Democratic runner-up Hillary Clinton sent me a letter yesterday that reads:

Dear Johnny,

After 46 contests and over 28 million votes being cast,

Note that she's still clinging to her "victories" in the Florida and Michigan noncontests.

we are in a neck-and-neck race with Senator Obama.

Obama has 168 (and counting) more pledged delegates and 22 (and counting) more superdelegates than Clinton, so they're neck-and-neck.  In related news, the Cleveland Indians are still running neck-and-neck with the Boston Red Sox in the 2007 ALCS, being only one game behind.

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James Carville is the reptilian Democratic political consultant who oversaw Bill Clinton's victory in the 1992 presidential election.  Since then, he and his partner Paul Begala have been hanging around the Democratic Party like a bad smell.  In 2000, he and Begala penned a noteworthy piece in the Washington Monthly in which they urged Vice President Al Gore to choose Zell Miller as his running mate.  Gore didn't choose Miller, but he must have been paying attention to Carville and Begala, because his actual choice, Joe Lieberman, proved to be the next best thing, following in Miller's footsteps by giving a great big Democrat-bashing speech at the Republican National Convention.

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The year is 1943.

On the Kentish coast of England is a soldier -- let's call him Hilton, Private Clint Hilton -- manning an anti-aircraft gun.  One day, Pvt. Hilton starts firing his AA gun at Allied bombers as they pass overhead on their way to Occupied Europe.  Being a fairly proficient chap, he manages to score a couple of hits.

Needless to say, it isn't long before Bomber Command gets wind of Pvt. Hilton's activities, and they send a very angry Group Captain round to have a talk with him.

"Hilton, you blasted idiot!  What the bloody hell are you doing firing at our aircraft!" the Group Captain demands.

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Dear Senator Obama,

As a supporter who campaigned and voted for you in Rhode Island, I'd like to pose the following hypothetical situation to you, just to ease my mind that you're the right candidate to lead us in the upcoming general election:

It's the morning of November 5, and you're fresh from a landslide victory over Senator McCain.  At 10:00 AM President Bush makes a televised speech in which he announces that he is claiming the inherent power as Commander-in-Chief of the United States to nullify the election results and appoint himself to a third term, and placing the country under martial law.  How do you react?

A. Meekly submit (the Harry Reid option).
B. Issue a strongly worded letter of protest, then meekly submit (the Nancy Pelosi option).
C. Climb on top of a tank and make a stirring speech where you call on the American people to rally to you and oppose this illegal coup attempt (the Boris Yeltsin option).
D. Other (specify in comments).

Thank you for your time.  I eagerly await your answer.

It's all about the pledged delegates.

The Clinton campaign won three states on Tuesday, and has taken full advantage of the bragging rights they've earned, but the real story is the delegates.  The Clinton campaign was down by more than 150 delegates, and they're still down by more than 150 delegates.  Looking ahead, the rest of the primary calendar consists of Pennsylvania plus nine States That Don't Matter.*  Even if the Clinton campaign wins an Ohio-grade win in the Keystone State, that won't make up for all the delegates the Obama campaign will pick up in the States That Don't Matter.  When the primary season is over, the Obama campaign will still have anywhere from 200 to 300 more delegates than the Clinton campaign.

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The Star Trek franchise was born in an era very different from the early 21st century.  It was the dawn of the space age, and while President Kennedy was giving the speech that would launch the Apollo Project, a television writer-producer in Los Angeles named Gene Roddenberry was working out an idea for a science fiction series that he called Star Trek.  The two projects went forward at the same time, independently but concurrently, and both of them drew on the same idealistic vision.

It's hard for us in 2008 to realize what it was like living in those days.  Even the baby boomers among us who lived through that time have to make a conscious effort to remember how it felt.  Alongside the tensions of the Cold War and the ever-present threat of nuclear armageddon, highlighted by the harrowing Cuban Missile Crisis, there was also a sense of extraordinary wonder and optimism as the decades-old dream of space travel was actually being realized, suddenly, startlingly.

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Ever since Senator Barack Obama announced his presidential campaign, one issue has dominated his candidacy more than any other, and following his first place showing in the Iowa caucuses and his close second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, that issue has now come to the forefront.  I'm talking, of course, about Race.

(more beyond the beyond)