Hillary's Conundrum

She tried being (somewhat for her) nice to Obama leading up to Super Tuesday. It did not work. She fired her campaign manager and took the gloves off for the last few primaries, sharpening her attacks on Obama. She has gotten thoroughly thrashed since then (it's 10 in a row now). The conventional wisdom is that negative campaigning works. Well, it did not work in Wisconsin for Hillary, as Obama beat her by more than two touchdowns (58%-41%).

So, does she play nice and try to win by drawing contrasts with Obama, or does she turn her negativity amp up to 11 to try to squeeze out wins in Texas and Ohio on March 4? I think I know the answer to that query.

And, this brings me back to where I started in this election process. People do not like Hillary Clinton. They like the IDEA of Hillary Clinton.

Largest Beef Recall in U.S. History

First, the good news: experts suggest that the chances of a major health crisis caused by this meat is "remote."

Now, the bad news:

The Humane Society of the United States showed videotapes on January 30 showing workers at the plant using several abusive techniques to make animals stand up and pass a pre-slaughter inspection. These included ramming cattle with forklift blades and using a hose to simulate the feeling of drowning.

These animals COULD NOT STAND on their own. It's illegal to slaughter an animal in this condition because IT IS SICK and should not be consumed. This was discovered because of some undercover video work at Westland and Hallmark Meat Co. How often is this happening when there are no cameras around?

This is the largest beef recall in U.S. history: 143 million pounds of it. And where do you think much of this meat was destined? Why, the Federal School Lunch Program and fast food chains, of course!!! In other words, kids--mostly.

I'm not a (mostly) vegetarian because of any moral issues with killing animals for food. I am a (mostly) vegetarian because of the meat industry. I am also not an evangelistic (mostly) vegetarian. But, if I don't catch it or kill it myself out of the wild, or if I cannot purchase free range or wild meats, I simply do not eat it if at all possible.

And, this situation is a big reason why.

Fattening of America

The Freakonomics blog addresses an issue near and dear to me. I've been teaching this in my classes for years. I find some of the conclusions and rationale suspect, but here's an excerpt from an interesting interview with health economist Eric Finkelstein that talks about his (and co-author Laurie Zuckerman's) new book The Fattening of America :

In sharp contrast, children are unable to make rational choices, unlike Uncle Al. I think that the government (and parents) have a critical role to minimize the possibility of children growing up to regret the diet and exercise choices they may have made as uninformed youths. Most government interventions are focused on schools, which makes sense given that the food the lunch ladies serve up is too often not that different from the birthday fare my son receives at Chuck E. Cheese. And then, of course, there’s the school vending machines. In my book, we discuss what’s happening in America’s school cafeterias, gymnasiums, and classrooms, and what can be done to help tomorrow’s adults make informed diet and exercise choices.

If we TRULY want a healthier America, we might have to take our legislative medicine when it comes to protecting kids.

Go Arithmecrats!

Your average Joe/Jane (or Republican who does not care about the Dem primary) might have glanced at Tuesday's results and said, "Well, Hillary is going to win again." After all, she took the big prizes in California and New York, and some papers even touted her "win." But, headlines and conventional wisdom do not nominate candidates. Delegates do. And, the Arithmecrats on Slate.com remind us of this fact. In that count, it was a dead heat, with both sides claiming a small win on Tuesday.

Add to that that Obama has closed a MASSIVE poll gap on Clinton in the last two months and won 13 states to Clinton's 8 on Tuesday, and it seems to me that Obama has both math and momentum on his side. The more people see Obama, the more support he garners. Further, the next several races favor Obama (Maine, Nebraska, Washington state, Louisiana, and the three Potomac races). If he wins all five, that is going to help with momentum in upcoming delegate-rich states like Texas and Ohio, where Clinton currently leads. Clinton has focused on the big prizes, which makes sense. However, Obama is cleaning up in smaller states and has drawn even in national polling numbers. If that trend continues and he pulls off a win in Texas or Ohio, it's trouble for Clinton.

Also, he hauled in $32 million in support in January while Hillary Clinton just wrote a $5 million personal check to her campaign.

Hmmm. I thought only Mitt Romney was doing that? EDIT: And Romney dropped out soon after I typed this.