the whole, neither Democrat has been a strong leader against NAFTA; but while Obama has merely not made repealing NAFTA a priority (and has argued that free trade must be coupled with fair trade), Clinton has been on the record specifically praising NAFTA (particularly for the economy of New York).

Tim Russert is pointing out the same quotes from Clinton; she was quoted during and immediately after the Clinton administration praising NAFTA. Clinton refused to commit to ending NAFTA within six months of her first day, saying instead that she would “re-negotiate”.

7:25 Clinton to Tim Russert: “You don’t have all the record”. No, we don’t. Because you haven’t released your damn records from the Office of the First Lady.

7:26 Incidentally, I’m just going to point out that as a Canadian who was able to enter the country through visas provided by NAFTA, I’m wary about ending NAFTA, because it will close the flow of educated temporary workers into the U.S. that are helping this nation’s science and technology industry.

Obama agrees with Clinton on this question — pretty much because that’s the only position that either candidate will take. NAFTA needs to be re-negotiated to protect certain areas of the economy. I think Obama comes out stronger on this issue precisely because Clinton’s record suggests a strong flip-flop on the strength of NAFTA, where she has selectively re-written history to distance herself from an unpopular achievement of the Bill Clinton administration.  

7:34 Very interesting. The last three questions have built off the existing conflict between the two candidates. This latest question is about Clinton’s comparison of Obama to Bush. I like how Obama is handling the question: he is staying level-headed, and is looking very presidential, again. Considering that all he has to do is not fuck up, he’s in a good place right now.

For this question, Obama just needs to demonstrate that he knows about foreign policy. He can’t get dragged into Clinton’s heavy-handed rhetoric. And he’s doing a good job staying above her mud-slinging, even while responding.

7:37 Clinton is attacking Obama as a speech-maker in 2002. Clinton re-writes history in suggesting that Obama changed his stance on the war. That’s absolutely not true: he argued against going into war irresponsibly, however, once we were quagmired in Iraq, every responsible senator would vote to keep the troops funded.

And, god. Clinton brings up the “Obama would bomb Pakistan” remark. Which is not what he said. He said he would have to take action against verified terrorist training camps if a foreign country continued to let them exist within their borders, doing nothing despite repeated attempts by the U.S. to end them. Which is exactly what happened earlier this year. Does Clinton think we are stupid?

7:40 I like Obama’s “bus in ditch” metaphor. Obama was against driving the bus into the ditch, unlike Bush, Edwards, and Clinton, herself. However, once we’re in the ditch, there are only so many ways to get out. Good answer!

7:41 Obama makes another good point. How can Clinton debate McCain on the war, when she voted to authorize the war? Maybe this is a good time to remind readers that national polls show Obama ahead, and that McCain loses to Obama but wins against Clinton.

7:45 Uh-oh. Clinton has a new attack: Obama chairs the subcommittee over Europe which has jurisdiction over NATO. So why hasn’t Obama held a substantive hearing over Europe’s role in Afghanistan? Well, Obama became chair when he started his presidential campaign — it’s a little hard to do that when you’re running for president. What substantial initiatives has Clinton led while she’s been running for the presidency?

7:48 Wow. Just, wow. Okay, Clinton is getting a bit too hostile. She has been interrupting both Brian Williams and Tim Russert throughout the debate, and Williams has finally had to cut her off to go to commerical. Clinton, tone it down. It doesn’t do you any good to piss off the moderators — in fact, it gives away what possible advantage you might have had with that SNL skit. Playing nice with the moderators would have made it seem like you really are getting unfair treatment from the moderators; interrupting everyone only makes it look like any unfair treatment is justified.

7:52 Okay, back from commercial break. And now the moderators are asking for Obama’s response on Clinton’s way insulting sarcastic moment. Apparently that was the wrong clip — Obama compliments Clinton for her delivery. Obama actually praises Clinton for her charges. ‘Scu me? Did I hear that right? Did Obama just praise Clinton for taking a reasonable line of attack against him?

Talk about ending conventional politics. I have never heard of that before. He praised her and then argued that he’s more than just words. He has passed several good pieces of legislation, many of them by bringing together folks from across the aisle to agree to better the common good.

I like how Obama notes that “no one has been listening to [the underprivileged]”. While he is explicitly referring to Bush and Cheney, the implied statement is that Clinton, too, is not listening to the little guy by resorting to these kinds of cheap jabs. It reminds us that conventional politics has done nothing for the average American, and Clinton’s resorting to these kinds of attacks are distracting us from the issues that matter.

7:58 To Obama’s dismay, Brian Williams cut off Obama’s response to Clinton’s free several minutes to discuss her accomplishments. We’re shown Obama’s argument that Clinton is casting herself as a “co-president”. Personally, I don’t like the “co-president” argument; there is one president in the Constitution, and I think Hillary has been over-stating her role in Bill Clinton’s administration. And I certainly wouldn’t be comfortable with two people sharing the role of the president, because the First Lady is not an elected position.

8:02 Nice rebuttal. Obama strongly clarifies that his campaign is not saying that hope is enough, and that hard work is also required, particularly in getting special interests out of Washington. But, it doesn’t help to be taking money from lobbyists.

8:04 Y’know, I actually do think that Obama should keep his word on taking public funds. I understand that he’s turning away a ridiculous amount of money by doing that; and we, the supporters, have given him a bunch of money that he’d be turning away. He’d give away a huge advantage by doing that.

But that’s his word. And he should keep it. We’ll support Obama in other ways, if he can’t take our money.

8:05 Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Tim Russert. I want to know how Clinton has gotten her money and how she can give herself $5 million dollars. Clinton is certainly not the candidate of transparency. She’ll release those records “later” — which means, after Democrats can’t get mad at her and cost her votes.

What is she waiting for? Obama released them earlier this month. There is no other Democrat in the race.

Russert also asks Clinton why Bill Clinton is standing in the way of releasing the records from her office? She hedges the question, arguing that she’s “trying”.

8:08 Oh my. Obama is asked by Russert whether he accepts Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement. Good answer, I think. Obama has been on the record denouncing Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism. Russert, I think, is trying to get a rise out of Obama, but I don’t think there’s any meat to this question.

In fact, I think this whole question is really ridiculous. How does Obama keep the support of Jewish Americans because Farrakhan supported Obama? Obama has no control over what Farrakhan says. Russert seems to be asking Obama to choose between African Americans and Jewish Americans — this is a false, unnecessary choice.

8:13 Wow, okay. Y’know what? That’s unfair. Clinton is drawing a parallel between the Independence Party in New York with Farrakhan. But Farrakhan is an influential African American figure — rejecting Farrakhan for his anti-Semitic statements ignores Farrakhan’s contributions to the African American community. Clinton’s statements accuse Obama of buying into Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism by refusing to “reject” Farrakhan’s support.

But, Obama gets applause from the audience for agreeing to use the term “reject” if Clinton feels so strongly about it. So he both rejects and denounce Farrakhan. Okay, sure. I still think it’s unfortunate that Obama was forced to choose between African American and Jewish American interests; why can’t a politician approve of Farrakhan’s contributions to Black American while simultaneously criticizing Farrakhan’s stances on Judaism? This line of questioning seems distinctly racialized to me.

8:19 Back from commercial breaks, and Obama is questioned on being rated one of the most liberal senators in the Senate. It’s a silly question — Obama addresses the two votes that made the difference, and will most likely move to addressing the large number of independents who support his candidacy.

Whoops, and there he goes.

8:26 Will she really? Hmmm… in response to the question as to what votes or words Clinton or Obama would take back, Clinton comes the closest she has throughout the campaign to admitting she was wrong to vote to authorize the war in Iraq. Well, I guess that’s appropriate given this was the last scheduled debate of the Democratic primary season. She segues smartly into her prepared closing statements.

8:27 Obama’s answer to this question bringing up the Terri Schiavo case, and says he would have taken back the fact that he did not take the intiative to stop intervention in that case.

Obama transitions into his closing remarks, which begin by him praising Clinton as an opponent. I think that’s very classy, and doesn’t have a valedictory tone as Clinton’s did. Especially because Clinton’s closing remarks did not include a thanking of Obama. Obama acknowledges Clinton, but continues on by emphasizing his commitment to changing Washington.

8:30 Whoops, a false end. The final question, Obama is asked what question Clinton needs to answer before being the nominee. Again, a classy answer. Obama says that Clinton would be a good nominee — better than McCain — but Obama would of course be better. Electroman remarks that Obama is being incredibly conciliatory here, but I really think he’s being very classy. I like Obama more now, if that’s even possible.

8:33 Clinton gets the second applause of the night by saying she’s honored to be running to be the first female president. Clinton seems — probably unsurprisingly — less genuine in her praise of Obama as a worthy opponent for the nomination, given her strident attacks of Obama all weekend.

As the debate winds to a close, I wonder whether Clinton has succeeded in knocking Obama down, as she needed to in this, her final debate appearance. Clinton’s strategy was basically to throw everything, and the kitchen sink, at Obama to try and rattle him into making a mistake. But I don’t think Obama made a mistake tonight, and Clinton came off as far too ardent, attacking Obama on virtually every response he gave, and yielding nothing until that final answer. I think while Clinton probably reinvigorated her supporters, she earned very little new support. Meanwhile, Obama — who admittedly only had to not fuck up — held his ground and even got in the better, sound-byte-able answers.

I think Obama won.

Alright, here we go. I’m sitting here at the Nimbus Microbrewery in Tucson, Arizona. I’ve got CNN on one television and MSNBC on the other. Unfortunately, no sound for either just yet (I’m an hour early to my returns party) so I’m going to be relying on the CNN website and the closed captions of the televisions to monitor returns.

How this live-blog will work: I’m going to continue adding to the bottom of the post, with the time (in Mountain Time), followed by the latest developments as returns come in from all over the country.

Please keep your window open to this post and refresh periodically. I haven’t installed an auto-refresher onto the page, so you’ll have to manually do it. Also, feel free to post on the comments of this post — I will be monitoring those closely so we can have “live” discussions all night if you’re up for it.

And in case you don’t give a crap about politics, keep in mind that I’m at a microbrewery. I’ve never live-blogged with alcohocl before, so it’ll be interesting to see if I get drunker over the course of the night. That should be entertaining, in and of itself.

5:17 Earlier today, the West Virginia GOP convention elected was won by Mike Huckabee. Meanwhile, in the first return of the night, Obama is projected to win the state of Georgia. Polls closed in Georgia just a few minutes ago, and the projection was based on exit-polling data, indicating that the margin is so wide that Obama is likely to win a significant majority of the state’s 87 pledged delegates.

CNN is currently showing that 57% of Georgia’s White voters went for Clinton compared to 39% who went for Obama; although this gap is much narrower when one considers male voters only: only 49% went Clinton over 46% for Obama. Where Clinton made the difference was White women, who went nearly two-to-one for Obama. Obama retained a significant majority of young voters: over 77% of voters aged 18-25 went for Obama. Exit polls also show that a whopping 88% of African American voters also voted Obama, giving him this landslide victory.

5:31 CNN currently projects that Obama won 64% of the vote in Georgia compared to 30% for Clinton. On the Republican side, it’s too close to call but McCain is currently leading by about 6 points with almost none of the precincts reporting in.

I am so excited about Obama’s win in Georgia. Sure, it was basically the only one that we could consider “in the bag” but Obama needed to do very well here, and he did! Obama ‘08!

Just a quick note: I will be live-blogging the Feburary 5th Super Tuesday returns starting 8pm EST/5pm PST. I will be at a Drinking Liberally party at a local microbrewery, and have been promised wireless access so I can maintain the live-blog throughout the night.

So please tune in for my live-blog! Hopefully it will also be a progressively drunk, celebratory live-blog, and since I have a low alcohol tolerance, I expect to start slurring my words around 9pm. I encourage y’all to keep a window open to reappropriate and post comments on the live-blog post as it’s happening.

Should be fun and entertaining!!

I was going to live-blog tonight’s debate but traffic was pretty bad, so I got back fifteen minutes in. But here we go, anyways.

6:29 Obama and Clinton are debating healthcare. Dear Ms. Clinton, it’s a simple question: What. Is. The. Penalty. For. Not. Getting. Healthcare. Under. Your. System?

Goddammit, someone needs to push her for that answer. I really want to hear her say that, not just assume that everyone can afford to be forced to purchase healthcare.

6:31 Obama wants to put negotiations with pharmaceutical companies on C-SPAN. That is a great idea.

6:43 Ugh. In response to the immigration question, Clinton just pandered hard to the African American community, suggesting that it is Black people who are most hurt by illegal immigrants. That’s incredibly racist.

6:54 Well, it looks like Clinton finally has a clear stance on driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants: she’s against it. How very poll-tested of her. 

7:00 How is working for the Children’s Defense Fund as a recently graduated law student more experience than turning down corporate positions to work as a community organizer for working-class families most affected by unemployment?

7:01 It’s nice to cite one’s experience as a First Lady, being given “lots of responsibility”. Especially when no one can challenge you because you won’t release the records of the First Lady’s Office from that time.

7:05 Is anyone else a little put off by Clinton’s “I have Kennedys, too” argument? The two candidates are debating endorsements — generally, both candidates are right that the average American doesn’t give two whits about who endorsed whom.

7:11 Awesome question! How can Clinton be an agent of change when we’ve had the same two families in office for the last 30 years? Clinton sidesteps the question. Because, clearly, you can’t be an agent of change (like Obama is an agent of change) if most of your campaign relies on the experience you obtained as First Lady. As Edwards charged, Clinton is the textbook definition of status quo.

7:17 Back from commercial break, Clinton is challenged that she will not commit to removing all troops from Iraq by sixteen months following inauguration.

7:19 Is anyone else weirded out by the random celebrities-in-the-audience shots in this debate? Dude, are we here for Obama and Clinton, or to ogle Pierce Brosnan?

7:26 Politico.com question time, and Clinton is challenged on her pre-Iraq War votes. Clinton gives her usual answer: “If I knew then what I know now…” except that Clinton has been accused of not seeking out information — available to all senators — about the bad intelligence that led to the Iraq War quagmire. Instead, she judged a briefing to be good enough knowledge upon which to base her vote; now, that intelligence has been deemed poor and incorrect — can we still believe Clinton has the judgement to make the decisions for this country if she doesn’t judge it necessary to go find out more information?

7:29 Obama is questioned on the troop surge. He notes that Democrats want progress in Iraq — I love his quip “We have set the bar so low, it is buried in the sand.” That sums up the situation very nicely. Overall, a very good answer on foreign policy from Obama; hopefully it will assuage those who think Obama’s foreign policy is naive.

7:35 Wolf just got booed by California by trying to inflame Clinton, saying “So, are you saying you were naive” with the vote for the Iraq War? Clinton earns herself another five minutes of air-time. Are there two people in this debate? Obama has even put down his pen — Wolf, you are clearly biased. Cut Clinton off — she’s practically fillibustering.

7:38 “We need someone who’s going to be right on day one.” Yes we do, not someone who flip-flops based on polling data and the political winds.

7:43 Obama is asked about how to address concerns about sex and violence in Hollywood. He rejects censorship and embraces better parenting — which is spot-on to what I believe. Arm parents, but don’t censor art. He also thinks it’s appropriate to work with Hollywood to try and discourage inappropriate trailers and commercials from airing during family-friendly shows. I wish Clinton had been posed this question — she took a hard-line censorship stance as a NYC senator when it came to violent video games; would she take the same stance when faced with a sea full of Hollywood execs?

7:46 Clinton instead is asked about Bill — can she control him? Personally, I think Bill is uncontrollable — even on the campaign trail, he talks about himself more than his wife. And look how he went off on a 9/11 truther earlier today; sure, the truther had some ridiculous opinions, but there’s no need to be rude and dismissive of him, telling him to just “go away”.

7:48 Final question: oh God. Wolf’s gonna ask them if they would run together. No. Just, no. I actually don’t really want Obama on the same ticket with Clinton; Clinton is so divisive, I really don’t think he can come out of a Clinton presidency clean, especially if Obama has to be vice president to a political power couple that has been exceptionally racist against the African American community in recent weeks. Now, Obama/Edwards? That might be a very cool ticket.

As Clinton vocalizes a long-winded agreement to Obama’s speech about needing to change government (and plugs her website like a low-budget rap artist), I’m worried about Obama’s chances in California. The audience seemed generally less enthused about Obama than about Clinton, so I worry. 

It’s gonna be a hard, final push. Let’s get everyone mobilized. 

7:30pm Dang! The grocery store line was long. What did I miss?

7:31pm Tuned in to a “strengths and weaknesses” question. Missed Obama’s strength, but his weakness is that he’s a little disorganized, and so surrounds himself with good support staff. I liked his answer, seemed genuine.

Clinton cites her strength as being “blessed” and her weakness as being a little too ambitious. Clinton attacks Obama on his answer to being disorganized, saying that he has to hold support staff accountable. I found the attack a little muddled, but I was immediately reminded again of the controversy over Clinton and her not holding her support staff (re: Mark Penn) responsible for the unfair, misleading references to Obama’s prior drug use (and the continued reference to it in the last week by top Clinton supporters). Is she holding her support staff accountable?

7:34pm Referencing the emails circulating false rumours about Obama’s religious background, Obama says “I think the American people are smarter than we give them credit for.” Wow. Did a politician just say that?

7:41pm The second third of the debate will focus on the economy. I consider money matters to be amongst the weakest of American issues that I’m familiar with, so I’ll be quiet for now.

Not quite as diverse a cast as we’ve seen in the last two seasons (but still more diverse than most), the latest season of Survivor pits old favourite castmembers with major fans of the show.

The Asian American face on this season is Yau-Man — the affable elderly man who applies physics (physics!) to everyday problems like how to open a box.

Survivor: Micronesia airs on CBS on February 7th. And I promise I’ll live-blog Yau-Man on this season.

Cycle 9 of ANTM features the girls in China for their end-of-the-season re-location. Last week’s episode was full of mandolins, wire-fu, and butchered “ni hao”’s. This week, I thought I’d do a wrap-up of the girls’ second episode in China.

Mandolin Count: 1

The episode opened up with a review of last week’s episode where Heather — a sufferer of who has Asperger’s Syndrome — ended up in the bottom two because she couldn’t recall the lines for the Covergirl commercial. Meanwhile, Jenah is annoyed because she’s too snarky and sarcastic — compared to Saleisha’s perkiness — for the judging table.

Then the girls discover they will be going on “go-sees” in China. They go to a Shanghai modeling agency, where they get the break-down. Apparently, according to agency rep, Susan Yang, in Shanghai, they look for “personality” — which is so different from what they look for in American “go-sees”. The girls are given cabs and translators, and are sent off to meet the designers.

Mandolin Count: 1, Out-Dated Techno Count: 1

Heather has a problem with figuring out how to get to the designers after she leaves the cab, and we haven’t seen her successfully make it to a single go-see. And I quote: “The map is in Chinese – which is all, like, Greek to me!” 

Meanwhile, Jenah channels valley girl as soon as she’s thrown into the cab: “Oh my G-o-d! This is my first time in Chi-NA! This is my first time out of the count-TRY!”

Chantal gets in trouble because she doesn’t wear nude undies to the go-sees. Gosh, life is so hard.

Mandolin Count: 1, Out-Dated Techno Count: 2

Heather is still lost. At last, she finds it and is promptly told by designer Flora Zeta that she has no eye contact. Flora also tells Jennah that her catwalk is “terrible”; y’know, I love Flora Zeta.

Heather is lost again, and can’t find her taxi. In fact, according to Bianca, traffic in Shanghai four times worse than New  York City — and Chantal, Jenah and Heather are all late to get back.

Mandolin Count: 1, Remixed Asian Flute Count: 1,  Out-Dated Techno Count: 2

After the “go-sees”, the girls go to a restaurant for dinner, marvelling that “Oh, my God, we’re in CHINA!“, when Susan Yang from the modeling agency comes and tells them that Bianca has won the challenge. She is — inexplicably — part of the ad campaign for the ‘08 Olympics… because when I think of international, top-notch athletes, I think about the difficult, misunderstood sport of the catwalk.

Mandolin Count: 2, Remixed Asian Flute Count: 1,  Out-Dated Techno Count: 2

The girls go to the photoshoot at a garden, which is focused on making the girls stand out in a crowd — because, y’know, China? Totally about over-population. Set pieces include Chinese lions and dragons, gold-and-red, and guys with fans.  

Mandolin Count: 3, Remixed Asian Flute Count: 1,  Out-Dated Techno Count: 2

Jenah pisses off judge Nigel with a lack of respect, much as CariDee did in Cycle 7. She also does the photoshoot first, and Nigel directs her to be a “Chinese princess”. She’s wearing very dramatic make-up, chi-pao, and chopsticks in her hair… so Chinese!

Jenah basically gets so nervous that she bombs the shoot. Cue the waterworks.

The rest of the girls are also dressed in this weird fusion interpretation of Asia, wearing Western jackets with chi-pao and chopsticks. Honestly, it all looked kinda cheap to me — like one of those bad Asia import shops threw up all over the set.

Requisite drama was Jenah’s criticism of Heather’s insecurity, further pissing off Nigel by chattering during the shoot.

Back from commercial is a picture of Tyra in a chi pao, doing some weird squat thing. It’s a really weird, disturbing looking picture.

The girls are at the judging room, which also is all bedecked with red, gold, and dragons. Tyra re-emphasizes how far China is, and how the girls’ next stop is Beijing (gong!)

Mandolin Count: 3, Remixed Asian Flute Count: 1,  Out-Dated Techno Count: 3

There’s yet more butchered “ni hao”’s from the judges before we begin the judging. Nigel berates Jenah just like he did with CariDee two seasons ago. Recycling drama, much?

Heather also got scolded for being forty minutes late for the “go-see”s and for only going to one interview. However, she apparently has a “good look” for China, according to Susan Yang — she’s “tall, sexy, exotic” — I found that last comment a tad ironic, no?

Mandolin Count: 4, Remixed Asian Flute Count: 1,  Out-Dated Techno Count: 3

The judges yak. What do you say in China for a girl’s who’s cocky asks Tyra? Susan Yang responds in Mandarin. Oh my God! They speak a different language here!!!

Tyra than announces they have decided who will be going to Beijing (gong!), and then does this weird thing with her hands and her neck, that I guess was supposed to be “Chinese”. Who knows?

Heather gets eliminated, because of her problem communicating.

Next week: the models are in Beijing and at the Great Wall, and Miss J. is being carried down the street by four Chinese men. Exciting!

I’m a few minutes late to today’s debate, however, thankfully the debate hasn’t started yet. I turned the debates on to hear the audience cheering “Obama!!!!”

I echo the sentiment.

9:17 First question: Is race still the most intractable problem in America, particularly with today’s decision by the Supreme Court assaulting diversity in public schools?

The question went to Hillary, and Hillary basically says that race still is a problem. She attacked today’s decision by the Supreme Court. Hillary says “The march is not yet finished… work has yet to be done.” This was kind of a softball quesiton to start off with. Hillary basically hat-tips important civil rights issues, but offers little real discussion of racism.

Biden is still a hard-ass, and, let’s face it: his attitude is appealing. He does well with that attitude, and cites his previous attacks on Roberts.

Now that Richardson has started talking — we’re starting the countdown to see how long it takes for him to refer to his resume. His basic point? He’s the first Latino to run for president. What was the question again?

Edwards is the first to refer to “slave-ly, err slavery” and segregation. But he also discusses the effect of racism on the education system, healthcare system, and voting rights. And though this couches the question in much more tangible means, it’s clear that Edwards is sticking to his talking points and trying to turn the discussion to his platform.

Obama first thanks great leaders in Black history for his own achievements, which, I’ll be honest, strikes me as sincere. And in a single sentence, I think he establishes that he knows more about the struggle against racism than anyone else who talked before him. He emphasized personal responsibility for minorities to commit themselves to uplift for our communities, as well as social responsibility to give us those opportunies. I couldn’t agree more.

Kucinich outright echoes Obama’s statements. Wow, Kucinich makes the first forced joke of the night! If there was a pool, I would have lost it. He said “they tell us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps… and then they steal the boots.” That would have been funny or powerful had it not been so poorly delivered. Nonetheless, more and more I’m seeing that Kucinich, for all his impracticality, does know what he’s talking about. He’s very good at pointing out the problems, but still, in my mind, poor at giving solutions.

Gravel takes a different approach and discusses the War on Drugs, and the high incarceration rate of “Black African Americans”. Wow - Gravel gets heated when it comes to this topic — he says that if he becomes president he will “do away with the War on Drug… addiction is a public health issue, not a criminalization issue”. Very cool!

Dodd points out that the education system today is a segregated system, and would overturn today’s decision by the Supreme Court. He, too, got very impassioned when talking — a noticeably different tack compared to many of the candidates’ behaviour on the CNN debates last month. Not to be cynical, but could the candidates be trying to emulate “fire from the pulpit” among this audience?

9:30 Next question: the unemployment rate of Black high school graduates was 33% higher than White high school dropouts. To what do you attribute this statistic?

Biden is the first to respond. Biden suggests that the achievement gap is due to poor attention given to extremely young students, and suggests (I think) programs to encourage disadvantaged minority mothers to talk to their children when they are at pre-school age. Wow.

Richardson cites a statistic that 1 out of 2 minority children are at risk for dropouts. The resume countdown clock pings at 9:34 — he cites his institution of an all-day kindergarten program in New Mexico.

Edwards believes that programs should be instituted to target children even younger than four years of age, as well as increase teacher incentives to improve the quality of education in schools. Then he turns back to his talking points. Where’s the angry, off-the-cuff Edwards of the CNN debates? He sounds far too rehearsed today.

Obama advocates for increased teacher incentives and training, and after-school programs. He says “if you have a bill called No Child Left Behind, you can’t leave the money behind…” Preach on, Obama. Again, Obama underscores a personal responsibility tactic as well as saying “we need someone in the White House who will recognize these children as our own”. He’s winning these debates, hands down — and it’s only been about twenty minutes.

Kucinich cites the enormous war spending as reason for how we can improve spending on education.

Gravel — oh, Hallelujiah. He notes, “the Democratic Party hasn’t done much better than the Republican party”. Seriously! Gravel calls war spending a “squandering of money… the people on this stage are guilty. We are all guilty.” Gravel is proof positive why we need non-viable candidates to run for office — Gravel says the things the other candidates simply can’t.

Dodd notes HeadStart and says he “has walked the walk”. He says “we have an obligation to” give the opportunity for success.

Hillary cites her history fighting for early childhood education and diversity programs in Arkansas. She notes discrimination in the workplace — which, incidentally, was good for her to differentiate herself from the other candidates by noting that the achievement gap isn’t solely an education issue.

Argh. Someone needs to work on microphones at these things. In the second of two Democratic debates where moderators’ microphones don’t work.

9:43 I think the third question was on AIDS.

Richardson says “we have to use needles”… (snort, snort, chuckle). We also apparently “have to deal with Africa”. He suggests education programs and praises Bush’s programs to combat AIDS in Africa. He also wants to “penetrate minority communities” with outreach. Ooooh, what poor choices of words.

Edwards suggests fully funding scientific research to find a cure (yes! yes!), and then to fully fund programs to ensure equal access to treatment, and then fund Medicare to allow it to cover AIDS treatments.

Obama suggests as well improved education and the stigma within the African American community against talking about AIDS. Very good point, although how can that be addressed by the next president? Obama suggests the AIDS problem is a metaphor for the problems faced by the community in general — he suggests better healthcare and combatting poverty which increase chances of contracting AIDS.

Kucinich argues that “it is a basic right of a democratic society” to have access to decent healthcare, by eliminating the “for-profit” aspects of the healthcare.

Gravel suggests again that to combat AIDS was to end the War on Drugs. While I agree, uhm… what does this have to do with AIDS? Also, he suggests that every other healthcare plan only subsidizes for-profit insurance companies. While I personally also agree that healthcare should be non-profit, I don’t think that kind of system will fly in capitalistic America.

Dodd suggests that we should do a better job with educating children, to help combat AIDS as well as cardiovascular disease and childhood obesity.

Hahahaha — Dodd went over time and ignored Tavis Smiley’s attempts to cut him off. He then remarked that he was “going to take Global Warming for 600″. And then Smiley quipped that “If you were Paris Hilton, you’d have an hour, but you’re not… Senator Clinton?” Hahaha!

Hillary says that if the AIDS epidemic were affecting White women, we would be up in arms. True, true. We apparently need to “take it seriously” like we did back in the 90’s when it was a “gay disease”, it will never be combatted — whoa, now hold on. Fire from the pulpit works, but only if the facts are straight. Shit, when AIDS was a “gay disease”, it was just as ignored as it is today. Let’s not pretend that just because some homosexuals are White, that White straight America cared more about deaths in the gay community than they do about Black deaths today. Mainstream America doesn’t care about any minority deaths. No need to fuel further tension between the Black and homosexual communities with that kind of hierarchizing of experiences.

Hahaha. Okay, so Biden was railing about something and I was ignoring him, but he noted that both he and Barack had been tested for HIV/AIDS and argued against the stigma of AIDS testing in the community. To which Barack clarified that he was tested with Michelle after a trip to Kenya, in an effort to improve awareness of AIDS testing. Hahaha! That’s the kind of thing I imagine Electroman would do if he were ever in a presidential debate.

The next question is on economic disparities.

Edwards suggests getting rid of tax cuts for the rich. He suggests “we ought to honour work, in this country, not wealth”.

Obama says “Bush’s tax cuts? People didn’t need ‘em, and they didn’t even ask for them”. But, in more importantly, Obama suggests that we need to underscore equal opportunities. “What people want is fairness“, not charity. I. Could. Not. Agree. More. I love how Obama is pointing out the inherent racism that leads politicians to only talk about welfare when it comes to minority communities, rather than to get to the deeper issues of race and oppression in this country.

Kucinich again talks about the Iraq War.

Gravel — wow, he is absolutely enjoying the role of the aggressive bulldog on the stage. He suggests changing the income tax to a sales tax so that “everyone will know what everyone else is paying”.

I missed what Hillary was saying, but it sounded like parroting from others.

Biden suggests taxing investment, and give a break to wage-earning.

Richardson suggests replacing tax cuts for the rich for tax cuts for the middle class. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but why the middle class and why not the poor? He also suggests helping African American small business. He got cut off by Tavis Smiley who is worried that they’re already over time.

10:03 Fourth question: FBI statistics show disparities between jailing of Whites and Blacks.

Obama answers first and suggests that this statistic shows that the justice system is not colorblind. He suggests that the next president needs to understand this problem.

Kucinich suggests ending mandatory minimums, an emphasis on rehabilitation not punishment, and to end the death penalty.

Gravel suggests that African American participation in the legal system will change the system.

Dodd suggests ending the justice system as doing political work, rather than the work of the justice.

Clinton suggests ending racial profiling, and some other things that I’m missing ‘cuz she’s talking faster than I can type.

Biden suggests eliminating the distinction between crack and powder cocaine (which Hillary mentioned as well).

Richardson cites Tavis Smiley’s book — seems a little brown-nosing, no? He suggests, again, to increase minimum wage and childcare, as well as joining unions. Wasn’t the question on the justice system?

Edwards suggests rehabilitation and job training for first time offenses. I agree with that, but that requires a cultural change, not just presidential incentives.

10:09 Would presidential candidates support a right to return to New Orleans following Katrina?

Kucinich answers with a resounding yes, and should be guaranteed not only residency but employment when they return. Again, good ideas, but I’m always wishing Kucinich would give more practicals with his answers.

Gravel again notes war spending and suggests that the money could be spent on rebuilding Katrina.

Dodd agrees, but says nothing new.

Clinton announces that she has put together a plan for rebuilding New Orleans. “Even if we give people the right to return”, they need something to return to. She calls the handling of post-Katrina, in comparison to post-9/11 “outrageous”.

Biden says that this is “an American problem” and we should “guarantee a reconstruction”.

Richardson says he would support such a measure and calls it “the most disgraceful episode” of American rebuilding. FEMA, he says, should be directly under the president, and get rid of loans taken out by former New Orleans residents.

Edwards first notes that he announced his presidential campaign at the Ninth Ward, and led rebuilding efforts. He would appoint a person in his cabinet to head rebuilding New Orleans.

Obama suggests that we should give the people of New Orleans the opportunity to rebuild, rather than to give it to large corporations. The president has to be “in touch with New Orleans before the hurricane hits”. That is absolutely true! We need a FEMA director who supports these issues, but also we need a president who recognizes that New Orleans was neglected before the hurricane. A very, very, very, very good point.

10:16 The next question is whether outsourcing is a problem?

Gravel suggests that outsourcing is simply not the problem, but that labour issues are a problem.

Dodd, on the other hand, disagrees and suggests that outsourcing is a problem. He suggests that outsourcing should be limited and jobs should be preferentially given to Americans.

Clinton cites her work limiting outsourcing in New York. She suggests ending tax incentives for companies that outsource. She also suggests better preparing young Americans to find jobs, and to encourage going green to create many new American jobs. Good answer, actually.

Biden suggests increasing the number of new jobs in America.

Richardson suggests the problem is an education gap, and so he again cites his position on improving education. Instead, he suggests trade agreements to limit outsourcing (as the camera pans to Cornell West looking very confused).

Edwards refers to his personal story of his father losing his job after the mill that he worked at closed. He suggests improving education and changing trade agreements, and ending tax breaks. Nothing new.

Obama notes that when he started working in Chicago, there was never a federal effort to come into the area after a bunch of local steel factories closed. So, in addition to everything that’s already been said, he suggests the federal government also has to reinvest in regions devastated by the closing of local employers. Very good!

Kucinich says that his first act as president will be to cancel NAFTA and WTO.

10:21 Last question: The moderator says that this will be the second time the country had to end a genocide in Africa — first Rwanda, and now Darfur. What does this say about America?

Dodd suggests that we need to get the military out of Iraq and build a coalition to respond to Darfur. “The United States must act”.

Clinton suggests we need to move our military to Sudan to support military action, and then establish a no-fly zone over Darfur, supported either by NATO or unilaterally by America. She delivered a very good, very canned answer.

Biden I’m sure is very happy that this is the last question, since he is exceptionally passionate on this subject. He echoed his past sentiment and advocated military action.

Oh, god, Richardson echoes his idea of using the Olympics and putting pressure on the Chinese. Argh, it’s a stupid idea. Very stupid and petty, and completely unrealistic.

Edwards also flops on this answer.

Obama also says he would also support a no-fly zone. But, he also says that we generally don’t care about Africa when there isn’t a genocide. What’s been missing in the White House is consistent attention to Africa — positive impact as well as military action. Very, very, very powerful answer.

Kucinich suggests that if oil were in Africa, we would care. Then he got cut off by Tavis Smiley.

Gravel says “we need a president with moral judgement. Most of the people on this stage don’t have moral judgement”.

And with that charged statement, thus endeth the Democratic All-American Presidential Forum. I think the first audience member I heard when I turned on the television said it best: Obama! Obama! Obama!

Obama consistently delivered a clear, educated message with hearkenings back to his passion when he first hit the political scene. He clearly was informed and cared about the issues raised in today’s debate and had good answers that were not only well-supported but also distinguished himself from his peers.

Clinton also gave a good performance, and surely won herself some votes amongst the African American electorate. But, again, I felt she was putting on a show for us, treading the line between overly-rehearsed and a caricature of “pulpit passion” (akin to her embarassing drawl of “I ain’t no ways tired…” in Selma, Alabama back in March).

Edwards was flat and uninteresting. He certainly gave the weakest performance of the Big Three. No new ideas, and he had very little of the fire that distinguished him in the CNN debates. In fact, his continual reference to his talking points disappointed and disgusted me. In a debate that should have been about engaging one another and challenging ideas, Edwards seems to have completely missed the boat, offering none of the spontaneity that all of the other candidates — save Richardson — were able to exhibit.

‘08 Presidential Stock:

• Obama: +10
• Clinton: +5
• Edwards: -5

Asian Pacific Americans for Progress has organized a great opportunity for politicized Asian Americans. As I type, they have set up a series of Asian American house parties and listen and call-in to a conference with Elizabeth Edwards, wife of presidential candidate Senator John Edwards.

Since I wasn’t able to organize a house party in Tucson, Arizona, I thought I might live-blog the conference call, to get the word out about this great opportunity.

3:37 As introductions are being made, I do want to note that APAP reminds us that the conference call was open to all the presidential candidates, and the Edwards campaign was the first to accept. Although I personally still support Sen. Barack Obama for 2008, it is interesting to note that Senator Edwards was not only eager to reach out to the Asian American community, but Edwards was the only presidential candidate to issue a statement regarding the JV&Elvis anti-Asian radio sketch.

3:40 Elizabeth Edwards is reminding us of the relevance of Edwards’ positions to the Asian American communities. She notes in particular Edwards’ stance on health care, emphasizing that several ethnic communities within the Asian American community have significantly low rates of health coverage. While she continues about Edwards’ position on global warming and poverty, I (again) am most struck by the Edwards’ campagin’s willingness to reach out to our community.

Only a few weeks ago, I was asked by local Democrats whether I felt Republicans or Democrats disrespected Asian Americans. I responded that neither community was disrespecting us — they didn’t pay attention to us. I am happy to see the Edwards campaign moving away from that traditional treatment of our community.

3:43 That being said, I am a little uncomfortable with Ms. Edwards’ seeming discomfort with addressing our community; in a few cases, she refers to the “Vietnamese community” and the “Korean community”. I hope that in the future, she will remember to include the “American” part of our hyphenation. Nonetheless, I don’t want to quibble over little matters.

3:46 The first question addressed to Ms. Edwards is in regards to immigration reform. She says that we should “have a policy that has a path of citizenship for those whose only violation of the law is a violation of immigration laws” and who are otherwise dedicated to being law-abiding contributors to American society. I looked for a statement on immigration on the Edwards ‘08 website and couldn’t find it; hopefully, it will be forthcoming.

3:49 Next question is regarding hate crimes: what will Edwards do to address hate crimes against APIAs? Ms. Edwards reminds us of the recent amendment to hate crime legislation that passed through the Senate. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily address hate crimes against Asian Americans, however it is comforting to know that a vote for Edwards would be a vote to keep hate crimes legislation on the books — indeed, she states that Edwards would not use a veto to undermine the strength of hate crimes legislation.

3:52 The next question is in regards to the recent Comfort Women resolution. This has been a very important issue for me — I think the U.S. has a responsibility to pressure the Japanese government to acknowledge the Comfort Women of WWII. It is a little concerning to me that Ms. Edwards seemed generally unaware of this resolution, however I’m glad to hear that Ms. Edwards was saavy enough to turn that into a positive statement that we must all bear responsibility for our past mistakes. 

3:55 A great last question: what would Ms. Edwards see her role being as First Lady? Her first response is that she would like to be an advocate for cancer research: great news since I am involved in cancer research and the current funding environment for scientific research is atrocious! Further, relating this to Asian Americans, the number one killer of Asian Americans is cancer, not heart disease as it is with other American racial/ethnic groups. We also have low rates of diagnosis, and leukemia is a particular health concern amongst Asian/Asian Americans.

As the conference call draws to a close, I think we should all extend our thanks to Asian Pacific Americans for Progress for pulling this event together. It was a great opportunity for Asian Americans to educate and involve themselves in politics. Further, many thanks to Ms. Edwards and the Edwards ‘08 campaign for participating in the first of what we hope will be many conference calls/house parties to come.

As a political Asian American, we can encourage other presidential candidates to participate by writing the other campaigns and asking them why they didn’t agree to participate in this first conference call. I’m personally interested to know why Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton didn’t choose to participate.

Happy Asian American Heritage Month!

Cross-Posted: Asian Pacific Americans for Progress