My day started off with anger and frustration and was eventually vindicated by common sense from Trenton.
I went to vote in the historic primary this morning and was told by the volunteer officials that I was registered as a republican. Since this had happened to me previously in the June 2007, legislative primary, I was livid. I had filled out the form for the provisional ballot last June and declared that their records were in error. I thought that was the end of it, until this morning when I found out nothing had changed.

Continue reading "What A Mess!" »

Posted by moviejunkie at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just received my presidential primary sample ballot on in the mail, featuring all the front-runners as well as the also-rans. I hope Fred D. Thompson returns to his acting career and that Ron Paul continues to try and prove he’s really a republican. Mike Huckabee and John Edwards are intelligent, capable politicians and Rudy peaked way too soon.
As for the big three — John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — Super Tuesday is looking very interesting indeed. New Jersey is a shared delegate state, meaning that if Obama and Clinton are tied, they split the delegates. According to thegreenpapers.com, “70 district delegates are to be allocated proportionally to presidential contenders based on the primary results in each of 20 ‘delegate districts.’

Continue reading "Campaign Bytes" »

Posted by moviejunkie at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After John McCain won the South Carolina primary, he looked different. My mom wondered if he hired a better make-up artist. He looked younger, stronger and confident enough to take the lead for the republican nomination and hold onto it. It will be very interesting to see if McCain can gain the full support of the republican regulars when he is positioning himself as an “outsider” and independent thinker. His position on the war in Iraq will be a tough sell for a nation that is tired of a conflict that is dragging on with on end in sight, despite the apparent effectiveness of the most recent surge.
On the democratic side, Hillary Clinton has survived the Obama win in Iowa and has made it clear that she has enough support from the democratic base to surge back into the lead. Her win in Nevada was solid and showed that women are still supporting her. Obama looked like he was ready to push past Clinton, but the voters applied the brakes in New Hampshire and Nevada.
New Jersey’s participation in Super Tuesday is looking more interesting every minute as the 22-state super primary takes place two days after the Super Bowl. But first up comes Florida. It’s wonderful that everything is so up in the air. Recent primary elections have been decided in the past long before New Jerseyans voted, but not this time. Best of all is the news that voters are turning out in record numbers for the primaries. That is the most important consequence of these tight races; voters really feel like they can make a difference this time around.

Posted by moviejunkie at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I skipped the Sixers game last night because the New Hampshire primaries were a more interesting game on the tube. Hillary really did look more human, and put the Democratic Party on notice that Obama's Iowa win did not mean he was going all the way without a fight. This will make for a very interest next few weeks, especially when New Jersey joins the fray during Tsunami Tuesday on Feb. 5.

Posted by moviejunkie at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I actually took a break from football on Saturday to check out the presidential debates on ABC. After the unexpected results in Iowa, the race is a lot more interesting. First though, enough with the “We need change” rant. Just like a certain commercial, that’s a true “Duh” moment. I know all their handlers (especially Hillary’s) told them to say “change” every other sentence, but enough already! We get it.
I’m a registered democrat and when Barack Obama announced, I thought, "good, he’ll gain experience for his next attempt at the nomination." Iowa really changed that. His time might be now, so much so that Hillary and Bill are running scared. That said, both Obama and Ms. Clinton aquitted themselves well at the debate. So did John Edwards but despite is second place in Iowa, he’s going nowhere. Yes, I’m going to bring up the “e” word, experience. Obama does need more seasoning, but after seven years of Bush, Jr., experience isn’t looking like such as important factor. He sure as hell didn’t improve with more experience in the job that he stole in 2000 with those hanging chads in Florida. Maybe on the job training would be better than a seasoned politician who knows where to obtain all the money from special interests and returns the favors. My only concern would be whether he can he win; we can’t be stuck with a Republican again. This really has turned into a race; maybe New Jersey’s participation in the Meet The Press-coined "Tsunami Tuesday" is relevant now.
Stay tuned America.
P.S. How did Ron Paul get elected as a Republican?

Posted by moviejunkie at 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)