Ed Sills On The Election

Ed Sills is a good friend who covered Texas politics for the San Antonio Express-News before becoming communications director for the Texas AFL-CIO in the mid-1990s. He's an astute observer of Texas politics. He's written an interesting essay laying out his optimism about next Tuesday. Here it is, reprinted in full:

If It Looks, Acts and Quacks Like a Big Turnout…
I dislike polls, not pollsters. Pollsters are great folks, usually smart and often brilliant. But the best of them will tell you that even if they are absolutely scrupulous in all their endeavors, accuracy depends on the turnout models they choose to employ and the vagaries of the human condition.
Sure, pollsters will have the right results, on average, but so will anyone who observes politics carefully, studies districts and makes note of trends. The monkeys trying to type Shakespeare will be right half the time, too. Most national polls now show Barack Obama winning the presidency – a stable prediction for the last few weeks – but the results range from well within the margin of error to well into the double digits. In 2008, polling remains an inexact science and anyone who relies to a moral certainty on the polls deserves the results when they don’t pan out.
Early vote totals, however, are not a poll. In pivotal state after pivotal state, Democrats are turning out early in larger numbers than Republicans, and those votes are in the bank going into Tuesday’s elections. I am a big fan of Ockham’s Razor when it comes to political observation; you don’t make things more complicated than necessary when trying to figure out what is happening. Voters from the two major parties don’t “take turns” to the degree that GOP scenarios for national victory suggest. More likely, we have seen most of the eager partisans from both sides cast ballots so far and we will see traditionalists who like to vote on Election Day and those who were undecided on one or more races go to the polls on Tuesday.
I’m no non-partisan – we should all be hopeless romantics when it comes to big elections -- and recognize that sometimes hopes and wishes overtake the data for anyone rooting for a candidate. For that reason, I will stay out of the business of predicting a winner in any specific race in this forum, except to say this: We are probably in for some shockeroos next Tuesday.
Here are a few observations that don’t touch on the actual likelihood of any one candidate’s victory:
1) Tuesday will be a late night in the presidential contest and many Texas races – not necessarily because the results will be in doubt but because at least in urban and suburban areas the lines are going to be so long that polls won’t actually close until well after the official 7 p.m. deadline, when anyone in line still gets to vote;
2) The early vote turnout in the top 15 counties is up 50 percent from 2004 and, based on anecdotal evidence of huge turnouts today, looks like it might end up close to half of the 7.4 million Texans who voted in the entire 2004 election. Can that pace keep up? Almost certainly not, because early voting has accelerated in popularity every election. Shaving off fractions, in 1996 the early vote in the top 15 counties was 16 percent of the overall total; in 2000, it was 24 percent; in 2004, it was 32 percent. If that pattern follows and early voting in those counties becomes 40 percent this year, it would not be a shocker. Do the math: If 3.7 million is 40 percent of the vote total, we could be looking at a total Texas turnout of 9.25 million, or 68.5 percent, meaning the winner of the presidential contest will almost certainly have to break George W. Bush’s vote-harvesting record of 4.52 million in 2004 just to get the victory. Needless to say, the turnout could end differently if these assumptions are wrong, but my gut says to take the “high” over the “low” bet on this one. At the levels of turnout we have seen in early voting (which confirm the big turnout in the primary elections), surprises become possible throughout Texas. The voter suppression programs simply aren’t working in 2008;
3) African-American turnout in Texas will set all sorts of records and sway the results in Harris County. Participation levels among African-Americans have been good to bordering on excellent around the state in recent elections, and Obama’s candidacy is producing a blowout turnout across the nation in this demographic. Earlier today in Georgia, hours’ worth of lines were extending out the door in minority precincts, where nearly half the electorate had already voted going into today and 35 percent of that vote was estimated to be African-American, compared to 25 percent in the 2004 election. Harris County, where one-third of all voters had cast ballots going into today, has trounced its past early voting performance. The improvement in Harris County’s early vote this year over 2004 is second only to Fort Bend County, and the makeup of the turnout has prompted long-time observers to posit significant advantages to date among Democratic primary voters. It’s not a stretch to suggest that a big chunk of this improvement in performance comes from African-American voters who are overwhelmingly favoring Obama and other Democrats. And Harris County will cast, by far, more ballots than any other county in Texas.
4) Hispanic turnout is not as low as the early-vote comparisons might indicate. While the raw early vote totals in Cameron, El Paso, Hidalgo and Nueces counties lag the other 11 biggest counties, voters in those counties, too, are casting early ballots at a record pace. Nueces and Hidalgo counties are each more than 40 percent above their early-vote totals for 2004. In the end, the Hispanic vote will be a bigger factor than ever;
5) Barring a calamity between now and Tuesday, this will be the first election since 1992 in which dire economic straits will be the clear No. 1 issue at the polls, with everything else a distant second. Yesterday’s report that a major measure of American productivity actually went down over the last three months couples with the continued fallout over the collapse of financial institutions and growing numbers of layoffs. As the price of oil sinks, Texans are slowly realizing -- but maybe not realizing fully by Election Day – that we are not immune to the downturn. John McCain was onto something when he elevated Joe the Plumber, country singer, to mythic levels. (My suggestion for Joe’s first single: “I’m Always on a Train Out of Town”). Unfortunately for McCain, Obama has fully anticipated the significance of economic issues to this election for the last two years;
6) I can’t speak for Republicans, but my hunch is that the GOP weekend turnout program is in place, ready to go and will succeed at reaching the Republican base. I can’t speak for Democrats, either, but the single-mindedness of this year’s get-out-the-vote operations is unprecedented. For the first time since the days of Jimmy Carter, the Democratic presidential nominee has played a major role and has spent money to organize new voters. The giant turnout in March, aided by both the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns, was no accident, and everyone didn’t just forget about it afterward and go home, as county conventions strained building capacities and voters carried their newfound activism into the summer and fall. Texas is Texas, but Democrats have a chance to demonstrate how relativity works on turnout numbers;
7) Though the buzzards have not yet gotten within pecking distance, signs of defeat for McCain in the conservative media are not hard to find. George Will, Peggy Noonan and other reliable Republicans jumped ship weeks ago. Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel, not a liberal by any stretch, today wrote: “All eyes are on Tuesday. For the GOP, the real question is Wednesday. That’s the day the party will survey the damage of the 2008 election, and have to decide what it wants to be….” When discussion on the right of whether Sarah Palin is the one for 2012 overwhelms whether McCain is the one for 2008, you know the Republican tea leaves are set to “ghastly”. That said, the narrowing in some polls, the long-simmering thirst in the Democratic Party and the possibility that the GOP is playing possum all but promise an all-out effort through the last minutes of voting on Tuesday. My side has seen enough false omens to create a new art form in the field of divination;
8) At what level can a national trend penetrate Texas, which is in the top five Republican performers of the last 15 years? Sen. John Cornyn clearly thinks he has the win in the bag, because he has never gone negative and that is contrary to his history as a campaigner. Rep. Rick Noriega, Cornyn’s challenger, had no money for the kind of air blitz Cornyn has bought, but then again, he hasn’t spent TV time wandering like a hermit near canyons, among cow patties and out of Shepler’s. Look at the front page of Cornyn’s web site. It’s the incumbent dressed like a cowboy hanging with horses. I like most cowboys and all horses, but in a campaign that has the run of the mass media, the aversion in ad after ad to placing the senator with other people ought to be raising eyebrows. Noriega, for his part, has dramatically improved his ability to connect with people throughout the campaign, though he didn’t have the means to connect with 13.5 million of them;
9) In the aggregate, the Texas House situation is as well studied as any in recent years. The Democrats have six or so especially difficult seats to defend, but also have potential pickups in many more seats. Everyone is looking at the same 20 to 30 contests. If 2008 is like most elections, Texans will pick and choose and the partisan breakdown may be subject to rolls of the statistical dice in more than one election. If this election is like, say, the 1994 one because of the character of the turnout, however, Republicans may be sitting around wondering where it all fell apart (just as Democrats did when Jack Brooks, Carl Parker and a host of others bit the dust in my first headachy election as a union communicator);
10) This is a historic year. Really. The upset nomination and ascension to the “favorite” position of Obama has made a deep mark on American politics, however 2008 ends. (And, based on the playing field of the final weeks – dominated by Bush states like North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Indiana, segueing into states like Georgia and Arizona – it has the appearance of ending well for Obama.) The trials and tribulations of the economy are reaching historic levels and the international situation is perilous. The next president will almost certainly face the ancient curse of living in interesting times. How historic the election will be in Texas depends, as always, on the turnout. If the magnetic draw of the choices in this election accelerates demographic trends already in place, Tuesday’s election in Texas will be closely analyzed for many years to come.

Opie And The Fonz Come Out For Obama

Ron Howard, Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler reprise their characters to encourage Americans to vote for Barack Obama. Way cool!

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Finally! The Invite I've Been Waiting For

I just received -- I am not making this up -- an invite from Texas Democratic Party chair Boyd Richie to attend the invitation-only debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on February 21, 2008. Actually, I am not invited to the event; I am invited to participate in a drawing where I might get a ticket to the event. But I will enter the drawing and cross my fingers that I get selected.

The fact that the debate occurred almost eight months ago is not sapping my enthusiasm at all.




Dear fellow Democrat,
Democrats all across Texas are excited about the upcoming historic debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton. At a time when so many people have lost faith in our government thanks to the failed Republican policies of the Bush administration, our two outstanding candidates are ready to provide the change that Texas and America desperately need.
While seating at the debate is limited, the TDP has secured 100 debate tickets, which will be made available to the general public through a random drawing. The tickets will be evenly distributed between supporters of Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, with some tickets going to undecided voters.
In order to be eligible for tickets, you must be a registered voter in the State of Texas. Names may be submitted for the drawing until 5pm on Monday, February 18th. Winners will be notified the next morning, and subject to the security requirements of the debate venue.

Second Debate: Behind the Post-Debate Numbers

Last night, John McCain and Barack Obama met in Nashville for the second of their three debates, the "town hall" debate. A poll taken immediately after the debate by CBS and Knowledge Networks shows that undecided voters believe Obama "won" the debate, with 40% saying Obama did better and 26% saying McCain did. That, of course, was the one-liner that folks got about CBS's research effort.

But reading the poll results themselves was, to me, enlightening. CBS did before-and-after questions of 516 undecided voters. One question was whether the voters thought Obama "would make the right decisions about the economy." Before the debate, 55% thought Obama would make the rights decisions; afterwards, that number climbed to 68% -- 20 points higher than McCain's post-debate number.

On the question whether "he understand voters' needs and problems," the Obama-McCain contrast numbers soared from 59%-33% pre-debate to 80%-44% post-debate. Think of that bottom line: almost twice as many undecided voters think Obama "gets" them as think McCain does.

The McCain attack since this summer has been the Barack Obama is "not one of us" -- that he's exotic and unusual; inexperienced and unprepared. These numbers show that the McCain meme is not working.

President Palin? 1-in-7 Odds

Say what you will about Sarah Palin's performance in the vice-presidential debate last night. She did better than I expected. Of course, I expected her to spit up on herself, doggone it. She was evasive, uninformed, and out of her depth, but blustered through what had to be a terrifying evening for her.

The bottom line, though, is that she showed none of the gravitas we expect in our top-tier national leaders. She was cute and folksy, but persuaded few people she's ready to take the 3:00 a.m. phone call.

Her partisans argue, of course, that it doesn't matter. She's auditioning for the job of Vice President, after all, and the level of scrutiny does not have to be as high as with the presidency. That may be true, but not with the oldest person ever to run for a first term as president on her ticket.

Here's something interesting: according to the Social Security Administration's actuarial tables, the changes that John McCain will die during his first term in office are 1-in-7. That's the odds that your birthday this year will be on a Friday.

Feeling better about Palin?

McCain Introduces Palin

Watching John McCain introduce Sarah Palin. It turns out today is his 72nd birthday and her and her husband's 20th anniversary.
Audience applauds when he says something about sports ... apropos of nothing.
She speaks. Awful voice.
Five kids, including a son who's in the Army.
Telling her story. It's inspiring, but not at a national level. She's not running for Congress, for chrissakes.
Lots about ethics and corruption and integrity. She's on the wrong team and doesn't know it.
"Nobody more committed to change in American than John McCain?" Ex-squeeze me? It sounds like they are in denial.
Finally talks about McCain's toughness. Finally, an actual attempt to draw a distinction, not just gloss over their own record.
It sounds like she wrote her own speech, the kind the mayor of a town gives when he or she is introducing the candidate. Did the campaign even see this, much less write it?
"Nu-ku-lar" -- it's like a genetic aberration in the GOP.
She leads her own clapping, like she's the head cheerleader.
Reference to women's suffrage -- did the Republicans oppose it then?
Pays tribute to Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton, tries to put on their mantle.
If I'm a red-meat Republican in the audience or listening in on TV, my head must be ready to explode. She's bragged about being a union member, about having women on the ticket, etc.
Clearly appealing to women to abandon Obama and go with McCain.
"Thank you, and I God Bless America."

Overall impression: LIGHTWEIGHT.

Sarah Palin To Be McCain's Running Mate

The Washington Post and the Burnt Orange Report -- two of the most trusted names in political journalism -- are reporting that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be introduced later this morning as John McCain's running mate. Chris Cillizza thinks Palin, although she is anti-choice, will give disaffected women an alternative to Obama and let the PUMAs vent their anger by voting Republican in the most important election of their lifetimes. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Matt Glazer thinks Palin ends Republican ability to talk about Obama's inexperience and opens new vistas of Republican corruption for public inspection.

In 1984, when Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate in a battle against Ronald Reagan, there were a lot of platitudes about the gesture to women, but ultimately her selection was viewed as a stunt, a "Hail Mary" to try and shake up the dynamics of the election. Is this the same?

I imagine we'll hear a lot about the "culture of corruption" in Alaska GOP politics. I also imagine we'll hear a lot about the enormous subsidy that the people of the United States pay to Alaska. "Hey, hard-working single mother in Ohio, how do you like that we export a ton of your taxes to Alaska every year?"

Post-Denver Thoughts

I blogged about Barack Obama's terrific acceptance speech last night. Now, some concluding thoughts on this historic Democratic National Convention.

First of all, we should not forget how amazing the fact that Obama is the nominee is. Most people who will read this in an era when civil rights for blacks, while not perfectly realized (even today!), were established national policy. Most people in my generation grew up in world where no one thought a black person would be President in our lifetime. Yet, here we are. I'm very proud of how far the country has come in your lifetime.

Obama needed to do three things in his speech:

1. introduce himself and share his story for people who were paying attention for the first time;
2. set out some specifics of his agenda, partly because that's his job and partly to answer critics who say he's just oratory; and
3. show Democrats he can throw a punch.

I thought he did all three. Years from now, lines from the speech will be quoted as examples of great oratory.

The Republicans, who used to be masters of the staging and dramatics of political events, have nothing to compare with this. It's like we just saw a movie with DeNiro and Hoffman and Streep and Swank and they're doing a remake with Sandler and Van Damme. (Apologies to those who think Adam Sandler is the greatest actor of his generation, but I have a news flash: he's not.)
So their convention will seem dull by comparison, and it will be. Apparently their spin is that they WANT IT THAT WAY. Yeah, right ....

The Democrats should be as united as they can get. It's time for them to roll up their sleeves and bring the same passion, tireless effort and desire for change to the general election that they showed in the primaries.

It's Time For Some Campaignin'!

This is the latest from the nutty geniuses at JibJab. Did they catch the zeitgeist of the election and the essentials of the main characters? You decide. Comments, please.

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

What Happened To You, Ralph Nader?

We hear a BAM.
Louis jerks.
Ordell shot him.
Louis falls back against the car door, eyes wide open, staring at Ordell.
Ordell takes the pistol, works the barrel up higher on Louis' side, right under his arm, and shoots him again.
This time Louis' head BANGS against the car door window. He slumps over, his life gone.
Ordell looks at him.
ORDELL: What the fuck happened to you, man? Shit, your ass use'ta be beautiful.

I thought of this great moment from Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" when I heard that Ralph Nader had said the following about Barack Obama:

I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.

Concerned, apparently, that his remarks could be interpreted as anti-black, Nader went on to patronize white people:

He wants to show that he is not a threatening . . . another politically threatening African-American politician. He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as 'black is beautiful, black is powerful.' Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up.

To be sure, the problems of America's poorest urban communities deserve more attention than they've received. John Edwards talked about them some while he was still in the race. And, as Obama has pointed out, he has been talking about those issues. But Nader's attack is just sad and pathetic, and would be laughable coming from a lesser man.

What the fuck happened to you, Ralph Nader? Shit, your ass use'ta beautiful.

Edwards Endorses Obama

John Edwards has finally endorsed Barack Obama. So did NARAL ProChoice America.

Houseguests and fish

A friend forwarded me the latest fundraising appeal from Hillary Clinton. The forwarding email had my friend's one-line summary of the situation: "Why I'm in... BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET OUT! love, hillary."

Hillary's fundraising appeal -- and let's be clear, it's all about the Benjamins -- reminds us of why she's really running: "I'm in this race for everyone who needs a champion... I'm in this race for the more than 16 million people like you who have supported me -- for the people who have put their hearts into winning this race. You never gave up on me, and I'll never give up on you."

Well, actually, they have given up on her. That's why she's $10 million-plus in debt. That's why no one thinks any money they give now will pay for a campaign going forward instead of retiring debt. That's why she stretched and strained to make her lopsided victory in West Virginia seem like, well, "Mission Accomplished," when even the chattering heads on TV could not muster the enthusiasm to act like it mattered. The only person outside her campaign who thinks she still needs to be taken seriously is Barack Obama. At least he says so, while his campaign has become focused on November and John McCain.

Hillary's become the houseguest who overstayed her welcome. No one talks about it around the house, but everyone knows. Even her. Breakfast conversations, once full of sunshine and excited chatter about the day ahead, are solemn and stilted. No one wants to go out any more, because the awkwardness takes all the joy out of doing anything that used to be fun. Everyone covertly glances at the calendar, where the flight info for her return home is posted.

"I hope I can make it another week," everyone prays.

The Empire Strikes Back?

Hillary Clinton's campaign, with its twin themes of ruthlessness and inevitability, has always invited comparison to the baddies running the Empire in the Star Wars trilogy. So the fanciful video posted on YouTube cannot be a total surpise.

The Entire Democratic Campaign in Seven Minutes

Why Hillary Should Get Out. Now.

Yesterday, Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, wrote a column excoriating any man who calls on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Forsaking her usual perspective, wit and thoughtfulness, she pontificates in high dudgeon:

Well, boys, you'd better sit down for this one: This is no longer the playground of your youth. The girls aren't sitting in the stands keeping score and cheering whenever you're at bat. In fact, the girls aren't girls at all anymore. We're all grown up, and we are so done with this notion that the trajectory of our lives must end at the border of your comfort zone.

Ms. Schultz was strangely silent when the pundits and poobahs of the GOP pressured Mike Huckabee to drop out. Rather than recognize their intervention for what it was -- more evidence of the blatant anti-Christianity of the Republican Party -- she chose to remain silent, apparently believing that Huckabee was being asked to drop out only because He Had No Mathematical Chance Of Winning and it was Time To Unify The Party.

Well, I have not called on Ms. Clinton to abandon her quest, and I will not do so now. It's her candidacy, and her legacy, and she can do with it what she wants. But there's a strong case that she should drop out, for her good, the good of the Democrratic Party, and the good of the country.

Numero Uno: SHE HAS NO MATHEMATICAL CHANCE OF WINNING. In her column, Ms. Schultz rails against

Male columnists, male politicians, male talking heads, male "surrogates" - all of them harrumphing that it's time for Hillary Clinton to stop it, just stop it, with all this talk of being president.
Who cares if the race is close? So what if millions of Americans believe their yet-to-be-cast votes matter? Voters, schmoters. When was this ever about them?

Of course, millions of Republican voters in her home state of Ohio believed their yet-to-be-cast votes should matter, but when the Republican primary on March 4 turned into a Snooze-a-thon, Ms. Schultz could not be heard to complain.

So here's the deal: Ms. Clinton is, in most people's estimation, irretrievably behind in states won, delegates committed and total votes cast.

The Iowa Electronic Markets, which has been much more accurate than pollsters at predicting winners and losers since 1988, has this illuminating chart:

Since January, Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the Democratic nomination have plummeted from better than 60% to less than 15%. That's a function of math and momentum, not male chauvinism.

Numero Two-O: IT'S TIME TO UNIFY THE PARTY. Every day Hillary Clinton continues her campaign -- especially the mean-spirited snarky one that's characterized the last two months -- is a good day for John McCain and the Republicans. McCain's been given a window to define himself before the Democrats can -- although, judging from his lackluster tour so far, he seems intent on blowing it.

Worse still, the attacks that McCain will use against Obama in the general election are being previewed and sharpened by the Clintons, much to the GOP's delight. Enablers like Connie Schultz will surely rejoin that it's good to Obama to face these attacks now; it strengthens him, makes him tougher, immunizes him for the general election.

Nonsense. What these attacks do is make McCain's job easier in the general election. Why should he run an ad in which he tells Americans that Obama is not ready to be Commander-in-Chief, when he can run an ad in which Hillary Clinton does his dirty work? Why should he run an ad in which he warns Americans to be afraid, very afraid, of a man whose middle name is Hussein and listens to Reverend Wright, when he can run an ad where Bill Clinton says the same things?

This is the fine mess that a continuation of the campaign, now that it's impossible for Hillary Clinton to win, will get us into.

So, Senator Clinton, stay in if you want to. It's your $109 million. But start running a positive campaign. Avoid complimenting McCain while back-handing Obama. Tell your husband not to question Obama's patriotism while praising McCain's. Contrast yourself with Obama, to be sure, but contrast both of you with the out-of-touch Republicans and their clueless standard-bearer.

UPDATE: Jonathan Chait covers much of the same ground in an essay in the New Republic.

UPDATE #2: Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos fame addresses the same issue in a Newsweek essay.

Election Day in Texas

What a beautiful day for voting!

I live in the Deep Eddy/Tarrytown area, west of MoPac and north of Lady Bird Lake. It was brisk (can you say c-c-c-c-cold?) this morning as we set up at O. Henry Middle School. But our hearts were warm as we set up a table, posted yard signs and other Obam-art, and started greeting early morning voters. We were the first people there to set up signs, although a few judicial candidates were close behind.

We were joined by some great volunteers from our neighboring Precinct 210 and by some college students from San Diego who are volunteering for the Obama campaign. I have been amazed by all the people I've met -- lawyers from New York, moms from Colorado, students from all over -- who've donate their time and energy to the Obama campaign in Texas. Is this a great country, or what?

There were a bunch of early morning voters, and then a steady stream of people coming in all morning. According to some of the election judges who've walked out and visited with us, the turnout is running about 7-1 Democratic. We'll have updated turnout numbers later.

About 10:00 a.m., some nice people from the Hillary Clinton campaign came and set up a little ways from us.

There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for the precinct convention tonight. We've been reminding Obama supporters to come back later and participate.

Volunteers Leslie Ragland and Paul Underbrink spreading the good word about Barack Obama.

Barack Obama: We Are The Ones

Will.i.am has put together another inspiring music video, this one to a song he wrote called "We Are The Ones." As before, the CEO of Inspiration is Barack Obama.

Barack Obama: Faith In Texas

This is a new video, called "Faith In Texas," produced by Barack Obama supporters and featuring a montage of Obama events in Texas, with plenty of supporter pictures and even some great pictures of the candidate himself.

Here's what I like about the video:
1) It's about Texas and Texans.
2) It's about Barack Obama and his movement in Texas.
3) It has that great music from the movie "Rudy," which for my money is the best movie about Notre Dame football ever made. I spent my first two years of college at Notre Dame, at about the same time Daniel 'Rudy' Ruettiger was there. Those were heady days -- the campus had just gone co-ed, Notre Dame beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to win the national championship, and three weeks later snapped UCLA's 88-game basketball winning streak.

It's about six minutes long, but worth every second. Enjoy!



Hat tip to the Texas Observer blog for the link.

Caroline Kennedy in Austin

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John Kennedy, appeared in Austin today in support of Barack Obama. The event was held at Serrano's Restaurant as Symphony Square, only a few blocks east of the Capitol.

Ms. Kennedy spoke of her reasons for supporting Barack Obama, including the enthusiasm of her teenage children. She spoke of her father's legacy of a more idealistic nation. She also spoke as a woman and addressed why she thought Barack Obama would make a better president.

A couple of pictures from the event:

A standing-room only crowd, and a (TV camera) rig count of at least three awaits Caroline Kennedy in the 87-degree Texas sun.

Caroline Kennedy addresses a crowd of about 150 at Symphone Square in Austin.

Barack Obama: Boogie Back To Texas

I already posted about the Obama event at the Austin Music Hall on Thursday evening. Barack Obama came by and visited a crowd of 500 supporters who'd watched the CNN/Univision debate and then enjoyed some fine Texas music.

After Obama's speech, he shook hands with many supporters, then returned to the stage to thank the entertainers. Even though he mispronounced Joe Ely's name, he charmed the crowd and ended up singing a call-and-response "Boogie Back To Texas" with Ray Benson.

Check out the YouTube video below: