I Still Write About Sports...Occasionally...I Guess....

Wow. I didn't really mean for Quo Vadimus to turn into all-politics, all the time, and certainly not into a de facto propaganda machine for the Obama campaign, but that's seemingly has been what has happened this month. I guess it makes some sense. Aside from studying for the Bar Exam, my time is pretty much spent watching MSNBC (Morning Joe and Hardball are daily rituals, and with all the extra debates and primary/caucus coverage, it adds up pretty fast) and sleeping, so it's little wonder that when I do find time to post, it's on politics and this fascinating race for both the Democratic and Republican nomination. And given my natural support for Obama, my posts tend to be (well, are) probably, well, a bit slanted. Let's try to change that a bit, both in terms of looking at the race a bit more objectively (we'll see how long that lasts, probably until the next Clinton attack, oh wait, there I go again) and instead focus on another of my passions: sports, which used to be the calling card of this young blog.

So the New England Patriots at 18-0 and going into the Super Bowl and I do have to admit I am a bit disappointed that it won't be Brett Favre and the Packers going up against Tom Brady's Patriots. To see Brady, perhaps the best quarterback of his generation, to potentially conquer Favre, perhaps the best quarterback ever, to give his team the Super Bowl and an undefeated season, that would have been something to watch. Instead we'll get Eli Manning on the Giants, the Manning that isn't funny and personable and isn't a big star (yet). But he's showing he has the talent to be known on his own regard and not just as Peyton's little brother. And you have to give the Giants credit. Winning at Tampa Bay, at Dallas, and at Green Bay was very impressive. Plaxico Burress is an incredible wide receiver and the Giants defense is strong. Strong enough to upend the Pats in two weeks? I doubt it. But stranger things have happened, and the Giants played the Patriots extraordinarily tough in Week 17, so we should see a good game at the very least.

What else is going on? The Red Wings and Pistons have cooled off a bit after incredible starts to the season, but honestly, I haven't blogged much (if anything) about them because no matter how well they play now, it's irrelevant if they falter in June. It's nice to Chris Osgood rejuvenate his career, and Henrik Zetterberg grow into one of the NHL's best and most exciting players, and it's great to see the Pistons bench (especially Jason Maxiell and rookie Rodney Stuckey) play so well and give the starting five some much needed and much deserved time off during the season, but all that matters is the post-season. So I'll watch a bit from the sidelines until then. The Tigers signed Nate Robertson to a contract extension last week, locking up 4 of their starters (all except for Kenny Rogers) for at least the next three years. Solid move. Now let's get Cabrera signed.

Barack Obama Wins Delegate Battle in Nevada, Loses Vote

With Hillary Clinton's win in Nevada this afternoon, which as we now find out, may not be a win at all, today might be a perfect example of the power of the Hillary Clinton campaign to defeat Barack Obama in the "spin game" and the power of the media to control who actually wins and who actually loses based on how they report expectations going in, and even how votes are counted and delegates are awarded.

Confused? So are those in Nevada, but let's take a closer look. All afternoon, the media, and rightfully so based on the vote totals being reported by the Nevada Democratic Party, have reported that Hillary Clinton was the big winner in Nevada. A six-point win based on the latest results with a huge margin of victory among women and Latino voters. But, as Obama senior adviser David Axelrod just said on MSNBC's coverage of tonight's caucuses and the South Carolina primary, as it turns out, due to the weighting of rural counties, of which Obama won convincingly, he actually will leave Nevada with the most delegates (A fact later confirmed, somewhat, by a post by Ben Smith over at Politico.com). Obama picks up 13 delegates, Clinton will pick up 12, and Obama actually increases his lead so far to, well, two delegates (not counting, of course, the super-delegates which are non-binding and not all declared at the moment). And, as Axelrod also pointed out, the Clinton campaign has been continuously saying only delegates matter. If that's the case, Obama won tonight. Is that how it will be reported tomorrow? No. Will Clinton get a bump and momentum going forward because of her "win" tonight? Absolutely. But that's just because of how the vote was characterized tonight. The bottom line, as it turns out, is that in real terms, Obama leaves Nevada in better shape, in terms of delegate count, than he started with. He essentially lost the popular vote, but won the electoral college, to steal an analogy from the general election.

Now the test is, can the Obama campaign get the media to report that story? Going in to today's caucus, the Obama campaign was far outspun by the Clintons. The Clinton campaign did a masterful job as Chris Matthews has been saying all day of playing down expectations and talking about how biased the system was against them and how Obama had an edge going into today. The truth is, while Obama did have the powerful Culinary Union, Clinton had a 20-point lead in Nevada as early as two weeks ago and had all of the major Democratic establishment support, which gave her a far greater edge organizationally. And all those casino caucus sites that the Clintons complained about and which supporters of theirs tried to sue to stop, almost all went for Clinton, as did a significant portion of the Culinary Union's own membership.

Just as in New Hampshire, the Obama campaign did a horrible job of managing expectations and they can't allow that to happen in South Carolina next week. If they allow the Clintons to paint South Carolina as "unwinnable" for them because of the support of African American voters there who will support Obama, and Hillary comes even remotely close to winning, it's a loss. He can't let the Clintons continue to dictate the storyline of this campaign. If he does, he's lost it before he ever had a chance to win it at all.

Why I Would Like To See a Mitt Romney Victory Tonight

In just over an hour polls close throughout Michigan (though, with turnout as low as has been reported, there may not be many more people left to vote) and I would just love to see a Mitt Romney victory tonight. Not just because he's a Michigan guy and I like to see those from our great state do well, and not just because it would help derail John McCain's campaign (while McCain is a patriot and a honorable man who would make a great President, because of these qualities, I don't want him anywhere near the nomination as he is the most, and likely only electable Republican candidate) but because it would throw the Republican race into complete chaos.

Should Romney win, we'd have three major primaries/caucuses (and a Romney win in Wyoming), and three different winners (Mike Huckabee in Iowa, McCain in New Hampshire, and Romney in Michigan) with South Carolina completely up for grabs and Rudy Giuliani waiting in Florida. Imagine Rudy does hold on and wins in the Sunshine State. That would be five big states and five different winners. On Super Tuesday, when over 20-states have primaries and caucuses, imagine would could happen. Mike Huckabee, the popular and gregarious former Baptist preacher could sweep the Bible Belt states. John McCain could do the same in the Southwest where he's a Senator (Arizona). Rudy could take the Northeast, including New York, splitting some with Romney, who could also do well in some of the Midwest states.

There is a growing chance, every day, especially if Romney wins tonight, of no nominee having enough delegates to win the nomination heading into the primary. It happened on West Wing during Season Six, and now, with life imitating art, it could actually happen again. If Romney loses tonight, conventional wisdom, which I agree with, has John McCain on a roll, having won two primaries in a row with a good chance to make it three in South Carolina on Saturday. He could be unstoppable at that point. But if he does get stopped tonight, then there's no telling what could happen, and from a (somewhat) neutral political observer, there's almost nothing better than that.

Hillary Clinton Refuses To Condemn BET Founder's Personal Attack on Barack Obama's Past

Hillary Clinton was on Meet The Press this morning, and overall, I thought she did a pretty good job of staying on message, trying to push the blame of the recent racial attacks on the Obama campaign to the Obama campaign (if that makes any sense) and painting a picture of Obama (rightfully or not, accurate or not) as someone who has wavered on the Iraq War (when it is pretty clear when you look at the record, he hasn't -- Though he did make a political move not to knock John Kerry and John Edwards at the 2004 Convention, and for that Clinton fairly can go after Obama) She even said this when speaking with Tim Russert this morning:

You know, I think that we don't want anyone, any of our supporters, anyone--and that's why in my campaign, any time anybody has said anything that I thought was out of bounds, they're gone, you know? I have gotten rid of them, I have said that is not appropriate in this campaign.

That's a great sentiment. Sadly, it lasted all of about eight hours. That's because at a Hillary Clinton rally this afternoon in South Carolina, Senator Clinton was introduced to Senator Clinton by Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television. With Clinton on stage behind him, Johnson had this to say:

As an African-American, I'm frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Bill and Hillary Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won't say what he was doing, [but] he said it in his book.

There is no doubt, no question, no arguing that what Johnson was referring to was Obama's admitted past substance use. Hillary Clinton, though, did nothing, ignored the comment, did not condemn it or the personal attack, and went on with her event like it never happened.

After, her campaign did release a statement, but amazingly, it was not to rebuke Johnson for his remark, or distance Hillary from it, but it was another statement from Johnson defending his remark.

My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect.

Give me a break. So, the statement should have read: "As an African-American, I'm frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Bill and Hillary Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was a community organizer in Chicago working for poor African Americans." That doesn't even come close to making any sort of logical sense. It is beyond disbelief that the Clinton campaign would think anybody, any person who has any modicum of intelligence would think that's what Johnson was saying. He was trying to make a cheap point and get some cheap laughs and continue a pattern of personal attacks of the Clinton campaign where they let their supporters and campaign officials skewer Obama only to let the story get out and then go "That wasn't authorized and the person has been let go." Thank God Clinton has such a big payroll and can afford to keep hiring and firing these people.

Tonight was even worse because Hillary Clinton was right on stage, right there when the comment was made, and despite her pledge on Meet The Press she stayed silent. That is all you need to know about the kind of campaign Hillary Clinton is running and how she expects to win the Democratic Nomination.