Year: 2013

In searching for overheated rants about Karl Rove, I came across this bit of revisionist history from Red State's Eric Ericson:

In Delaware, many conservative, myself included, made the conscious decision that it would be far better to have the Democrat win than Mike Castle because of what Castle would do whispering in the ears of Republican leaders. Few of us thought she could win. But Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint get particular blame for their endorsements, which totally ignores that those endorsements came when it was clear O’Donnell was on a glide path to victory in the primary as Delaware Republicans were rejecting Mike Castle without much outside help from conservatives.

The original Constitution itself is silent on the right to vote. Indeed, in deferrence to the godforsaken "State's Rights" faction, the Constitution leaves the determination of voting qualifications to each individual state. So while the 15th Amendment referred for the first time to a "right to vote" and prohibited the states from denying or abridging that right to vote on account of race, states still had significant power to deny that right to vote through literacy tests, poll taxes, and other forms of intimidation. So the 15th Amendment, and all subsequent voting Amendments (i.e. 19th (women) and the 26th (age of 18), are better understood as not establishing a right to vote but instead telling the states that you cannot deny the privilege to vote on account of race, religion, sex, or age. States were free to deny the vote in any other way they saw fit. And many states have tried to make voting as difficult as possible. Long lines, lack of polling stations, shortened registration deadlines, prohibition on felons voting, and harsh residency requirements are all examples. So a Constitutional Amendment is required to not only explicitly spell out that right to vote, but to take away the ability of the states to deny the previous privilege to vote.

NATIONAL--PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL--ABC News-Washington Post: President Obama "has advanced to his highest personal popularity since his first year in office, and Americans who've formed an opinion of his second inaugural address last week broadly approve of it." TEXAS--PRESIDENT--Public Policy Polling: Hillary Clinton 46, Marco Rubio 45; Clinton 45, Chris Christie 43; Clinton 50, Rick Perry 42

[Clinton] has a +7 favorability rating (50/43) with Texas voters and strong support among moderate voters—72% view her favorably, and she crushes her potential GOP opponents among this voting group. “If Clinton is the 2016 nominee, she could conceivably expand the electoral map for Democrats in deep-red Texas,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling.

I'm 100% picking Super Bowl winners over the past five years. Here is a recap:

XLIII February 1, 2009 Steelers v Cardinals Or, a steelworker vs non-raptor birds. No contest. Cardinals fans should be prepared to never win a Super Bowl unless realignment has them facing off against the Browns one day. XLIV February 7, 2010 Saints v Colts People think Saints are good natured, but a great many were genuine bad asses. Think St Sebastian, who is the patron saint of tailors because the Romans had to load up his body with 50 arrows to get him to die. (Thereby giving him the appearance of a pin cushion... get it? Okay, I don't assign patron saints to things. ) Also, a Colt is a baby horse. So, a baby anything v a full grown anything is a prohibitive underdog. XLV February 6, 2011, Packers v Steelers This was a tough one but Packers are used to sawing live cows in half with bandsaws, and casually emptying blood out of their boots while grabbing a smoke at break-time. Living with that kind of gore day in and day out affects the mind. XLVI February 5, 2012 Giants v Patriots The Tea Party has doomed the Patriots. They will not see another Lombardi trophy until the ashes from the tea party are scattered and people go back to thinking of patriots as patriotic heros - not as unhinged weirdos. Plus Giants are giant and virtually unbeatable vs normal sized humans.

Which brings us to this year.