Unconventional Wisdom

I don’t claim at all to be either a Republican or a Democrat, but to be honest I wonder if this type of activity actually hurts a particular party than it helps…

Some interesting voting patterns have emerged from Sangamon County, giving credence to county GOP Chairman Libri’s claim shortly after the Feb. 5 primary that many Republicans were crossing over to affect the Democratic race.

Of the more than 21,000 people who filled out Democratic ballots in the primary, 2,200 had always voted in GOP primaries before. But of the nearly 19,000 people who voted Republican, only 340 of those people had always voted in Democratic primaries before.

Thus, it appears the crossover rate of Republicans voting Democratic was much higher than those crossing over the other way.

Shortly after Feb. 5, Sangamon County Democratic Chairman TIM TIMONEY said the results showed that Obama drew votes. But Libri said then that many Republicans told him they told him they pulled Democratic ballots to vote against U.S. Sen. HILLARY CLINTON, D-N.Y. Libri said at the time he actually hoped Clinton wins the Democratic nomination because he thinks she would be easier to beat than Obama.

Since that time, Libri has come to learn of the movement by some conservative talk-show hosts to encourage Republicans to vote Democratic for GOP ends. He believes it was going on back then, though one commentator, DANTE CHINNI, writing in the online version of The Christian Science Monitor, said RUSH LIMBAUGH turned his attention to the Democratic contest only after his own choice for the nomination, Republican MITT ROMNEY, dropped out of the race, which was Feb. 7.

“Under a plan he calls ‘Operation Chaos,’ Mr. Limbaugh urges his listeners to vote for … Clinton for the purpose of dragging on the Democratic Party’s primary season as long as possible,” Chinni wrote last week.

Limbaugh explained his tactic in a Feb. 29 interview with LAURA INGRAHAM on Fox News.

“Our nominee is chosen,” he said. “It’s John McCain. … And I want Hillary to stay in this, Laura. This is too good a soap opera. We need Barack Obama bloodied up politically. … I want the Democrats to lose. They’re in the midst of tearing themselves apart right now. It is fascinating to watch, and it’s all going to stop if Hillary loses.”

Libri thinks the talk hosts may have urged votes either for Obama or Clinton, but either way, it’s clear something has been up recently, and he considers it vindication of his statements that good Republicans in Sangamon County were taking Democratic ballots.

Libri also thinks the situation bolsters his objections to an open primary, in which primary voters wouldn’t have to publicly declare their party. He has said in the past that he believes such a system would make it even easier for voters of one party to meddle in contests of the other party.

It seems like a bad idea if you’re supposed to be the other guys. Besides, isn’t the number of partisan ballots pulled an indicator of party strength? If so then these kinds of tricky politics are bad.

Of course Rush is right McCain is the nominee. He’s garnered enough votes to do so. Of course when Illinois voted (this story is out of Springfield, IL) it wasn’t as obvious. There was no clear winner!

If you want to make this a horse race, where Republicans forsake a Republican ballot only to vote for the more favored Democrat who it is believed is easier to beat or because you don’t like someone on the other side, you’re certainly not helping your cause. Of course things are different when a party gets their own house under control. In which case mettle all you want.

I got this update over at InstaPundit. If this is a foregone conclusion this could mean a new day in Zimbabwe. Of course this will mean nothing if the new guy is unwilling to let power go after 28 years.

The main opposition party and independent observers said today that President Robert Mugabe was suffering a resounding defeat as election results were tallied, but no official returns were released and capital was rife with speculation that they were being rigged.

Tension was high in the capital, Harare, with police deployed on most corners as the delay in announcing results from Saturday’s balloting wore on. Usually, the first official results are released within hours of the polls’ closing.

There were unconfirmed reports that key ministers and Mugabe loyalists lost their seats in parliament.

In a briefing to diplomats, independent election observers said that with 66% of the vote counted, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, had 55% of the vote. Mugabe, 84, had 36% and ruling party defector Simba Makoni had 9%, it said.

Tsvangirai’s party said that with 12% of the polling stations reporting, he was winning 67%.

The estimate was based on figures posted at individual polling stations after election officials had signed off on them, the first time such counts have been posted under recent reforms to election law.

“The wave of change was too strong,” said one shocked official of the ruling ZANU-PF, who lost his seat. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

I’ve heard about this story where they made this a case of state’s rights vs. rulings of the world court vs. the jurisdiction of the President of the United States. Here’s a story by the Houston Chronicle…

President Bush overstepped his authority when he ordered a Texas court to reopen the case of a Mexican on death row for rape and murder in Houston, the Supreme Court said today.

In a case that mixes presidential power, international relations and the death penalty, the court sided with Texas 6-3.

Bush was in the unusual position of siding with death row prisoner Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican citizen whom police prevented from consulting with Mexican diplomats, as provided by international treaty.

An international court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row around the United States violated the 1963 Vienna Convention, which provides that people arrested abroad should have access to their home country’s consular officials. The International Court of Justice, also known as the world court, said the Mexican prisoners should have new court hearings to determine whether the violation affected their cases.

Bush, who oversaw 152 executions as Texas governor, disagreed with the decision. But he said it must be carried out by state courts because the United States had agreed to abide by the world court’s rulings in such cases. The administration argued that the president’s declaration is reason enough for Texas to grant Medellin a new hearing.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, disagreed. Roberts said the international court decision cannot be forced upon the states.

The president may not “establish binding rules of decision that pre-empt contrary state law,” Roberts said. Neither does the treaty, by itself, require individual states to take action, he said.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.

The international court judgment should be enforced, Breyer wrote. “The nation may well break its word even though the president seeks to live up to that word,” he said.

Justice John Paul Stevens, while agreeing with the outcome of the case, said nothing prevents Texas from giving Medellin another hearing even though it is not compelled to do so.

“Texas’ duty in this respect is all the greater since it was Texas that — by failing to provide consular notice in accordance with the Vienna Convention — ensnared the United States in the current controversy,” Stevens said.

Medellin was arrested a few days after the killings in Houston of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, in June 1993. He was told he had a right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, but the police did not tell him that he could request assistance from the Mexican consulate.

Medellin, who speaks, reads and writes English, gave a written confession. He was convicted of murder in the course of a sexual assault, a capital offense in Texas. A judge sentenced him to death in October 1994.

Texas acknowledged that Medellin was not told he could ask for help from Mexican diplomats, but argued that he forfeited the right because he never raised the issue at trial or sentencing. In any case, the state said, the diplomats’ intercession would not have made any difference in the outcome of the case.

State and federal courts rejected Medellin’s claim when he raised it on appeal.

Then, in 2003, Mexico sued the United States in the International Court of Justice in The Hague on behalf of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row in the U.S. who also had been denied access to their country’s diplomats following their arrests.

I wrote about that election yesterday. I should check to see if there is any results yet. People there are said to be unhappy about President Robert Mugabe, but Mugabe even after 28 years in power isn’t ready to give it up yet. From the Washington Post…

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday branded Zimbabwe’s president a “disgrace” to his people and to Africa, and expressed concerns about verifying whether the country held free and fair elections.

Rice, in the Mideast for peace talks, made the harsh comments after voting Saturday in Zimbabwe that presented Robert Mugabe with the toughest challenge to his 28-year rule. The main opposition party on Sunday claimed an early lead; preliminary results were expected by Monday.

“We’ve made very clear our concerns about how this election might be conducted, given the very bad record of Mugabe concerning his people, the opposition and the region,” Rice told reporters after meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

“We’ve tried to make a case … that there needed to be free and fair elections in Zimbabwe as much as it was possible. It’s difficult since really no international observation was allowed,” the top U.S. diplomat said.

“But really, the Mugabe regime is a disgrace to the people of Zimbabwe and a disgrace to southern Africa and to the continent of Africa as whole,” she said.

Zimbabwe had barred observers traveling from the United States and the European Union and several international media organizations. The State Department said Friday the U.S. would field almost a dozen poll watchers for the elections and would report afterward on the electoral process and the results.

You might have seen Pastor David Manning before. He had this vid circulation around the internet on YouTube and now he found his way onto Hannity and Colmes recently. Videos are embedded.

The man whom Barack Obama based a speech off of is not living up to expectations as Governor of Massachussettes. From JustOneMinute.

From The State of…, adding context with the full sermon with extra content than what most of us have seen on the 24 hr news channels out there. I guess I’m with him on one thing, Government can fail. Take this to heart for those of you who think Government is the answer to everything.