Monday Newsbreak: 2/11

--The Super Tuesday primary results did nothing but tighten up the Democratic presidential race, but on the Republican side John McCain won enough contests and delegates to eventually convince his main competitor Mitt Romney to drop out of the race. The extreme irony of the campaign season is that the actual President, George W. Bush, has been buried in the news by personalities who presently have no real power to determine American policies from an Executive Branch level. Even Bush's important Middle East trip a few weeks ago seemed to be overshadowed to a large part by the campaign. But some working within the McCain campaign organization are considering a possible involvement by our current President on his behalf in the campaign. I may be wrong, but if they want to use President Bush to help out McCain, they need to do it sooner instead of later to help bring disaffected conservatives over to McCain (earlier) and to deemphasize the Bush connection (later) during the general campaign to bring over Democrats and Independents.

--An ominous report has come out revealing that this year's flu vaccine has missed many of the strains that are spreading across the United States. And several of the states are currently experiencing very high flu outbreaks. So far, my Florida is one of the few states that are relatively unscathed by flu. Let's hope it stays that way, and not just for my sake. After all, Florida is a state full of the elderly, and they are the people the most endangered by influenza.

--Concurrent with the February 5 Super Tuesday evening election returns was a deadly plague of tornadoes that descended on Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee, causing at last report 56 deaths. It seems that severe winter frontal storms have affected this general area many times over the past few years.

--The National Basketball Association team that I support, the Phoenix Suns, just made a make-or-break major trade with the Miami Heat, picking up the legendary-but-aging Shaquille O'Neal in exchange for star Suns player Shawn Marion and another teammate. I'm really going to have to see one of those late-night Suns game to see the on-court dynamic between the great Steve Nash and Shaquille. These are already my two favorite players, and now they're both on my favorite team. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...