MSNBC looks at what may be the tipping point for Sen. Barack Obama in Texas: Republicans who say they’re going to cross over to vote for him in the Democratic primary.
“As many as a tenth of the Texans voting in the Democratic contests could be Republicans, and overwhelmingly they favor Obama.”
A new Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle poll shows Sen. Barack Obama building a lead in Texas but is still just behind Sen. Hillary Clinton in Ohio.
In Texas, Obama has built a six-point lead over Clinton, 48% to 42%, “largely on the strength of support from what has come to be his base – younger voters and men. Evidence of his persuasive powers comes from the fact that most of those who have most recently decided for whom to support, while Clinton won more support from early deciders.”
In Ohio, Clinton holds a slim lead that has diminished steadily in past weeks, 44% to 42%. “Her strength stems from the same demographic groups that carried her to victories earlier in the campaign, but the trend appears to favor Obama, as late deciders are more likely to support him over her, the survey shows, and 9% of Ohio Democrats say they have yet to make up their minds.”
“Record turnout in this year’s presidential primaries has election officials worried about possible shortages of
machines, ballots and poll workers in November,” USA Today reports.
“In 17 of the 24 primaries held so far, turnouts were larger than any in the past 40 years, the result of competitive Democratic and Republican contests and earlier primaries. Paper ballots ran out from California to the District of Columbia, more poll workers were needed in Arizona and an electronic voter registration database crashed in Connecticut.”
However, despite the anecdotal evidence to the contrary, the Wall Street Journal notes that statisticians are debating whether turnout has actually increased this year.
In a new published book entitled Lu Xun & Hu Shi: Two Chinese intellectuals in the 20th Century the author made a thorough analysis about the mutual relation between the process of democratization and Chinese national virtue. This book and its theme raised a lot discussion online. Blogger bbcjy wrote[zh] on […]
Chuck Todd: “According to a source who tracks TV ad buying, Obama campaign has bought two-minute blocks in every market in both Ohio and Texas on Monday. It’s unclear what the content will be, but sounds like it will be some sort of closing message. As we find out more, we’ll report more.”
Use the Forbes delegate calculator to see what combination of primary wins in the remaining states will propel either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination.
“Early voting in Texas does not bode well for Hillary Clinton,” according to Time. “It is up dramatically in counties with large African-American populations, as well as those with more highly educated and affluent voters — in other words, in areas that would be expected to trend toward Obama. In those heavily hispanic counties that Clinton is counting on, not so much.”
Meanwhile, CNN notes that “turnout is already smashing records” in Ohio.
Living in Barbados thinks that the arrest of a former Jamaican Minister implicated in the Cuban lightbulb scandal “should shed light on what kind of government Bruce Golding is leading and what kind of democratic country Jamaica really is.”
Foreign Notes writes about Yulia Tymoshenko's illness and other problems.
Belgrade 2.0 posts a selection of photoshopped Kosovo-related parodies and writes: “If there’s one thing I always appreciated about Serbia and it’s turbulent times, it’s the people’s strenght to find something humorous in all that, no matter how bad the times are. It was like that during the sanctions, during the protests, during the bombing, […]
