Today is a scattershot news day, all of the major papers led with different stories. I will do my best to give a quick roundup of the things that will probably end up being important over the next week.
We kick things off by talking about the food crisis. We have mentioned it a few days in a row, and on Thursday the Daily Show did a perfect summation of how it is effecting America.
To get a more depressing picture of the REAL food crisis, head to today’s Washington Post, which has a story on how the crisis is affecting Mauritania. Unfortunately, this story has completely ruined the fact that it is free bagel day at the office.
The mortgage industry, Lt. Gen. Odierno, and Candy after the jump.
The Washington Post leads with news about SPIES. “Apparently, a video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactorsimilar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.” Thankfully, we have a Democratic congress now so that video is being shared with lawmakers who can assess the situation – only a year after Israel blew the reactor up. Oversight!
General Patraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq, has been nominated to become the next head of US Central Command (or CentCom if you are in a Tom Clancy Novel). If he gets the job, he would oversea all military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia (aka Iraq and Afghanistan) and have a major impact on United States foreign policy for years to come. His plans? Surges for everyone!
We talked a little bit yesterday about the growing world food crisis. Today, the New York Times has a fascinating article about the politics of the upcoming farm bill (I know, I know, bare with me). Apparently, even though the world food situation has radically changed, Congress is getting set to pass the same bill it passes every 5 years. It will include massive subsidies to farmers making record profits, no new regulations at a time of high volatility, and it barely touches on the corn/ethanol problem that is causing the food issues. I particularly liked this story because it contained a quote so gutless it could only have come from a Democratic Senator: “Mr. Harkin [Democratic Chairman of the Agriculture Committee] said there was not much he could do because ‘I don’t have the votes,’ adding, ‘People love free money.’”
Finally, on the election front, both Democratic candidates are busy stumping across Indiana and North Carolina. However, now that the media has come back from the edge of insanity that was Pennsylvania, some are beginning to reflect on where the race is headed. Today’s must-read political piece is an article analyzing if winning a state in the primary means you are more likely to win it in the general. Executive Summary: no. This is important because one of HIllary Clinton’s major arguments for why she is a more viable candidate is that she is winning states like Ohio and Pennsylvania that Democratis will need in the general.
After 6 weeks of campaigning, Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary last night by roughly 10 percentage points. Anyone who ever hoped that this primary might end soon (me) or ever (you) was proven sadly mistaken. Clinton won by increasing turnout among her core constituencies: poor whites, old whites, and catholic (whites). Just over 2 million people voted, which is more than 3 times the turnout of the most recent Pennsylvania presidential primary.
So what is next? First off, we never again have to hear Chris Matthews and Ed Rendell talk about how great Pennsylvania is. The next round of primaries is May 6th – so get out your Indiana and North Carolina guidebooks and start looking up interesting facts to throw around. Did you know that “historic Parke County [Indiana] has 32 covered bridges and is the Covered Bridge Capital of the world?” But do the bridges want to change politics as usual? Do they believe in the audacity Hope? I hate these states already.
To my surprise, there was news outside Pennsylvania, so Iraq, the food crisis, and the Supreme Court after the jump. Don’t worry if you skip it though, no one at the office will talk about anything bu the primary.
