Monday Newsbreak: 1/14

--Last Tuesday's New Hampshire Democratic Primary results brought about two particular interpretations that are, in my opinion, slaps in the faces of the voters. As you may already know, Hillary Clinton, after leading there in the public opinion polls, had slipped considerably and was trailing her main rival, Barack Obama, by as many as 12 percentage points in polls taken close to the primary date. But when the actual votes were counted, she had narrowly won. Almost immediately, analysts began to spin the results. One spin claimed that while many white voters may have publicly proclaimed their support for African-American Obama, once they were within the anonymity of the voting booth, they switched to Clinton. This implied racism has no basis in fact. The other insulting spin was that Hillary broke down in tears on the day before the voting, and this caused women to get angry and come out in droves to her defense. Neither of these explanations are proven, and I suspect that those who are dwelling on them may just be trying to belittle the Clinton victory. There may be another explanation for the Clinton surge that I have yet to hear anyone express. And that is that there are a lot of people who really have faith in Hillary's ability to lead this country, but felt unsure about expressing this feeling publicly. That explanation (which is mine) is also unproven, but I think that it is more accurate than the others I've heard.

--Former Democratic Presidential nominee (1972) George McGovern has written an editorial piece calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush. He claims that Bush violated the Constitution, national, and international law. McGovern describes the incredible costs of the undeclared war in Iraq in terms of both lives and money. He points out that the treatment of foreign prisoners has featured torture and deprivation of fundamental due process. And he reminds us that the pretext given for the Iraq War was built upon the deceit that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms. McGovern then questions the President's recent bellicose position toward Iran and its nuclear weapon program when he already knew that it had ceased in 2003. The former South Dakota Senator also decries Bush's mismanagement of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. And finally, he sites the President's selective interpretation of the law (FISA) regarding the wiretapping of thousands of American citizens. For my part, I compare all this with the reasoning used to impeach President Clinton in 1999. The evidence against Bush dwarfs anything that anyone had against Clinton, who was basically caught lying about a consensual sexual affair he had.

--There seems to be a difference of opinion among economists as to whether the U.S. has entered a recession or not. It's interesting that, after a recession has ended for a while, economists usually place its beginning and end earlier in time than when people thought it was occurring. One of the reasons that I think this is so is because workers and consumers are usually among the last to feel the effects of a recession's conclusion.

--Earlier this week, a 70+ vehicle pile-up accident occurred on a stretch of Interstate-Four near Lakeland (between Tampa and Orlando) and included some fatalities. The cause of the multiple accidents, which was severe fog combined with smoke from a foolishly executed controlled burn nearby, made vision virtually impossible. A couple of days earlier, I ran into some severe fog myself driving home from work. Pretty scary stuff, I must say, when you're going down the road at 40 mph and suddenly can't see anything but whiteness around you!

--There's a good chance that the New England Patriots may go undefeated and win the Super Bowl this year. But whether they do or not, there is one very overriding factor in their success that they share with the 1972 "perfect" Miami Dolphins: the members of both teams, on both their offensive and defensive squads, played as a single unit, and were characterized by unselfishness and devotion to the greater good of the team.