This is more than a rush transcript, it will be a very rough one and you might have already caught on to that. Where are The Third Estate Sunday Review's Ava and C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review? They're working on their TV commentary. They usually take the notes so, again, rush and rough transcript it what you'll be reading. If there's an illustration, it was done by Betty's oldest son. Since Ava and C.I. aren't participating, we we thought we'd include some e-mails about Ava and C.I. in this. Ty?
Ty: Nikki wonders why the bi- and multi-racial community is "so important to Ava and C.I."?
Betty: Let me grab that one. Because those two communities are being tossed under the bus. Because no one else is willing to speak up for those communities. Because those communities already had to go up agains 'Black leaders' in the 90s and it was a hard battle but they won recognition and along comes Barack who could do so much to advance awareness but instead the half-White and half-Black Barack chooses to bill himself as "Black" and no one's supposed to question that. It's offensive. And when no one else will speak up, I think we all know Ava and C.I. will.
Rebecca: If I could just add to that, Elaine and I went to college with C.I. If there's a community being slighted, C.I.'s always been willing to speak out. I don't remember if it was student life or student association, but C.I. found out that one of them, C.I. was on both, was booking White speakers and acts --
Elaine: Student life.
Rebecca: Thanks. And this was even when it was a music genre that African-Americans had ownership of and excellence in. C.I. stood up and knew doing so was not going to go over well. It didn't go over well but the all White slate planned was cancelled. C.I. could care less if someone calls a mean or nasty name. In that instance, something needed to change and C.I. made it happen.
Elaine: Two things. First, Rebecca's not being too specific here and I won't either but I will note that supposed 'progressives' were happy to book all Whites and when C.I. challenged them it wasn't pretty. But as is usually the case, C.I. won. Second, C.I. would want it noted quote "I did not run for Student Association." C.I. didn't run. There was a write-in campaign that C.I. attempted to stop but wasn't able to. C.I. does not run for elected office. Ever. Student Association was an appointment. And C.I. made a point to be very clear that there would be no running for re-election for Student Association. That's why C.I. was more than willing to use everything to get the acts booked integrated. And I do mean everything. For example, calls home by Student Association members made from the campus office which were paid for by the student service fees all students had to pay. That's only one example. But C.I. never enters a fight without being fully prepared. Dona, you were Ava's roommate, why don't you answer in terms of her?
Dona: Ava experienced very real racism in New York. And it was a surprise to her. I'm just the wide-eyed woman from the Mid-West. I had no idea what New York would be like or wouldn't be like. We'd been rooming together -- this is before we got our apartment -- for about three weeks when I said something like, "I don't want to bring up a sore spot, but it seems to me like there's a lot of racism being hurled at you." Ava hugged me and thanked me for noticing. You don't expect that from New York. Ava's a Latina and she has no roots to Mexico but it was constantly, "You must be Mexican." Or, "You're from California, you must be Mexican." And on the latter, Ava wouldn't just say no, she'd point out that if she were, she'd be Mexican-American. Elaine mentioned the racism of the progressive community and I'll say that, years later, that's where it was again coming from. We're out here in the Bay Area now and that's Ava's stomping grounds and it's just such a huge shift. And I can see how what happened would be very hurtful. And it happened over and over. So Ava hated it in New York and we were surprised she took so long to announce she was leaving. Like Rebecca and Elaine, I'm going to keep the cards close to the chest because I don't want to be telling Ava's business but I was shocked by what I saw at the time and, having now lived out here for some time, I'm even more shocked. It's such a world of difference and New York's supposed to be such a melting pot but that wasn't what Ava experienced.
Ty: I agree with what Dona said and Ava would talk to me repeatedly about not taking the homophobia which was also rampant. I was out before college and I certainly didn't expect that going to college in a 'cosmopolitan' area would be any problem. But Ava noticed when it was and, we all know Ava, if someone she loves is trashed, stand back because she's not taking it.
Dona: And that's a trait that Ava and C.I. share. They'll let it slide when they're trashed but if anyone comes after someone they love, they are ready to draw blood.
Mike: I'll note one more trait they share, they are both extremely private. When I interviewed Ava -- Dallas, don't look for a link -- it was like pulling teeth. The same when I interviewed C.I. They would laugh and offer some stuff worth me typing up but there are certain things they will not talk about.
Marcia: Like here with the John Edwards thing. I'm just noting that. I know Rebecca and Elaine also excused themselves from last week's feature so I'm not trying to bring that topic up in the roundtable. But in terms of what goes up here or up somewhere else, they can be very private. I also noticed something with both of them which is if you want to know something personal do not ask a direct question, they close up.
Rebecca: I just spewed my diet Dr. Pepper. Marcia nailed it on the head with that one. That's partly, for both of them, modesty and thinking there are more important topics to talk about then yourself and it's also true that they can get suspicious. It's the immediate response. You can see them both think, "Why is this person asking me that question?"
Jess: And they both will answer a question they don't want to answer by giving you a question. I can say that much. Maybe not more.
Jim: Jess is laughing. And for drive-bys who didn't get why Jess is more circumspect on that topic, he and Ava are a couple.
Ty: This is a C.I. question, or a question on C.I., from Cecil who writes that he "was disbelieving the talk about Talabani's heart troubles until the heart surgery broke this week." He's referring to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and since 2007 C.I. has written repeatedly about Talabani's heart problems.
Cedric: Ruth and I haven't spoken yet and Dona said for us to monitor ourselves so if Ruth wants to tackle that one, I'll wait for something else.
Ruth: Hmm. Okay. Well, we all know a number of things from C.I. and from Ava. And Elaine and Rebecca have their own working networks as well. I do not know that Cecil ever wrote in one of those "You're lying!" e-mails but that is why a lot more does not get shared. C.I.'s got friends in the State Department and I know where the news on that came from -- or the confirmation. They had heard about it from a student -- Ava and C.I. -- at a group they were speaking to on a Thursday. They were at my place Friday morning and C.I. was hunting down that news and I was diapering my grandson while C.I. was doing call after call. But take the 'action' going on in Diyala Province so far. It was a friend at the State Department that told C.I. it was a for-show action to make Nouri al-Maliki, the puppet known as prime minister, come off looking strong. C.I. confirmed that with friends stationed in Iraq.
Kat: I'll jump in because there's another perfect example. C.I. called out the myth of the great return. That broke over a weekend and C.I. wasn't paying much attention to it, the initial story. That's because we're all working on these editions and they take forever. So C.I. saw something on it Sunday and called a friend at a network about it. Then, on Monday, the puppet government was inflating the figures hugely from Saturday. So C.I. started calling friends with the UN and the Red Cross to find out what was happening. And what was happening was that lies were being passed off as truth. Which is why C.I. called it out in early November when it was first being hailed as a wonderful and amazing thing. It was weeks before anyone started questioning that -- in the media or online at sites. And there were these hideoous e-mails from pro-war people that screamed C.I. wouldn't admit any good news on Iraq.
Cedric: I'll jump in because that's what I was thinking of when Ty read Cecil's e-mail. C.I. ended up putting up at The Common Ills during that something like, "Look if I didn't want to promote good news, I'd just ignore it. This isn't good news, it's lies and if Iraqi refugees start believing it, it's a death sentence for them if they return." But between C.I., Ava, Elaine and Rebecca, we all know a lot more than we ever write about.
Ty: Michele e-mails that we have distanced ourselves from Larry Johnson of No Quarter just because "there are no tapes of Michelle Obama. And you make jokes about him all the time." "You" is C.I. Anybody?
Ruth: Susan UnPC e-mailed me what I wrongly assumed was a sincere e-mail. When I replied in kind and never heard a response, I first showed my e-mail to Marcia and Rebecca to see if I had written something offensive inadvertantly. She blogs at No Quarter. When it was obvious that my e-mail had been very nice, I was left with the obvious fact that she had been on a fishing expedition and left hoping I had not said anything revealing on anyone. That is when C.I. stopped highlighting No Quarter. That only continued after a community's members comments were deleted.
Wally: Deleted not for anything controversial but for linking to C.I. on something that, hours after she left her comments, No Quarter finally discovered. Marcia's covered this at her site.
Jim: I'll jump in on jokes. There are two 'jokes' about Larry Johnson at The Common Ills and I know that because I was present for both. In one, I typed it up. I might have typed up both but I think on the other I was just watching over C.I.'s shoulder. In one, C.I. had revealed something and this nasty e-mail came in saying, "Liar!" or something. The morning C.I. was writing, I saw that e-mail -- this is the one I added to -- and I told C.I. about that. That same morning the topic C.I. had revealed two or three days before was now in the news. But I believe I threw out the fact that the e-mail compared C.I. to Larry Johnson. It wasn't a slam at Larry Johnson and C.I. has always gone out of the way not to slam him. There was a chuckle in the second piece, where you can tell C.I.'s chuckling. The point there is not "Liar Larry Johnson!" In terms of the tape of Michelle, we don't think Larry Johnson lied. Whether the tape exists or not, Republicans have claimed it does. That's what Larry Johnson broke. He never said he had seen the tape. We knew about the tape. Back at the start of February, "Judge" -- community member who is a Republican and a judge -- wrote about it in his column for the gina & krista round-robin, how there were whispers that such a tape existed. Rebecca heard about it from her contacts, Ava and C.I. heard about it from their's. We have never called Larry Johnson a liar at any site. And we wouldn't call him a liar for the video tape ever. He never said he'd seen it, he said he had heard about it. And Judge was writing about it long before Johnson was.
Rebecca: Whether the tape exists or not, no one knows. Like Ava and C.I., I heard that Rudy G is the one who secured it. My first husband is very big in the RNC and that's who I heard it from. I have no idea which people told Ava and C.I. Rudy G was the one who secured the tape but I know they were told that as well. The story goes that Rudy G thought he was the inevitable nominee and spent his monies on opposition research for the general election. I have no idea whether that's true or not. I just know that's who it has been connected to. Or, his campaign, I should probably say. So Rudy G's campaign was shoring up for the general election and digging around for dirt on Barack, Hillary and John Edwards. Does the tape exist? I don't know. I'll tell you my first husband believes in it. I can tell when he's lying. I couldn't when we got married but I can now. Pain is a great teacher. I shouldn't say that. He's a nice enough man. We were incompatible for a number of reasons including the fact that he was gay but not ready to admit it then. We're on good terms now and have been since we divorced years ago. But, what was the person who wrote that e-mail?
Ty: Michele.
Rebecca: Michele's dead wrong. C.I. has never called Larry a liar. There'd be no reason to because we neither know that the tape exists or it doesn't. C.I.'s known Judge for years and the one reason they are so close is because they don't lie to each other about politics. If they talk after a debate, there's none of that "I'm going to spin it for my side." If the Dem lost, C.I. will certainly say so and Judge will say it if the GOP lost. My point there is if Judge, as connected as he is, knew about it by February, if I'd heard about it from my first husband, if Ava and C.I. heard about it from multiple sources, then it was being talked about. And since Judge was writing about it, I don't think anyone was trying to 'burn' Larry. I mean I don't think anyone told him that, fed it to him, so he'd take it public and they could then laugh about the rumor they got him to put out. Republican leadership firmly believes that tape exists. I don't know if Ava and C.I. have a source who's seen the tape, but I will state clearly my first husband has not seen it, he has only heard talk of it. As I remember the way Larry presented it, it was, "This is something Republicans say they have." If that's how he presented it, then he was correct. That's how I understand he presented it and that's how C.I. understands he presented it so C.I. would have no reason to call Larry a liar. Furthermore, Elaine and C.I. went out of their way, regarding the Weather Underground, to be respectful of all viewpoints -- including Larry's -- and not just say, "We know Bernardine and Bill! Back off!"
Ty: Marco wants to know, and this is for us here, I assume. I mean Dona, Jim, Kat, Jess. Wally and myself. Marco wants to know who cooks on the weekend and how we divy that up?
Jim: C.I. gives everyone the weekend off staff wise. If there's a party or event, it's catered. And if that happens, there's enough food left over that no one needs to cook. Saturdays, Ava, Kat, Wally and C.I. are usually not home, they fly in Saturday afternoon. I think we all fend for ourselves on Saturday mornings. We're more organized on Sunday mornings and rotate that out. In terms of meals on Saturday evening, we generally prepare something light and I say "we" because we're usually all in the kitchen catching up with Ava, C.I. and Wally. Kat as well if she's not dropped off at her place on the way back from the airport. But this Saturday night we chowed down. Wally?
Wally: Ava mentioned on the plane ride home that summer was almost over and she hadn't had ribs or brisket or any food associated with summer cook outs. Kat and I started talking about ribs. On the way back from the airport, we stopped and got a ton of ribs. C.I. cooked those. Jess is vegetarian so he'll have to take my word for it, they were wonderful. And I was watching in disbelief as C.I. was adding all the stuff -- onions, dry soup mix, a glass of soda, etc. -- before cooking them. They were perfect. The meat was so tender. And Dona and Jess made red potato salad. Also incredible. I did a three bean salad which is really all I know how to 'cook.' Jim and Ty were over the corn on the cobb and the baked beans. We're still chowing down on all of that. And Ava ended up fixing something for tomorrow night as did C.I. so I think that's taken care of. I don't know what they fixed though. But they were popping stuff into the oven.
Jess: And Ava made cole slaw for tonight as well.
Wally: Oh yeah. Sorry, not slighting her cole slaw. Or Kat's fudge! Which she fixed at her place and brought over. But the ribs were my favorite and I couldn't believe how good they turned out. I was more than a little suspicious of C.I.'s homemade sauce before I tasted them. Especially when C.I. poured a glass of soda on every set of ribs. A lot of Sundays we go out to eat dinner. Or order in. We're usually wiped out on Sunday. And Kat and I get off when everyone else does. Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. are up until everything's posted. Still editing, still adding things.
Kat: If it's going to be less than an hour, Wally or I will generally volunteer to start breakfast. If it's going to be longer than that -- or thought to be -- we'll go ahead and sack out. If we're already sacked out, one of them will make breakfast and we'll be awakened to see if we want to eat or just continue sleeping.
Ty: Okay, this is a question for Mike and Elaine, Jim and Dona, and Jess and Ava but Ava's not here. Samantha wants to know if it's easier to work on stuff together if you're involved -- a couple -- or if it's harder? Also, "if any couple broke up before the site went dark, would anyone bow out?"
Elaine: If Mike and I broke up, I would gladly take that as an excuse to no longer participate. This is time consuming. It can be a lot of fun; however, it is time consuming.
Mike: I'll let Elaine's comment stand for our total answer because she doesn't like to talk personally online.
Jess: Not unlike Ava. If Ava and I broke up before the site went dark would one of us leave? No. Ava can't leave. If she left, C.I. would have the full responsiblity of doing their TV commentaries and Ava wouldn't allow that to happen. The most she might do is just reduce her involvement to co-writing the TV pieces with C.I. In terms of me, I was here at the start and don't plan on going on anywhere. I don't know if Mike and Elaine talked about this or not at any point but Ava and I did and it was one of the potential problems that could come up if we started a relationship. We discussed it and both agreed that we would be adult about it and not talk about our personal problems when we were supposed to working on an edition.
Dona: Jim's pointing to me. No. Like Jess and Ava, we'd go on. We all have our place at this site -- that's true of everyone who helps out, by the way, and anyone would be missed -- and we've defined our role. I think a breakup would be more likely to threaten the site itself -- for Jim or me -- than it would threaten one of us dropping out. And if you want full honesty, if Jim and I broke up and it wasn't a mutal decision, the other would keep working for that reason. We'd be convinced that if we were only around each other, we could fix it -- whatever it was.
Jim: I'll agree with Dona 100% on that, especially the hang around thinking we'd get back together. In terms of Dona, Jess, Ava and myself, we were here before we were couples and we'd still be here if we each broke up. We have carved out our place. We wouldn't cede it. In terms of what Elaine said, I want to just note Elaine is the hostage blogger. Rebecca got her to fill in for her during the summer of 2005 by telling her at the last minute and Rebecca was hoping Elaine would want to do her own site. Elaine didn't want that. Mike launched a campaign with community members to persuade her to do a site. That's why Elaine has a site now. In terms of here, we brought Elaine in and had tried to before she was guest blogging for Rebecca. I don't think we ever interviewed Elaine, by the way. I think she repeatedly turned us down and one thing we always did was interview community members for a feature when they started their own site or newsletter. But we guilted Elaine into participating here and while we can survive any weekend she needs time off, it's also true that she adds much more than you're ever going to guess from any transcript piece. In these pieces, she tends to clam up unless she's angry about something. She contributes much more in the articles than many may be aware of.
Ty: Brandon wants to know -- Susan will be happy -- what we're listening to this edition.
Cedric: Let me start with that. Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, C.I., Kat and Wally are all together in California. I'm at my place and Betty's at her place. Rebecca, Mike, Ruth, Elaine and Marcia are at Mike's. So since we're on conference call, it would be very annoying if we all had something different playing in the background. What we do is generally rotate out who's playing music though in the last year and a half, we've left Mike's crowd out of the rotation due to Rebecca's baby and Mike's infant niece being at Mike's. Betty can spin some great tunes.
Betty: And my kids can sleep through music. But I've generally got Barry White, Sade, Joni Mitchell, etc. on. I'm not blasting out George Clinton or something like that.
Ty: I'm being pointed to. So this week, dee jay responsibilities are here. We've mainly listened, so far, to Dashboard Confessional's A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar. Mike wrote about Dashboard Confessional's new CD and that led to us all wanting to pull out the older CD. We've played it all the way through three times. In addition to that, Dona wanted to hear Aimee Mann's One More Drifter in the Snow which is a Christmas album. And we've also listened twice to Richie Havens Sings Beatles and Dylan.
Dallas: I want to jump in.
Jim: Go for it.
Dallas: It is 2:09 Sunday morning here in Texas and I've got the Olympics playing in the background. Barack's big ad buy during the Olympics? They just aired a commercial. All I caught was, "I'm Barack Obama and I approved this ad." I thought that was interesting and a not smart purchase.
Jim: Agreed. Dallas participates by phone from Texas. And rarely speaks. C.I. and Wally can get him to speak, the rest of us have no luck. And he's never wanted to jump in before. He can anytime he wants. What's the event, Dallas?
Dallas: Right now it's men's track, the 100 Meter.
Jim: Have you seen Barack throughout?
Dallas: That's honestly the first commercial of his I've caught. I'm watching it on our local NBC station. I've had it on since ten p.m.
Jim: Any John McCain?
Dallas: I haven't seen any tonight.
Marcia: Dallas, I want to comment but I'm not crowding in before you're done, am I?
Dallas: No, I'm done.
Marcia: Okay, Barack lost Texas. Forget the caucus, the general election's not going to be a caucus. It's going to be voting. Barack lost Texas voting to Hillary. And as I remember it from Wally and Cedric's reporting -- they were in Texas for something like six weeks, Barack repeatedly aired commercials during late night hours. Am I remembering that right?
Cedric: Yeah. We were always shocked. Right, Wally?
Wally: Yeah. We'd get back to the hotel around ten o'clock, and we were in various areas, we'd turn on the TV and maybe catch a little news but generally put it on a syndicated show, sometimes a cartoon, sometimes a sitcom. And there would be Barack. Especially during Family Guy. But he advertised during The Simpsons and Family Guy during the day as well.
Marcia: So, let me repeat, he lost Texas. And one of his strategies was this late night advertising.
Cedric: And early morning. I'd usually turn on the TV after I showered and get dressed and Wally would come knock on my door when he was up and ready. It would be five in the morning and the pre-news news would be on and you'd see him over and over.
Marcia: So he lost Texas and he's using the same 'strategy' in his Olympic buys in Texas that he used for the primary. My point here is that we have another John Kerry who can't learn from mistakes. I think that needs to be pointed out.
Betty: That's how it was in Atlanta, by the way. I'd have the kids to bed and be going around the house picking stuff up and going room to room, I'd get to the living room and turn off the TV and it seemed like I was always seeing his face on TV then.
Wally: I think Marcia's making a good point. How many people are watching the Olympics at this hour? I mean, after the opening ceremonies, the ratings cratered. Now here's Barack advertising early morning there and who's going to see it? Dallas saw it because he's up working with us. Is anyone else going to see it in large numbers? I agree with Marcia's point. The lesson from Texas is that Barack didn't work. It was him or Hillary, everyone else was out of the race. If he couldn't carry Texas in the Democratic primary, he can't carry it in the general election. I stand by that observation. I was there for six weeks. Dallas, am I wrong?
Dallas: No. And his support has cratered in Texas because it was generally the people who identified themselves as extremely liberal. FISA was a big deal down here, when he broke his pledge. He's lost a number people, attorneys especially, and he's not going to get them back. Cedric and I have talked about Texas and we both believe Hillary had a chance of carrying it in the general election. Ava and C.I. believe that as well.
Cedric: Yeah. That was based on the fact that Texas women will set party i.d. aside for other women. That's why they have one senator now that's a woman. Those votes didn't just come from Republicans. Ann Richards was a governor of the state, she lost her re-election to Bully Boy and Texas has had and has many mayors who are women. There's a real sense of pride in strong women in Texas. Add in that, I'm African-American so brothers and sisters were willing to talk "Black to Black" with me. A lot of them were feeling pressure to vote for Barack. There was a sense, and this is before the votes were counted, that they wouldn't turn out in the general. Barack had been to Texas, all over in fact, I know Reunion Arena was a big crowd for him. And that pumped up turnout for him. However, I heard over and over, especially from older African-American males, that if he wasn't doing personal appeareances a month before the election, he could forget Texas because his primary voters were not going to have the same mania. It was going to be more of a "I did my part" attitude. And true in Texas and true outside, a number of people who went to the polls for him in the primary were surprised to learn it wasn't the presidential eleciton. Sad but true. When Wally and I were checking out the day after the Texas primary, the clerk -- and she was African-American -- was sad because she'd voted him "for the president" and he lost. She had no idea, until we explained it, that she'd voted in a primary. That was the first primary she ever voted in. Barack's campaign is going to need to do a lot of voter education and not just with people showing up to support him in the coming weeks but also with people who supported him in the primary.
Marcia: That's a good observation and one that Betty and I have discussed on the phone because we've both seen it in our areas as well.
Ruth: Marcia was talking to me about polling this week and I think she has an interesting story there as well.
Marcia: I've talked about this here before and at my own site, but my mother's always polled. It's one of the newspaper and network's polls, I won't say which one. But my mother, who does not support Barack, always says she'll be voting for Barack. And, as I've said before, when I ask her about that, she explains she feels like the pollster will think she's a racist if she says no.
Rebecca: And Marcia's mother African-American!
Marcia: I probably should have noted that. Yes, I am African-American. But with the Barack campaign playing the race card repeatedly, I think the polls are off and we'll see that after the election. I doubt my mother is the only one not supporting Barack, she loathes Barack, who is answering pollster's question falsely out of fear of being considered some sort of racist or self-hater. Now maybe my mother's alone on that. But she's generally in step on other things.
Betty: I think it's very common and I think the Barack campaign has created that. There was a New York Times poll last week about, "Would you vote for Barack" that had a higher turnout than "Do you think most people would?" So what does that answer mean? It could mean any number of things. It could be evidenced of how Barack supporters think that they, like their Christ-child, walks on water and are so far evolved from the rest of us. It could mean that some saying they'll vote for him, really won't and don't want to say that. We don't know. But I do think it is very likely that, on election day, a lot of Barack's 'support' is not going to be there. Especially in the Black community because Dallas mentioned FISA but that attack on Black fathers, the most recent one, is not going away and has undermined him.
Jim: Is anyone else participating in any poll?
Mike: I'm polled by Zogby in e-mails but I haven't even opened one of those in forever.
Jim: I think Betty's right that the poll by The Times could be interpretered any number of ways and we just don't know.
Ty: And that's his fault for playing the race card over and over. If he hadn't done that, the question wouldn't be out there to the degree it is. Working class Whites were called "racists" for supporting Hillary, remember? So were Latinos. It's not a minor point. And it wouldn't be at all surprising if, after all of that, people felt they had to give false responses. If that is happening, it's very bad news for Barack who does not have a healthy lead over McCain and that's with what you could call the American vote. By that I mean, it includes hugely populated states. So the numbers really don't matter. There's no reason to pull all fifty states together in one poll. We don't elect presidents, we elect electors to the electoral college. What needs to be focused on is state polls. If X million in state A are spilling over into the national totals, it doesn't matter.
Dona: Ava has noted John McCain has real support among Latinos and I believe she's noted her two friends who are polled and say "Obama" but are in fact supporting McCain. They're not just going to vote for him, they're donating to his campaign. But what Ty's talking about is very valid. The popular vote across the nation doesn't matter. I believe the Supreme Court made clear in 2000 just how little the popular vote mattered. The issue is can he carry enough states that will award enough delegates to the electoral college? Let's say Michigan has 8 million people, I have no idea how many people that state has. But let's say it's going for Barack -- I'm not following the polls and have no idea if it will or not, I just scheduled Ava, C.I., Kat and Wally there to speak about Iraq, so it's on my mind. But let's say it will go for Barack and that it has 8 million voters and that 8 million voters makes it the third most populated state in the country. If Florida -- I'm looking at Wally who is from Florida -- has 6 million voters and only 1 million are supporting him, a national poll is lumping in the overage in Michigan and making it appear that Barack's stronger than he is because with only 1 million in Florida, he's not going to carry that state.
Jim: And that was one of the arguments for making Hillary the nominee. She carried the big states and "big" didn't mean most acres, it meant most populated. More people in the state means more delegates to the electoral college because they're assigned based on population. Hillary's campaign, her 18 million votes, demonstrated she could play the board. Barack's trying to reinvent the map and, no, he's not going to carry Texas. I'm basing that on Texas community members and their roundtable in the gina & krista round-robin last week. They talk about how they're writing in Ralph -- Ralph Nader -- and about how Barack supporters are drifting in their support and how Hillary supporters are not strong supporters of Barack. So forget Texas. Can he carry Florida? It's doubtful. That's based on Wally's mother, Wally's grandfather, Gina, Krista and Wally who all live in the state -- though Wally's living here now. But there is so much ill will towards him in Florida over his stunts and the fact that it has still not been decided that Florida will be seated. The 'Rules' Committee refuses to rule. And people in Florida are not idiots, they know Barack moved the DNC to Chicago. They know if he can do that, he can force the 'Rules' Committee to rule if he wants to. Now add in California which Hillary also won. She won Texas, Florida and California. Those are big states. I've gone with Liang to talk up Ralph's campaign in the Asian-American community. My piece on that is in Polly's Brew out today. Barack lost the Asian-American vote and the Latino vote here. Asian-Americans are very receptive to Ralph and also saying they might vote for McCain or not vote. It's very much like what Ava and Jess are seeing in the Latino community here. And not only does McCain have popularity with California Latinos, so does, believe it or not, Ahnuld and everyone knows the governor is going to get involved in getting out the vote. Maria Shriver, his wife, plays well as wife supporting her husband but Maria and Oprah combined couldn't fill UCLA when they did that campaign stop. Maria does not have Ahnuld's popularity. So although she'll work to turn out the vote, it won't have much impact and it didn't in the primary.
Dallas: Interrupting again. It's now 3:00 in Texas and another Barack Obama commercial just came in. It says that it's, "leadership for our time" and that he'll "create 5 million jobs." Michael Phelps is stretching but he's ntot competing in the swim race which they just went to commercial on, in the midst of the race. And people wonder why the ratings are down? The race is ongoing and they're breaking to show a commercial for Christian Slater's new TV show and now for a bank.
Jim: The race wasn't over and they went to commercial.
Dallas: Yeah. They were talking about Hackett and they were on like lap four or something and still racing when they went to commercial. Could you imagine them getting away with doing that in the middle of a football game?
Jim: Okay, we're going to wait a second to see what happens when the commercial break is over.
Dallas: It's Coca Cola right now. They're back and the race is still going on. The announcers are saying it's between Canada and Australia and they're painting Hackett as a hypochondriac who won't touch rails in China for fear of germs. And it's still going on and they're going to commercial again. It's a commercial for ExxonMobil.
Jim: And the race is still ongoing, the same swiming competition, and they've now taken two commercial breaks during it?
Dallas: Correct. And there's an MSNBC ad that features David Gregory, Chris Matthews, Dumb Ass Olbermann and when they show the faces -- it's for their election coverage, there are four men and Andrea Mitchell.
Jim: No wonder people aren't watching NBC's coverage. And they shouldn't be watching MSNBC. On that note, we'll end. This was a rush transcript and a rough one. I took notes when I wasn't speaking and so Jess did the same. Everyone kindly spoke much slower than they normally would.