On one of the cable channels last night, a reporter, live at a caucus site in Iowa, was attempting to demonstrate how in "real life" the redistribution of votes after what is called "the first alignment" works. On the first count, a candidate needs 15% support to be "viable." Those who voted for a candidate who doesn't hit the 15% mark can then switch their vote to a candidate who did hit the mark. At this particular caucus site, two candidates were not viable. The reporter held up a paper showing that one of them had received 28 votes, the other 26. She wanted to say how many votes would potentially get redistributed among the viable candidates. In other words, she had to add in her head 28 and 26. The on-air struggle sounded like this: "Let's see, hang on while I do the math . . . [alarmingly long pause] . . . that's 54 . . . no, wait . . . [another pause] . . . 52 votes . . . I don't know, I didn't major in math!"
Am I sort of a math bitch, or is this roughly analogous to someone explaining that the reason they can't read is that they're good at addition?
Well, it's not worse than the president being confused about the state in which the Kansas City Chiefs play their home games. He tweeted, soon after the Super Bowl ended:
Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on a great game, and a fantastic comeback, under immense pressure. You represented the Great State of Kansas and, in fact, the entire USA, so very well. Our Country is PROUD OF YOU!
Seems sort of QUAINT now that a Couple of Weeks ago PEOPLE were criticizing him for NOT knowing that India has a long Border with china.
Although there are no results yet out of Iowa, you can tell from the order in which the candidates decided to speak how well their campaigns gauged them to be doing. First, Biden and Klobuchar, because they likely were not headed for a medal ceremony and therefore wanted to speak before they'd have to acknowledge the actual result. Last, Buttigieg, because he might have won the gold, and was for sure the biggest over-performer, so, hoping to get something more specific to crow about, he waited as long as possible.
Biden's speech was terrible. He's been in this game for 40-plus years and that's what he's got? If your head isn't full of what you want to say, you should write something down before you go out there and then just read it from the podium. At least you won't stammer around like a confused old guy. In the so-called moderate lane, Buttigieg and Klobuchar are far superior candidates—smart, energetic foils to Trump. Though, to be fair, if for whatever odd reason you watch a lot of this stuff, there's plenty of targets for mirth. Did you know that Amy, according to herself, is "punching above her weight"? And apparently Pete, for his victory speech, was able to make room in the center of the first row for all six African-Americans who voted for him. Pretty sure, though, they both know that Colorado is not on our border with Mexico.
Meanwhile, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, thinks that Trump's Ukraine shakedown was "shameful and wrong," but she will not vote to convict because that would "disenfranchise nearly 63 million Americans" who voted for him. By this logic, didn't the electoral college disenfranchise nearly 66 million Americans who voted for his opponent?
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