EVENING UPDATE,  SUPER TUESDAY,  FEBRUARY 5, 2008

•   Reminding us that there's a real world outside Oprah Winfrey's political travels, the distinguished Michael Ledeen reports on student and worker rioting in Iran.  Of course, you all knew this from the headlines in our papers, the bulletins on CNN, the... 

Oh, you didn't know?  I guess you didn't look on page 77, or read the tiny print after the asterisk.  Silly readers.  Aren't you used to the Western press by now? 

Please read Ledeen's piece.  There are darkening skies ahead, and we're asleep under the oak tree - which will be hit by lightning.  Ledeen says:

Remember that the people of Iran, the students and workers and women wish to be heard by the world and they need your kind and sympathetic attention to their cause and naturally a decent reporting of their anti-government protests.

Why do I think Christiane Amanpour isn't interested?

•   Interesting exit polling from the AP.  A few gems:

Just half of Democrats who voted for Clinton said they would be satisfied if Obama won, while just half of Obama voters said they would be satisfied if Clinton won. 

There's difficulty in store for the Democrats, and it could have racial and gender overtones.  When you spend a generation dividing people by group, that's the result.  There's this:

The Democratic electorate was a bit younger than Republican primary-goers. More than one in 10 Democratic voters were under age 30 and one in five were over age 65. Among GOP primary voters fewer than one in 10 were under 30 and a quarter were over 65.

I'm surprised by that.  I'd have thought the Democrats would be further ahead among the young, and that the GOP would skew much older.  The Republicans have a good shot this year.  Stop depairing.

•   Prince Andrew, the one from the UK, is criticizing the United States over Iraq.  Oh, I just can't wait to read his strategic analysis.  At least the guy has a lifetime job to keep him out of trouble.  A quote:

In a rare Buckingham Palace interview ahead of his departure Tuesday for a 10-day U.S. trip to support British business, the prince described the United States as Britain's No. 1 ally but conceded that relations were in a trough. There are, he added, "occasions when people in the U.K. would wish that those in responsible positions in the U.S. might listen and learn from our experiences." 

I love the British forces, but I hadn't noticed that they'd exactly cleaned up in southern Iraq.  Words like Andy's might be spoken privately, and with modesty.  You don't know exactly how to fight a war until it's over.

•   This just in:  George Clooney, who was eased away from UN headquarters after he was denied the right to speak to a meeting, has endorsed Barack Obama.  This is persuasive, and I think we should all throw in the towel.  Try matching this for analysis:

"I've been an Obama guy for a year and a half and I'm very excited by his campaign," Clooney said. "It just seems that the more time he's out there, his numbers keep growing. So I'm very, very encouraged." 

You might want to copy that and send it around as an example of what political commentary could be, in a perfect world.

•   Well, the apple apparently fell right next to the tree.  The daughter of radical lawyer Lynne Stewart clearly has some strange ideas of her own.  But, remember, we must understand the oppression, the anguish, the very pain of just being alive in this nightmarish society:

NEW YORK (AP) _ The daughter of Lynne Stewart, a civil rights attorney convicted on a terrorism charge, was arrested for faking doctors' notes to take time off from her teaching job, authorities said.

Brenna Stewart was arrested Monday on charges of forgery and falsifying documents she submitted for the time off, in part to attend her mother's sentencing for helping a convicted Egyptian sheik communicate with the outside, authorities said.

Well, you can just hear her lawyer in front of the jury:  "It was all for mom, poor sick mom."

I weep for the fighting Stewarts.

It's an abbreviated update tonight so, in the footsteps of Brenna Stewart, I can take some time off.  In my case, though, I'll be studying the early returns and the candidates' actions, and will be blogging regularly later this evening.  Tune in.

Posted on February 5, 2008.