April 2008 Archives

Since last week's primary, I've written a couple of stories about delegates to the Democratic and Republican parties' national conventions. Keep in mind, these delegates are the people who officially select the candidates running for president of the United States.

Each party has a delegate selection process that ranks about even with some of David Lynch's recent films in terms of comprehensibility. I'll see if I can explain them. If you find your eyes crossing as you're reading, maybe take a break and come back to it.

Now that the Pennsylvania primary's over, I'm taking this blog in a completely new direction. Rather than writing about politics, I'll be writing about my personal life. Who is this guy named Tom? What is he thinking? How does he feel about this crazy Merry-Go-Round we call life?

In fact, I'm changing the name of the blog from "Articles of Confabulation" to ...

THE WORLD OF ME

I meant to start on my diet this week, but I had an upsetting day at work. A certain co-worker I'll just call Little Miss Snooty-Face decided she was going to cop an attitude. I got so upset that during lunch, I went out to my car and had a good cry. :(

So when I got home, I consoled myself with a quart of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream and a DVD rental of "She's All That" -- the best movie of all time, IMHO. The ice cream was yummy, but now I feel fat. Bleh.

Anyway, here's my take on this season's "American Idol" ....

JOKE! That was all a joke! I think maybe I took that too far. Just writing it gave me a migraine. Yeesh. Although if that kind of thing interests you, may I refer you to ... oh ... roughly 500,000 other blogs?

No, I will continue to write about politics from a York County perspective. The Pennsylvania primary coming to an end won't change that. In fact, without the primary taking up so much of my time, I'd like to expand my focus. I haven't been writing about state politics lately, and I'd like to rectify that.

Also, let's not forget that we have a presidential election coming up. And I'm sure that, just as in 2004, our status as a swing state will ensure that Pennsylvania in general and York County in particular will be the site of some intense campaigning.

So keep reading.

It's just about midnight on Tuesday, and I just filed my story for tomorrow.

If you're a reader of my blog, you're probably one of these people who follows politics, in which case:
1) Get a life.
2) You probably already know that Hillary Clinton won both York County and Pennsylvania as a whole.

We've got another in the increasingly crowded field of would-be Democratic write-in candidates for the 33rd state Senate district.

This one is Bryan Rehm, currently a member of the Dover Area School Board. You may remember him as being among the slate of candidates who took office after that whole "intelligent design" brouhaha.

Rehm said he didn't have any particular ambition to be a state senator. But he was frustrated when he checked the Voter's Guide, and saw that no Democrats were on the primary ballot.

The way he sees it, if area Democrats are going to complain about local Republicans' political dominance, they should at least be willing to step up to the plate in situations like that. So if he gets the requisite number of signatures -- 500 -- he's willing run in November, Rehm said.

“I would be happy to run if nobody else is going to mount a challenge to the Republicans," he said. "But I would also be happy to fill out my term on the school board.”

He started calling and e-mailing people he knows, telling them of his decision. He said he didn't get to the polls himself until about 5:30 p.m., at which time he found out that he's not, in fact, the only Democrat running.

See my previous entry on write-in candidates for the backstory.

I should mention that during the interviews I described in the last two entries, TV news people with cameras were hovering in the background.

A news van was parked at the Center Square in York when I interviewed Obama supporters. Two guys were wandering around with a news camera. But it turned out that the van was for a different news crew, because those two guys got in a car when they were done.

Before they did, they asked me where the nearest polling place was. I gave them directions to both the York YMCA and the Crispus Attucks center.

When I was at the local Hillary Clinton campaign headquarters, another TV news guy came in and announced himself as being from a station in Baltimore. Somebody else told me she saw a TV news truck from Washington, D.C., near York Hospital.

I wonder if this is how Iowans feel every four years.

To see additional primary night posts, see Mike Argento's Argento's Front Stoop and Jim McClure's York Town Square.

At about 1:30 p.m., I stopped by the local Hillary Clinton campaign office on S. George Street.

I could see about a dozen volunteers, all women. Several sat at a table in a back room, phone receivers glued to their ears. I assumed they were doing some last-minute phone canvassing.

Another group of about five or six volunteers was preparing to do some door-to-door canvassing.

I stopped by the Center Square in York, at the intersection of Market and George streets, at about 1 p.m. today. On each corner was a woman holding a sign for Barack Obama.

I spoke to one of them. Her name was Dana Gadsden. Drivers would occasionally honk their horns when they drove by. She'd smile and hoist her sign triumphantly in response.

"We have a lot of people yelling, honking," Gadsden said. "It feels good."

OK, I just spoke to my editor. Turns out that Mike Argento will NOT be posting on this blog. Gee. After I spent all that time hiding the valuables and the sharp objects.

But be sure to check out his stuff about today's primary on his blog, Argento's Front Stoop.

In February, I wrote a story about how the scarcity of local Democrats running for state offices in today's primary.

All of a sudden, I'm getting word of several local Democrats taking a shot at it through write-in campaigns. There's a chance that they can still end up on the November ballot. But frankly, the odds against them are rather steep.

OK, here we are. Primary Day.

I must admit that I'm a bit disgruntled. I asked my supervisors if I could have the day off because, hey, I could use some quality Playstation time. They gave me an emphatic "no." Fascists.

So anyway, I understand that part of my job tonight is to provide periodic blog entries on what's going on around the county. For now, I can sum it up in a single word -- plenty.

It was Friday, and I was already preparing to cover Hillary Clinton's appearance in York the next day. Then I got a call from Mike Johnson, chairman of the York County Democratic Party. Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy was scheduled to stop by York on Sunday afternoon.

Wow! Being in a key primary state sure makes you feel wanted, doesn't it?

As I mentioned previously, both Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy were in town this past weekend. And I went to see them both.

I guess we'll keep this in chronological order. I'll start with Clinton's visit Saturday.

You could say it's been an eventful weekend. I covered Hillary Clinton's rally in York yesterday. And today, I attended an appearance by Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, who was in town to stump for Barack Obama. I even got to sit down for a brief one-on-one interview with Kennedy, which was cool.

Leapin' Lizards!

So yesterday, I found out Hillary Clinton is coming to York tomorrow afternoon.

And this morning, I got a call from York County Democratic Chairman Mike Johnson. On Sunday, the local Democrats have a pre-primary open house planned at their headquarters on W. Market Street.

At about 2 p.m., Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts is supposed to stop by the local Barack Obama headquarters, located across the street from Democratic headquarters. Then he's going to head across the street to drop in for the local Democrats' open house.

I was going to make a joke along the lines of "What's next, wandering in the Central Market and seeing BLANK?" But I can't, for the simple reason that reality is outpacing any attempts at humorous hyperbole I could make.

A few years back, local Democrats didn't even have headquarters! Now they've got Ted Kennedy hanging out and eating barbecue with them.

Maybe the Democrats have all the big, flashy stuff going on right now, courtesy of the Hillary-vs.-Barack runoff. But that doesn't mean local Republicans are just sitting around and watching.

On Monday, in fact, the York County McCain Team will hold its first organizing meeting at 7 p.m. in room 160 of York Suburban High School, 1800 Hollywood Drive, York.

In a press release, local campaign coordinator Dick Evans said the meeting should last about an hour, and people who attend will learn how they can get involved in McCain's 2008 campaign. People from outside York County are welcome to attend, too.

For more information, contact Evans at 683-5512, or pa4mccain@comcast.net.

Call it a hunch, but I've got a funny feeling we're going to hear from these folks again before November.

Neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton made it to the Democratic Society of York's 116th Annual Jefferson/Jackson Dinner on Thursday night. Both opted to attend an event taking place the same night in Pittsburgh, which isn't surprising.

Do the math. 567,542 Democratic voters in Allegheny County, vs. 104,657 in York County.

Still, no local Democrats were complaining.

State Rep. Mike Gerber was officially the keynote speaker. But the big news was an appearance by Joseph Wilson IV, the former ambassador who locked horns with Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the first Persian Gulf War. Most people know him as the diplomat who claims he found no evidence that Saddam tried to acquire yellowcake uranium in Niger, and challenged the Bush administration on it. He alleges that administration officials outed his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, as an undercover CIA agent in retribution.

As promised, here's the information regarding Tuesday's visit by Michelle Obama, Barack Obama's wife.

She'll be at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center, 50 N. George Street, York. Doors open at 10:45 a.m. and the program begins at 11:45 a.m. It's free and open to the public. Seating is limited and a ticket is required.

You can get a free ticket beginning Monday morning at: Obama for America,York County Regional Field Office, 280 W. Market Street, York, 17401. The office is open Monday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The number is 699-2008.

And, yes, I'll be there and I'll give you a full report.

Today, by the way, both Obama and Hillary Clinton are attending a forum on religious faith at Messiah College in Grantham. Our religion reporter, Melissa Nann Burke, is covering that one. Look for it in tomorrow's paper.

In tomorrow's paper, we're running a story about some Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton TV ads.

Basically, we asked two York College communications professors, Thomas Hall and Lowell Briggs, to analyze a batch of ads from both campaigns. Briggs gave his take on each individual ad, and Hall provided more of an overall assessment.

I guess what I'll do is just provide the text of the story, with videos of the ads themselves plugged in at the appropriate intervals. Hall's analysis will come at the end.

Any questions? Anyone need to use the bathroom before we get started? OK then, here goes.

OK, a couple of interesting things came up today.

First of all, I got a press release stating that Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, will be in "the York area" on Tuesday.

I called his campaign to see if I could get any more details. They said none were available yet.

Also, maverick Republican candidate Ron Paul was in Gettysburg today. Our reporter Jeff Frantz went to cover it. That should be in tomorrow's paper. I'm sure Jeff will do an excellent job, as always. I spoke to him today about possibly writing a "special guest entry" on this blog, and he seemed amenable to the idea.

I know I said before that if any other presidential candidates came to the area, I would go there and make a video like I did for Obama and Clinton.

But today was my day off. And I promised myself I'd take a real day off. That means no covering events, calling sources or updating ... my ... blog. Crap.

In a previous entry, I mentioned my meeting with a couple of guys from National Public Radio for a broadcast out of York. Here's how that went.

I got an e-mail the week before from Steve Proffitt, producer with a show called "Day to Day," which broadcasts out of California. He said the show would be in town the next Saturday (April 5), and he asked if I could meet up with them and show them around town a little.

I was wondering how he got my name. It turned out that he saw this blog. So if any Hollywood producers happen to be reading this, I urge you once again to take a look at the "Wooden Spoon Prank" video in last month's archives. I think you'll find I have the on-screen charisma of a young Marlon Brando. OK, maybe a middle-aged Steve Buscemi.

As promised, here's my account of Hillary Clinton's visit last week. Gee, I'll bet you're just choked with excitement!

When we last left our hero, me, I was at the Barack Obama rally in Lancaster -- feeling a little sleep deprived, but still pumped about seeing two presidential candidates in one day.

The big Clinton-vs.-Obama race was a bit slow in getting to southcentral Pennsylvania, but it's definitely here now.

John Kerry is in Harrisburg today, stumping for Barack Obama. Chelsea Clinton was at York College last week, stumping for ... one guess. They sent our education reporter, Nichole Dobo, to cover that one. I hope my editors didn't think I was serious about my intention to find out whether or not Chelsea thinks I'm cute. But given the way I conduct myself around the office, I must admit that I could see where they would be concerned.

And, as I found out Friday, Joseph C. Wilson IV is going to be the guest speaker at The Democratic Society of York's annual Jefferson/Jackson Day Dinner on Thursday. As in, the diplomat and husband of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame.

Wilson has been stumping for Clinton. Just today, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a piece by Wilson criticizing Obama's foreign policy. But regardless of where they stand on the Obama-vs.-Clinton question, this is quite a coup for local Democrats.

I'm looking forward to covering it. And no, I don't intend to ask Wilson if he thinks I'm cute. Hell, I know I'm cute! I don't care what everyone else says.

Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you about something else that happened.

Last week, I got an e-mail from a National Public Radio show called "Day to Day" that broadcasts out of California. Two of their broadcasters are coming to York this evening to do a story about the political mood around here.

They wanted a guide. And someone, possibly as a cruel practical joke aimed at them, apparently recommended me.

Anyway, I'm supposed to meet them in a little bit, so I guess I'll have to write about Hillary Clinton's Harrisburg appearance tomorrow. Stay tuned.

I knew about the Barack Obama rallies in advance. He had one scheduled Sunday night in Harrisburg, and one the following morning in Lancaster.

The Harrisburg event was scheduled to start at 6 p.m. I've been covering campaigns long enough to know that translates into 7:15 p.m. or so. Check-in for the Lancaster event was 8 the next morning. I figured I'd probably miss out on some sleep, and hoped I could leave work early the next day.

No such luck.

OK, I am way overdue on these updates. As you may have gathered from my last (rather pathetic) entry, it's a hectic time for me.

In a moment, I'm going to give an account of the campaign appearances I covered this week -- two by Barack Obama, and one by Hillary Clinton.

But first, I'd like to mention something about the preceding video of Barack Obama's Town Hall Meeting in Harrisburg Sunday night.