Tuesday, March 04, 2008

NYC, Flu, and the Texas Primary

Friday, SIL and I flew to NYC to attend the big wedding shower for her future-daughter-in-law, who also is Portia's best friend from college. Faithful readers will recall that Queenie (because she is from Queens) and Doc (SIL's son the naval surgeon) met at Portia's wedding. It was an wonderful opportunity to learn about the Croatian community where she grew up.

I seriously do not understand how these people keep their slim figures amidst the astounding amount of delicious food that is on offer. And offer. And offer. For example, the wedding shower was at a restaurant with a five course sit-down meal for all the guests. Mangia, mangia, was a constant cry--you don't eat very much, they'd say to us. And we kept eating so as not to offend them. I thought we'd have to call our husbands to come with a forklift to get us off the plane.

Unfortunately I came down with a stomach flu right after the shower and --ahem--let's just say that the forklift wasn't necessary. With the help of immodium, I made it home on the plane and am finally feeling better.

BUT, I wasn't well enough to help St. Betty and Mrs. America run the primary election today. DANG. This would have been great blog fodder, too. Because the county clerk couldn't find any Democratic election volunteers, St. Betty and I were going to be assigned to the Democratic party side of the election. Although this has happened before, I'm surprised it happened in this primary election, what with all the excitement about the Obama/Clinton matchup. What is up with that? Where are the Democrats in our precinct? I'll have to get a report from St. Betty tonight.

Meanwhile it's me, Beatrice, dry toast and tea and the cable news coverage. Sigh.

9 comments:

Gannet Girl said...

So sorry! -- both that you are not feeling well and that you are not there. I am having so much fun coming in from the beach to check out what's going on in both our states.

I know we're in opposite camps but regardless of that, isn't it exciting to see so many people invested in this election?!

Rev Kim said...

Hope you are feeling better soon!

Lori said...

Yup, it's the B*R*A*T diet for you young lady! (that's banana, rice, applesauce or toast).

Sorry you got sick. And sorrier you missed the election. This election is just so interesting! My 9 year old son is following it! *she said snapping her suspenders proudly*

Feel better soon. We have a book chat comin' up.

Jules said...

Feel better! ((((QG))))

Gannet Girl said...

OK, what's your take on what happened down there? I'm happy, but I'm surprised.

Jody Harrington said...

GG,

I'm surprised, too. A week ago I would have predicted Obama would win. And actually, thanks to the complex system devised by the Democratic party with their caucuses, he did win the caucuses, so she didn't gain that many delegates despite a narrow win in the popular vote.

So, I thought the Democratic party was all about one person one vote. What happened to that?

But back to what happened. I think that there was more scrutiny on Obama in the last week (finally!) and that caused late deciders to go with Hillary. The "red phone" ad that Hillary showed only in Texas is thought to have helped her this week. I don't expect her to repeat it against McCain, though.

Plus I know a number of hard-core Republicans who voted in the Democratic primary for strategic reasons that were all Hillary-driven: some voted for Obama because they didn't want any chance Hillary would win the presidency and some for Hillary because they thought McCain could defeat her more easily. In a narrow win like this, crossover voting was probably a factor that went in Hillary's favor.

The race for the Democratic nomination is going to be fun to watch, isn't it? Do you think that Hillary will try to get the Michigan and Florida delegates seated at the convention?

Rev Kim said...

My uncle in San Antonio was one of those Republicans voting for Hillary because he think McCain would have a better chance against her.

I think Hillary will go after the Michigan and Florida delegates. Yet, she said back when the DNC decided this that she agreed with what they were doing and she said she would abide by their decision to not seat these delegates. How can she now go for those delegates and not have it look like she's changing the rules because they will favor her? I heard one of the t.v. commentators say last night that the threshold of delegates for the nomination of 2025 delegates includes Michigan and Florida - the # of delegates was never reduced to take into account Michigan & Florida were not going to be seated. I don't know if this is true or not. I also heard that Howard Dean said that absolutely not, will the DNC seat those delegates. Okay, I think I've watched way too much election coverage, but I'm kind of a junkie at these things since I was a kid.

This is all going to be fun to watch as it unfolds and the various politicking and spinning continues.

Gannet Girl said...

Well, I hope she doesn't. Guess there are a lot of Floridians and Michiganers sorry now that they jumped the gun. Depending on when their plrimaries were supposed to be, they could have been big players.

I am with my dh on the idea that all primaries should be held the same day. This business of people voting in the opposing party's primary in an effort to psych out what will happen with their guy's opponents, neither of whom they want,strikes me as being a tad on the disingenuous side.

Jody Harrington said...

All the primaries really should be scheduled on the same day, you're right. The current system is an incredibly complex an inefficient. Having "super delegates" decide the ultimate nominee seems anti-democratic and I doubt the party will stand for it these days.

Stay tuned!