Just a Tuesday

I suppose I should be interested in the "Super Tuesday" Democratic primary races today. I'm not. For a conservative Republican right now is just the idle pre-convention period. Let the Dems fight it out and then bring on the rumble that counts - the general election. I can only muster two pertinent thoughts:

1. I'm glad Kerry is blowing it out. Bush can take him. Let's just get to it.
2. I had a surreal newsjunkie moment today driving to work. I heard a news report saying that John Edwards was pledging to stay in the race "no matter what happens today". I knew instantly what that meant - that he would be withdrawing from the race by midnight. It's just too predictive. It's like the movie cliche where a character shows a picture of his family and you know he's the guy who's going to get killed. Just rewind to Iowa caucus day with Dick Gephardt on the morning shows saying that he was going to win and stay in the race. Gone by nightfall. It's too easy.

The smaller stories are more interesting:

- Terry Nichols going on trial this week in Oklahoma City for the federal building bombing - state charges instead of federal. Nichols attorneys are alledging a conspiracy that includes Iraqis. The judge is chastising the FBI for withholding documents that indicate conspirators. This one's going to heat up.

- Haiti. What a mess. Thank you Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for the fine "fix" you did in '94. Really held up. Thank you France for the wonderful legacy in the colony you screwed up on our doorstep. Why are we sending troops there again? Is there a national interest, other than keeping our shores from getting flooded with refugees?

- Where did the elite media go this week re: "The Passion of the Christ"? Weeks of relentless hounding and wolf-crying and then they suddenly go silent. Why? Could it be that once the movie opened and people actually saw it for themselves they discovered that:

- it wasn't Anti-Semitic and the critics were all ridiculously wrong
- the predicted anti-semitic violence inspired by the movie didn't happen
- it was extraordinarily popular in the heartland ($125M box office) and the predictions of failure were equally all wrong. Why should we trust their box office predictions ever again? Would you do business with the studios that all passed on this film predicting massive failure?

Give me the smaller stories. They'll get me through primary season.