Friday, June 06, 2008

Makes me wanna holler

Well respected astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, has a very interesting Op-ed in the NYTimes today.
...If the general election were held today, Mr. Obama would win 252 electoral votes as the Democratic nominee, while Mrs. Clinton would win 295. In other words, Barack Obama is losing to John McCain, and Hillary Clinton is beating him.
...

Two questions arise in the face of this result. Whom should the Republican candidate prefer to run against to maximize his party’s chances of retaining the White House? And what does it say of the Democratic delegate selection system when its winner would lose the presidency if an election were held today, yet its loser would win it?

Is it stilly fuzzy math when "the recipient of nine honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal" uses it?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Back when the primaries began, Obama "couldn't" win either and we see how that turned out. How mathematically or intellectually sound is it to even consider a person's outcome who isn't even in the running anymore? I say let there be a race because in this case, reasoning is unfortunately wasted.

red rabbit said...

Hey angelle,
My point is: Hillary wasn't wrong about the math.

For the record:
Hillary Clinton 17,785,009
Barack Obama 17,479,990

If the outcome were reversed, you can bet Obama would've taken the fight all the way to the convention, and he would have every right to do that. The difference is he would be able to do it with the blessing of the DNC and the media poobahs.

Anonymous said...

One must always take with an enormous grain of salt data compiled by those who are working outside their area of expertise. I like Neil de Grasse Tyson, but the process he's selling is flawed in this instance for a few reasons. Read the Letters to the Editor section in the days following the appearance of that op-ed piece.

Obama is just an ordinary democrat. Nothing exceptional. Why do you guys hate him so? This whole "Hillary Math" thing is getting sickening. And I wasn't even enthusiastic about his candidacy.

Anonymous said...

I meant, "...Democrat."