Primaries, Dynasties And A Lame Duck

Arizona Senator John McCain won all 57 delegates in the Florida Republican presidential primary, turning back former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. What's more, McCain might be getting a bonus. According to several broadcast reports, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani--who put all his electoral eggs in Florida's basket, only to finish a poor third--is going to drop out of the race and support McCain.

Meanwhile, Senator Hillary Clinton won Florida's Democratic primary. But it might as well be a glorified straw poll with no delegates at stake, because the party took them away when the state dared to run its primary before Super Humongous Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the wonderful world of politics:

In a previous post, we talked about Barack Obama running not just against Hillary Clinton, but also her husband, the former president. Now the Illinois senator has his own political dynasty to back him up. He's been endorsed by two living relatives of President John F. Kennedy--his brother, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts (who ran for the Democratic nomination in 1980 before losing to incumbent Jimmy Carter) and his daughter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. This is seen as a rebuke to the questionable campaign tactics of the Clintons, as well as the proverbial passing of the liberal torch.

Hillary Clinton counters that she's got some Kennedy family support of her own--Robert Kennedy's, who was also a New York senator who ran for president. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert Kennedy Jr., RFK's kids, are supporting Clinton.

With polls (which have been known to be wrong) showing Clinton leading in most of the Super Humongous Tuesday states, Obama needs all the help he can get. But you have to wonder if the Kennedy name is still relevant in presidential politics.
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The presumably final State of the Union address of George W. Bush's presidency contained the usual laundry list of things he wants Congress to pass (most of which won't get done), repeating the same claim that we need to stay in Iraq because "Al Qaeda is on the run . . . and this enemy will be defeated" for the umpteenth time, and hearing the choreographed standing ovations from fellow Republicans and silence from sitting Democrats. You could set your watch by all that.

One word that kept popping up during the President's address was "trust". As in "we must trust people with their own money", "trust American workers to compete with anyone in the world", and so on. This comes from an administration that, among other things, spies on its own citizens, classifies previously available public documents, and treats everyone like criminals at the airport. In turn, if you believe the polls, most people don't trust Bush (or Congress) to get anything done. So trust works both ways.

While it may be true that President Bush is still in charge, it should be noted that two of the three lawmakers who would like the opportunity to give the State of the Union address a year from now--Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (John McCain was too busy campaigning in Florida)--were in the House chamber listening. That is, unless Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have other plans.