Opportunity Has Landed

“Second Rover Lands Successfully on Mars”
CNN had brief coverage of the “landing.” It’s great landing a rover on a planet 100 million miles away and all that, but the thing that fascinated me the most was watching a group of middle-aged science engineers jumping around like a group of eight-year-olds celebrating extra recess.

Favorite Republicans

Democratic presidential candidates were asked who their favorite living Republican is:

Wesley Clark: Rollie Rimmel, a friend from Little Rock, AR.
Howard Dean: Former New Hampshire Sen. Warren Rudman.
Sen. John Edwards: Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Sen. John Kerry: Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan.
Sen. Joe Lieberman: Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Al Sharpton: Syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams.

I’m sure it was just a coincidence that four of the candidates named someone who has done well in a past New Hampshire election.
Kucinich + Pat Buchanan? I thought the Iowa alliance with John Edwards was odd.

Exercising the Franchise

The national media is currently focused on New Hampshire, awaiting Tuesday’s primary. But here in Tennessee the primary action is already on. And, from what I saw yesterday, the contest could get hot and heavy.
Last primary I waited until election day evening to vote. Big mistake. Thanks to the long lines, it took me at least 45 minutes to get through. So yesterday I decided to do the cool thing and vote early.
Armed with voter registration card in hand, I proceeded to the Down Town West shopping center. I wasn’t sure exactly where the precinct was, bit there were ample “vote here” and candidate campaign signs to guide me.
I swung open the front door and was greeted by a 12-15 member gray brigade of election volunteers, each manning a designated station. A puffy-haired woman at the front table boldly waved me over, as if she had discovered an opening for me through the mayhem. I was the only voter in the room.
After proving that I could indeed sign my name three times, I was directed to a booth. The booth attendant glanced at my form as if he’d never seen one before, then motioned me inside the hood. I glanced at the ballot panel and waited for its display lights to awake up. And I waited for the lights. And I heard the booth guru on the other side muttering something about a district. And I waited some more. More muttering.
Finally, after waiting almost a minute in my curtained world, the board lit up. Well, not exactly. Turns out I only had two races to vote on–no wonder it took so long.
The first decision, Democratic presidential preference, was straightforward: no mystery there.
Then I discovered I was also supposed to vote in a school board district contest–between two contestants I didn’t know a thing about. What to do? Flip a coin? Alphabetical order?
I decided to select based on name recognition. I recalled seeing a sign for candidate A at a house along my jogging route. But then I remembered I had just received a brochure from candidate B in the mail–though I had not read it. Yard sign or mailing? I went with the latter. Isn’t democracy great?
After rechecking the screen twice (I always fear I’ll accidentally select the wrong candidate) I hit “Vote” and prepared to exit the booth. But the booth keeper was still discussing about something behind the control box. I waited for him to emerge to ensure my selection had registered–every vote counts!–then headed toward the door.
I glanced back as I exited–still no voters there. But the 12 election assistants seemed to be busily working on something or other at their posts. I wonder what they do all day.

Estimating Spending

The National Taxpayers Union has conducted a study estimating the spending increases necessary to fund the Democratic presidential candidates’ policy proposals.
I wouldn’t put much stock in the study’s raw figures because estimating them entails two levels of speculation: (1) some of the proposals are so vague it’s hard to figure out exactly what they call for; and (2) even if the policy requirements are explicit, it’s difficult to estimate their actual costs. Just consider how well the Bush administration has done in assembling reconstruction cost estimates for Iraq.
Nonetheless the study might shed some light by showing how the candidates stack up relative to each other. Here are the annual spending numbers it assigns (in billions):
Sharpton $1,327
Kucinich $1,060
Kerry $265
Dean $222
Clark $220
Edwards $199
Lieberman $169
If you exclude Sharpton and Kucinich, the range between the remaining candidates isn’t extremely large.
There’s further analysis for each contender at the link above.