Hillary doesn’t have to catch up to Obama — she just has to remain standing when Obama melts down. He’s taken hits and is going down. Obamanator’s true nature is showing through the battle damage. Howard Dean says one of the two has to bail out, and even Slate joked Obama should bow out first.
Obama can’t close the deal with a working class that doesn’t practice ballot booth affirmative action. Hillary got the crucial Catholic vote and big battleground states that will determine the final race. The polls show Republican rooting may have not only pushed her ahead of Obama, but McCain as well.
America has just about had it with Mr. “I have never been a Muslim, am not a racist, am not a liberal, am not an elitist and do not hate America” Obama. Obama has already racked up as many scandals as two terms of the Clintons and single-handedly rescued the GOP from certain defeat. When it’s ABC News and not the conservative columnists asking about hanging out with people who bombed federal buildings and equating Bush-Cheney with al-Qaida, it’s all over.
Rice everywhere but not a bowl to eat?
If “supply is not a problem,” why are Costco warehouses and many Asian grocers here in Seattle out of big bags of rice? Some Thailand rice tripled to $1,000 a ton from a year ago. Governments increase demand when they subsidize rice over other food. World consumption and crop failures raised some prices, but some believe profit speculation has driven the most recent spikes — just like with Wiis, Beanie Babies and tulip bulbs.
Investment funds and global dollars were chased in and out of petroleum and housing, and now have moved into food commodities, pumping up wheat prices by 70 percent between 2005 and 2007. Bloomberg reported that commodity-index funds control 4.5 billion bushels of corn, wheat and soybeans. That’s an increase of one-third from last year and equal to about half the amount held in U.S. silos as investors sought better returns than stocks or bonds. Worldwide, investment funds control over half of the wheat traded in the biggest commodity markets.
If rice prices are headed to the moon, where would you park your millions? Monthly interest to finance hedges can add up to 40 cents per bushel of wheat this year. But how would you control a world market when people want to buy stuff just because it’s a better investment than bonds? Some people actually need to eat the stuff to live. My advice: Eat biscuits, noodles or potatoes, and don’t hoard any more than you actually need because somebody in Asia might need it more than you.