Super Tuesday Delegate Breakdown

Also Check Out My Blog Entry: Delegate This . . .

• 24 States Total on February 5th

• 22 states will have democrat primaries, including America Samoa

• 21 states will have republican primaries

Purple= Both Democrat and Republican Primaries

Blue= Democrat Only Primaries

Red=Republican Primaries

Highly Contested States for Democrats with super-delegates:

• California 441 delegates
• New York 280 delegates
• Illinois 185 delegates
• New Jersey 127 delegates
• Massachusetts 121 delegates
• Georgia 104 delegates

Highly Contested States for Democrats without super-delegates:

• California 370 delegates
• New York 232
• Illinois 153
• New Jersey 107
• Massachusetts 93
• Georgia 87
• Missouri: 72
• Minnesota: 72
• Tennessee: 68
• Colorado: 55
• Arizona: 56
• Connecticut: 48
• Alabama: 52
• Oklahoma: 38
• Arkansas: 35
• Kansas: 32
• New Mexico: 26
• Utah: 23
• Idaho: 18
• Delaware: 15
• North Dakota: 13
• Alaska: 13
• Democrats that live Abroad: 7
• America Samoa: 3

Every other state has less then 100, so I believe that most candidates will not spend as much time in. Though Obama just got an endorsement from Kansas Gov. Sibelius, so he will be spending time in redder states to make a mark and tell the country he can win the general election. California and New York of course will be the most coveted out of all 24

Total Delegates for all Super Tuesday democratic primaries is: 2,088 (with super-delegates)

Total Democratic Delegation: 4,049

Highly Contested States for Republican:

Of course, they don’t have super-delegates and good for it.

• California 173 delegates
• New York 101
• Georgia 72
• Illinois 70
• Missouri 58
• Tennessee: 55
• Arizona: 53 WTA
• New Jersey: 52 WTA
• Alabama: 48
• Colorado: 46
• Massachusetts: 43
• Minnesota: 41
• Oklahoma: 41
• Utah: 36 WTA
• Arkansas: 34
• Connecticut: 30 WTA
• Alaska: 29
• North Dakota: 26 WTA
• Montana: 25 WTA
• Delaware: 18 WTA
• West Virginia: 18 WTA

Totals for the Republican Super Tuesday primary delegates: 1,069

Total Republican Delegation (all primaries): 2,380

What is Bulls**t?

“He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy than lies are”(Frankfurt, 61)

What is bullshit and if we see it what do we do about it? This is the question I pose today. If you look at the media, news and the coverage of the current election, you may realize that there is something odd about it all. The celebrity, the distractions, the pundits, the feel-good stories . . . what is it about the media, the government that makes you feel off kilter?

I love politics, I am a junkie. However, is there a known time when I feel like everything that has just been uttered, every edict, every statement, is bullshit? Of course, we elect bullshitters. That is the nature of a politician. Many people call politicians, liars, and some are, but many are bullshitters.

Of course if you have read Harry Frankfurt’s essay, On Bullshit, then you know that a liar and a bullshitter are two different people. It is the intentions of the person that distinguish if they are lying or bullshitting. This is where it gets tricky. . . how do we know the intentions of a person? I am not a mind reader. Though I should be, I hear it pays well.

Is there a way to really distinguish a bullshitter and a liar? I have a hard time with this idea though others may not. The media is the most obvious bullshitter. Or at least the 24 hour news channels. How can you fill up all that time without bullshitting? Because it is all about the intentions of the person speaking, you may feel like you can’t tell if someone is phony or if they are lying.

I really think though that Frankfurt had it right when he talked about the fact that bullshit is worse than lying. That the person lying knows the truth and for whatever circumstance is trying to cover it. White lies is actually a good example. We would not be able to function as humans without the white lie. There would be no marriages and no one would have a friend. No one, anyone in the world is 100% honest with any other person.

Yet, the bullshitter completely disregards the truth. He or she doesn’t care what that truth is or what it could be, they make their own reality. That is scarier.

I think that if you are interested in this idea and want to connect it to other piece of work, look at the writings of Ron Suskind. He wrote a great article a few weeks before the last presidential election in 2004. (Without A Doubt) The idea that Bush bases his policies on his “certainty” and isn’t a part of the “reality-based community” is very intriguing.

Don’t let bullshit be a driving force in your life.

Use your critical thinking skills.

Questions, Comments, Opposing View Points?