Texas hogs spotlight

There is so much to discuss about the campaign moving to Texas I don’t know where to begin. I did not take the morning off to attend the Obama rally on Wednesday. Some speculated that it must have been the largest political rally in the history of Dallas. People began lining up as early as 5 AM and hundreds were turned away as the event got underway. I did get to drive by while it was going on and of course the parking lots were packed, but that’s the only real personal observation I have of the event.

I thought both candidates came off very well in the Austin debate last night. The only gaffe I think was Hillary’s ill-considered line that Obama’s “plagiarism” wasn’t change you could believe in but change you could Xerox. Oops, should have put that in quotes; I’ll probably get in trouble for plagiarizing now. Obama’s response was perfect: this is silly to discuss. We should be discussing the real issues. It shows how desperate the Clinton campaign has become. They’re also accusing Obama of stealing their economic policy ideas.

But all in all it was a good debate. I just came away from it hoping that somebody bows out before the convention. The party will not be well served by a battle over super-delegates and whether or not to seat Florida and Michigan. Hopefully Obama will have enough momentum if he can win Texas or Ohio to make it obvious that he is going to be the Democratic nominee. If he wins both states I think we’re done.

There are Obama house parties in the neighborhood tomorrow. It’s not looking like I’ll be able to get out to one. The one I am drawn to is “Brewskis for Obama.” That one sounds like fun. But I do plan to try to attend the caucus on March 4 and I will report back if anything interesting goes down. Judging by the Iowa caucus it could be pretty boring.

Wife of FV was driving downtown this morning when she noticed some emergency vehicles. I’m pretty sure she was witnessing the aftermath of the death of Senior Cpl. Victor Lozada of the Dallas PD, whose motorcycle struck a retaining wall as he was leading Sen. Clinton’s motorcade. May he rest in peace.