From Al Giordano, our newest side-bar denizen, we give you this story of a flood of Biblical proportions… well, a political earthquake of 40 delegates and/or super-delegates (epicentered on California Congressman Cardoza) now committed to back Clinton will soon be announcing their support of Obama. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t, but right now… that’s probably how you bet.
I noted that after Obama held serve on North Carolina/Indiana night, the last big distribution of pledged delegates in primary season, the super-delegates would start breaking for Obama. And indeed they have; right now, 23 May 2008 at around 2100 EDT, at least according to Democratic Convention Watch, Obama is just 56 delegates away from clinching, with Clinton nearly 5 times that distance.
I said to a Clinton supporter just today that if I were Sen. Clinton, I personally wouldn’t withdraw until Obama had finally locked it up; politix is funny and one never knows when they’ll be this close again. Anything can happen, as this year (and indeed, the very rise of Obama from recent-state-legislator to the cusp of the Presidency, and the amazing fall of some other politicians including Clinton herself and some other guy from New York) should be more than a sufficient justification for her to hang in there.
Of course, while anything can happen, talking about certain contingencies is in uniquely bad taste, but then, Sen. Clinton and Team Clinton have been shooting themselves in the foot for some time, have they not?
Still and all, it seems unlikely that Sen. Obama will be going to his (and my) 25th college class reunion in Morningside Heights next week… I’ll likely go anyway… even as I have been having more repressed memories of the younger Barry Obama return to me… or have I? Well, perhaps I’ll discuss with fellow alums… all men (Columbia’s last such class, btw).
Well, no matter. It seems we have our nominee, and whenever he sees fit, we will have our ticket, locked and loaded, and on track for a historic election. And if Sen. Obama does get himself elected President of the United States, his predecessor will have handed him one hell of a job to do. But I have every confidence that Sen. Obama would be up for that job. We will see. The fact that our nation’s largest political party’s rank and file have chosen a woman and a man of color as its front-runners tells us that large parts of this country have already come a hell of a long way. Now, as that party gets ready to unify behind its candidate (and no matter what some say, Sen. Clinton will withdraw in a most gracious manner shortly after either Puerto Rico or South Dakota/Montana push Sen. Obama over the top), we will see just how far the nation as a whole has come.
tdog
I’d love to hear the ruminations at that reunion. Especially if any are true. 😉
I am class of 71CC. Cool that you were in his class. My impression is that he did not have a super time at Columbia since he transfered in for his last two years and was not assigned to a dorm but rather to an apartment off campus. He has described his time there as monastic.
By the way, if you transfer in for your last two years, how do you manage to take any classes other than basically the Core? I assume you cannot get the Columbia BA without completing those requirements….
Anyway, it will be very interesting to see if there are any of your classmates who remember him….Please keep us informed….
Good question, Jim. Of course, I was only in the college three years myself; they did let me count APs to place out of the science, language, English and Art Humanities requirements (thus costing myself likely A’s in a number of areas!), which still freed me up to take enough credits for a double-major in poli sci and econ (though I only declared in poli sci, and int. pol. at that… just like the suspiciously unfamiliar Barry O.! I wonder if he too was in that large Brzezinski seminar… ZB now seems to be a key advisor of his… hmmm…)
I would imagine Barry still had to take CC and Lit Hum, and maybe Art and Music, but they probably let him get away with counting science, English, foreign language and a lot of distributional stuff and part of his major from his first two years at Occidental (that would be my guess).
The one thing I’m sure of is that they made him pass a swimming test… being from Hawaii, I’m sure that was no problem for him!
Still, I’d like to know how he managed to be so invisible for two of the three years I was there… well, when I get any intel on this, I will pass it on!!! [Of course, regardless, I’m guessing that your college days– incorporating all of 1968– were somewhat more interesting than my own… but there you go! That said, as to dear old ’83, which as noted, I jumped into via my AP’s, Barry would not only be the College’s first President, but he would join another of the class of ’83 in firsts–as Miguel Estrada was the first man to have his judicial nomination filibustered!]
And of course, the class of ’83 featured a big “last”… notably, it was Columbia’s (and hence, the Ivy League’s) last all male class.