Clinton takes Texas and Ohio; Huckabee doesn't affect school board elections

Well I'm a little more than perturbed that Hillary won both Ohio and Texas. I was kind of hoping this battle would come to a close with these two primaries. I appreciate the fact that they have both lasted so long and that Democrats are so passionate about both candidates. However, now that McCain is officially the Rep. nominee he can start campaigning for the national election. Obama and Clinton, however, will continue to spar for the Dem. nomination.

I've heard several bloggers and news sites say that Hillary can't mathematically win the nomination now and that it would require something underhanded involving the superdelegates to get the nomination. I've also seen plenty of people in support of Hillary staying in and fighting it out. And of course now she has said that she would support a joint ticket. In principle that would be amazing but I think unlikely and not a good solution for either of them.

And as a follow up to my post from yesterday Huckabee being on the ballot in Texas did not impact the school board elections. The two seats that were highest risk of being taken by creationist nutters were held onto by more science friendly candidates.

Teaching Darwin: The Huckabee Factor

This could be bad. Huckabee had hoped to gain ground in Texas by marshalling evangelical voters. However, it looks like McCain will pull out the win and clench the Republican nomination. Honestly, I thought he already had it.

Evangelicals don't like McCain. That's something we can at least agree on although I'm sure we have different reasons. Their boy is Huckabee but he isn't going to be president. That doesn't mean he can't still rally his whackjob supporters. And that could have a serious impact on a crucial issue in Texas.

Next year the Texas State Board of Education will be writing the science curriculum standards for Texas public schoolchildren, and Huckabee may bring enough conservative fundamentalist voters to the polls on March 4 to swing the balance of power on the board to the supporters of creationism. "If Huckabee marshals the religious right in Texas, particularly in North Texas, it has profound implications for the state board," says Kathy Miller, executive director of the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), an Austin-based advocacy group whose stated goal is to "counter the religious right" in public policy issues, particularly education.

We shouldn't have to go over this again but don't forget what happens when religious conservatives get elected to school boards and start tinkering with science standards. But Texas is different.

Given the Lone Star state's influence as the second largest purchaser of textbooks nationally, any changes likely would have had a ripple effect across the country. Miller says she is concerned that if the social conservatives gain the upper hand they may try to reassert that influence by drawing up a conservative curriculum that would necessarily have to be addressed in textbooks. "One vote, one member, could be the difference between kids getting a 21st century science education or a 19th century education," Miller said.

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Mike Huckabee on amending the Constitution

Jesus Christ on a crutch... I knew Huckabee was a evangelical, bible beating, fuckwit but this statement takes the cake. At the Michigan primaries he made a speech declaring:

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

Honestly, what do you say to that? I think the scariest part is knowing how many atavistic douche bags in this country would agree with his declaration. Discussed on MSNBC's Morning Joe

Geist further noted of Huckabee that if "someone without his charm," said that, "he'd be dismissed as a crackpot, but he's Mike Huckabee and he's bascially the front-runner."

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Huckabee isn't insane enough for Coulter

It's not that I'm worried that people are listening to Ann Coulter. I don't see her as a threat to civil discourse and intellectual honesty like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, or the entire Bush administration. Why? Because she's certifiably bat-shit insane and apparently Huckabee is too tame for her.