Friday Venn

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New on the Range

Hey folks.

I took last week off to go to Portland for a bit of a holiday. Man I love that city. Rain and all, I just love it.

But I'm back, and I've got some good stuff lined up for this week's show.

Listen for new music from Dead Meadow, Why?, Portishead, Quiet Village, The Delta Spirit, Tapes n' Tapes, The Black Angels, and more. Plus I've dug up some classic tracks from Pony, Red Red Meat, Archers of Loaf, and a slammin remix from the DFA.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Those were Barack Obama's opening words as he addressed a crowd 75000 strong on the banks of the Willamette River in Portland, OR. It's high time Democrats got energized and looked forward. The primary is all but over, and it's time to feel good again.

This helps.

Happy Wednesday

lolpresident.com

Obama and Whitey B. Lunchbucket

Gary Langer breaks down the polls on ABCNews.com.

"It’s also worth noting that the latte-vs.-lunch bucket effect has not been entirely consistent in all primaries this year. Obama won less-educated whites in the Vermont and Wisconsin primaries, was +2 in Utah and came within 4 points in his home state of Illinois (although in each he again did better with upscale whites).

It’s fair for the Obama camp to point out that he doesn’t do significantly worse against McCain among working-class whites than Clinton does, and that he does better with their upscale counterparts. And Obama’s numbers are nothing like John Kerry’s and Al Gore’s; they lost working-class whites to George W. Bush by 24 points and 17 points, respectively."

As Sullivan notes, I didn't realize either that Obama's doing better among this group than Gore or Kerry did. There's some perspective for you.

New on the Range

This week on Range Life, listen for new stuff from Tapes n Tapes, Portishead, Santogold, The Black Angels, Wolf Parade, The Dodos, and The Delta Spirit, as well as new ambient sounds from Hammock and old ones from Aphex Twin.

The live broadcast happens Wednesday evening, 5 to 7 mountain time. Check in. Drop me a line.

Happy Friday

http://lolpresident.com/

Maybe She Shouldn't Quit Just Yet

There is some logic to her staying in the race, if only to bring the tensions down within the Democratic party, to allow wounds to heal and tempers to abate.

Josh Marshall's the voice of reason:

• "One concrete reason is that among the three contests to come over the next two weeks -- West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon -- two are among the best for Hillary in the country. So having him become presumptive nominee just before losing the West Virginia primary doesn't necessarily allow him to hit the ground running. And as Obama's speech last night signaled, his campaign seems intent on giving Clinton the space to make the decision on her own. The eventual nomination he has in hand; what he's got to work on is deescalating the tension between himself and Clinton's supporters. That's the necessary prelude to building the party unity he needs to win in November."

Makes sense. Watch the tone of the race in the coming days, and I think we'll know if he's right.

Live Tonight

1. Range Life, on RadioBoise, from 5 to 7 mountain time. Check it out.
2. The Cops, at the Record Exchange, at 6pm. Free instore.
3. The Cops, again, at the Neurolux, late and smoky.

Who says there's nothing to do here?

This is exciting, but I think I have to go to bed now

Obama takes North Carolina convincingly (56% to 42%), and at 10.25pm mountain time, Indiana has tightened to a 2%-point lead for Clinton. She declared victory when it was more like 8%, before anyone else but CBS had called it for her, but Lake County, which includes Gary, hadn't yet reported.

I've been following the blogs, and the local paper's got Barack gaining about 26,000 votes with just over half the total precincts in.

Still a long shot, it now at least seems likely he could win the state.

There's been plenty of commentary so far, but the quote in the last para of Zeleny's late piece says what I've been trying to say for a while:

• “There is a lot of misinformation that is being disseminated right now about Barack Obama,” said Owen Griffith, 63, a retired teacher from Union City, Ind., echoing the sentiment of dozens of voters interviewed. “People, if they have a prejudice — no matter what it is, whether it’s religious, racial or whatever it is — are going to use that to justify not voting for him.”

Happy Friday

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