PA primary, and a question for Bostonians

[cellio]

No surprises here -- with 99.3% counted Clinton won PA by 8.6% (54.3 - 45.7) (full results here), enough to continue an increasingly-ugly fight but not the clear win she needed in order to be viable. Obama isn't much affected; a win would have helped him but everyone expected him to lose, so a loss doesn't seem to hurt. Apparently she got the older rural white vote and he got the younger urban black vote, as everyone expected. I wonder if months of arguing about demographics will be better or worse than months of mud-slinging? Though I guess after the people are done voting, with no winner, things might change. I do wish that, in the absence of news in one area, the online media were more inclined to report actual news in other areas. (I'm glad my dead-tree newspaper still does a reasonable job of that.)

Some folks have been claiming that the media are biased against Clinton. I don't see it, really; there's plenty of bias against Obama too. Who actually believes that "the media" speak with one voice? It's important to use multiple news sources precisely because they don't. But for those who claim an anti-Clinton bias, what's with reporting this as a win by 10%? At best you can round (legitimately) to 9. (While I was writing this the site updated, now reporting 54.6 to 45.4. That's still not 10% unless you do your math by rounding one number and then substracting from 100 to get the other. I could see some sloppy reporters doing that, but those weren't the published numbers this morning when I saw 10% headlines.)

In unrelated news... friends in Boston, is this report accurate? (Link from Metahacker on LJ.) Legislation is pending to restrict public movement of people suspected of being gang members -- sponsored by Democrats? WTF? That seems really out of character for most Democrats at all, let alone New England Democrats. Or is this some sort of trick where you introduce a bill you know can't pass to get some of your constituents off your back, while hoping other people see what you're doing and don't hold it against you?

Comments

[siderea]

sponsored by Democrats? WTF?

The dominant party always attracts assholes, the guys who just want power and will affiliate with whatever party they think will get them there. So yes, here in MA, Democrats.

One interesting non-obvious-to-the-outside wrinkle: the sponsor is from Charlestown. Charlestown is the white... neighborhood (will get back to this in a moment)... with the really bad gang problem. Charlestown was the setting, and, really, main character of the movie "Mystic River", which has some freaky cultural veracity in it.

Charlestown is, geographically, a walled city-within-the-city. There are only five roads in/out. It is geographically separated and culturally differentiated (see "Mystic River".) Much has been written about it's "code of silence" and the difficulty cops have of investigating crime there.

Frankly, it sounds like this would put Charlestown under a de facto state of martial law, which may be precisely what they have in mind.

Co-sponsor is from Brockton. I don't know anything about Brockton politics.

[sethg]

The dominant party always attracts assholes, the guys who just want power and will affiliate with whatever party they think will get them there.

And in MA, the Democratic party is very dominant. (One reason Republicans had been fairly successful at getting their folks in the governor's mansion is that the Democratic party machine put up hacks rather than strong contenders.)

See also Hall's Third Rule of Politics: "Constituency always beats consistency."

[cellio]

(One reason Republicans had been fairly successful at getting their folks in the governor's mansion is that the Democratic party machine put up hacks rather than strong contenders.)

Because the governor is that powerless (so why bother), or because the Dems have a blind spot?

[cellio]

One interesting non-obvious-to-the-outside wrinkle:

Indeed! I did not know that.

Frankly, it sounds like this would put Charlestown under a de facto state of martial law, which may be precisely what they have in mind.

Then they should consider doing so in Charlestown. (Yeah, I know -- preacher, choir.)