Taking the Rivalry Too Far

I have no problem with baseball rivalries and fans showing their pride for their teams. However, this is completely inexcusable and I hope and expect this woman to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

After a Red Sox-Yankees argument spilled outside a bar, a Yankee fan aimed her car at a group of people to scare them and didn't brake, hitting and killing a man, authorities and witnesses said.

The Yankees fan, Ivonne Hernandez, was arraigned Monday on reckless second-degree murder and drunken driving charges and was held without bail. She did not enter a plea.

Hernandez, 43, was speeding early Friday toward a small group that included the man, Matthew Beaudoin, 29, and never hit her brakes, a prosecutor said Monday.

"She accelerated at a high speed for about 200 feet. She went directly at this group of people," prosecutor Susan Morrell said. "She indicated to police that she wanted to scare this group of people. She thought they would get out of the way."

Beaudoin died of massive head trauma at a hospital, Morrell said.

It doesn't matter that Yankee fan Ivonne Hernandez wanted to just scare those Red Sox fans. She got behind the wheel in a drunken state, and used the vehicle as a deadly weapon. She killed Matthew Beaudoin, who died of his injuries at the hospital.

UPDATE:
Ace links. Thanks!

New Hampshire Primary Day

After months of anticipation among the political junkies and pundits, it is finally here. New Hampshire goes to the polls in what will provide hours of droning on about how New Hampshire will force a GOP brokered convention because no frontrunner has emerged and how the Democrats have annointed Barack Obama after he crushes Hillary Clinton.

Already, questions are being asked as to what happened to Hillary. Her campaign was supposed to be the most effective and best funded, and yet it has squandered all that and she's shown that voters are going with Obama instead.

What it boils down to is that Hillary simply isn't that desirable of a candidate - she never was. She doesn't connect with voters and that's something that Obama does well, even as both have virtually similar policy preferences. Hillary's personality rubs people the wrong way. It has nothing to do with her crying moment yesterday, which was called by The Anchoress on January 2 as her polling continued to show her faring badly. Genuine or not, I think she's got serious problems with her campaign strategy, and not even Bill can fix 'em.

As I wrote yesterday, if a candidate shows signs of breaking during the primary run, it doesn't bode well for their capacity to govern as President, which is a nonstop pressure cooker that is 24/7/365 for four straight years. Thomas Sowell echoes those sentiments.

The Times thinks that Hillary miscalculated that the key to the primaries was race and gender, while it appears to have turned on age thus far, which has bolstered the McCain and Obama campaigns.

So, what will happen in New Hampshire today? Well, given that the majority of voters are independents and they get to decide - it's likely to fall to McCain and Obama, who are perceived as the most centrist. It doesn't give any guidance as to what the party faithful are looking for, which is why the race will next focus on South Carolina and Florida after that.

For the GOP, no one candidate is breaking through at this point. Huckabee and Romney have split votes thus far, and McCain looks like he's going to pick up delegates in New Hampshire, which makes one wonder where Rudy Giuliani has been. He's been working nonstop on the states where he's got a big following - big delegate states. With all the others beating up on each other and splitting delegates among them, waiting out the early races was a gamble, but one that might be breaking in favor of Rudy.

UPDATE:
Keep this in mind as the day progresses and exit polls and finally the actual results roll in. Record turnout is one thing, but the only thing that actually matters is how many delegates the candidates get. According to CNN, Hillary still has a sizable lead on Obama, but that could change. Meanwhile, the GOP picture is far more cloudy. Romney has a six delegate lead over Huckabee, with 12 delegates at stake in NH. Even if McCain takes the lion's share, Romney is likely to extend his lead over Huckabee and McCain would still be well behind in the pack with Rudy trailing badly - although he has set his strategy on going after the big ticket states that are at the end of the month and Super Tuesday.

UPDATE:
Despite Drudge and others claiming that various locales were running out of ballots and more had to be trucked in, Cam Cameron is reporting that such was not the case.

The Secretary of State’s office is worried that some areas especially on the more liberal New Hampshire seacoast will run out of ballots

THEY HAVE NOT ACTUALLY RUN OUT OF BALLOTS ANYWHERE (as has been reported elsewhere) but vans have been dispatched to those areas just in case.

They are not printing new ballots. They have reserves. No one has run out and they don’t expect to run out. This is precautionary.

Also, keep in mind that this is an open ballot state, and the residency requirements are so lax as to be laughable.

This year, New Hampshire Democrats pushed through a change that some Republicans contend would enable campaigns to bus in people who could cast a ballot and then vote again in their real home states. "You can vote in New Hampshire without being a resident," said Republican state Sen. Bob Clegg. "You can vote in the primary because you someday may want to live here."

Democratic state Sen. Peter Burling calls such arguments "part of the campaign of fear to restrict people's right to vote."

New Hampshire's deputy secretary of State, David Scanlan, admits the law is ambiguous about prohibiting people from voting in more than one state. "Everybody has the right to vote somewhere," he said. "The question is where."

In other words, if I wanted to drive up to NH from NJ and vote in the election, I could do so - and NH officials couldn't stop me from voting.

This is yet another reason why it is near impossible to draw any conclusions from the results here, let alone make anything of the heavy turnout.

UPDATE:
Trackposted to Rosemary's Thoughts, third world county, The Random Yak, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

The polls have closed and the votes are being tallied. So far, according to ABC News at 8:20PM, Hillary has a small, but clear lead over Obama. On the GOP side, McCain has a sizable lead over Romney with Huckabee trailing badly.

UPDATE:
It's now 9:20, and ABC shows that the gap between Hillary and Obama is closing steadily. It's now down to three points. On the GOP side, McCain is holding a seven point advantage over Romney, but that too appears to be closing slightly. The Politico's numbers correspond to ABC News.

This is anyone's race on the Democrats side, and it will not be until Super Tuesday that we see someone really break through and lay claim to the nomination. McCain has given his victory speech for winning NH.

UPDATE:
Allah wonders if Hillary is going to be able to pull it out and win the state, and notes that the margin between Hillary and Obama is evaporating so the question becomes whether she'll be able to spin even a loss as a victory because she did well despite having all the problems of recent weeks. Spinning accounts for only so much.

It's the number of delegates in the bag that count, and Hillary has to know that while things suck for her at the moment, all of her money can make things happen on Super Tuesday.

The Clintons On The Defensive

This has been a real bad week for the Clinton clan. First, Hillary came in third in the Iowa caucuses. Then, her favorite bagman, Norman Hsu, was sentenced in California to three years in prison from the charges stemming from his 1994 conviction (he's still awaiting trial on multiple charges in New York and California).

Finally, she was booed at New Hampshire Democratic Party dinner. Gateway Pundit has the details.

This comes at a time when her campaign is looking to turn things around. They've rolled out their heavy guns - Bill Clinton, but that double edged sword looks like it's a wee bit dull. He's busy blaming the media for his wife's political misfortunes, and is blaming them if Hillary is forced to go negative on Obama to make up ground.

Are you kidding me? Of course Hillary is going to go negative on Obama. It's the way of politics to go after your opponents with negative stories and ad campaigns because it usually works. People often say they hate all the negativity in political campaigns and yet we see time and time again that those campaigns make up significant ground in polls. Here, there's an interesting dynamic because Hillary would be seen beating up on Obama, who is the first African American candidate who appears to have a shot at winning the nomination and the Presidency (although some media outlets and pundits who run with that line ought to remember that Jesse Jackson came before as did Shirley Chisholm and Jackson won several states including Michigan in the 1984 primaries).

Marc Ambinder has more on the Clinton strategy to swarm New Hampshire with her supporters to help get out the vote and her message. If she does poorly here, where her network is deepest, she's got real serious problems going forward, and it puts Obama in the driver's seat.

Still, the RCP average for the nomination still has Hillary in a commanding position, garnering nearly 44% and a 20 point lead over Obama in polls.

UPDATE:
At least CNN is still covering for the Clintons. They've whitewashed all traces of Hillary's links to Hsunami in their coverage of the sentencing of Norman Hsu, who happened to be one of Hillary's big moneymakers. Don Surber has the details.

Drunken Bender Results in NH Clinton HQ Hostage Crisis

Fresh off a two-day drunken bender, Leeland Eisenberg strapped highway flares to his waist with duct tape and took hostages at Hillary Clinton’s office here, demanding to speak to the senator in a five-hour standoff that drew national TV coverage.

Eisenberg, 47, of Somersworth surrendered into the arms of heavily armed SWAT police after an ordeal that began at 1 p.m. Five hostages including an infant were released unharmed.

Eisenberg’s frantic stepson, who begged police to let him “go tackle” his disturbed dad, told police early on that his stepfather was coming off a 48-hour drinking binge.

Eisenberg wanted to speak to Clinton and even called CNN during the hostage standoff to vent his anger over the lack of proper mental health care. He finally surrendered to a SWAT team at about 6:15 p.m.

A Herald reporter watched as Eisenberg, dressed in a white shirt, gray jacket and red tie, calmly walked into the middle of the street - duct tape visible on his midsection - and held his arms up, slowly took off his jacket and turned around for police.

That bender is going to cost Eisenberg dearly.

He's apparently an ex-convict and a repeat offender on top of his mental health issues. Not only should he receive the appropriate mental health treatment, but he will also need to pay for his criminal acts.

Thankfully the incident resolved itself without any injuries.

Developing: Hostage Situation at Sen. Clinton's NH Campaign Office

Some reports note that the man entered the Rochester, New Hampshire campaign offices of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) wearing a bomb, and it would appear that he's taken hostages.

This is a developing situation and will be updated as circumstances warrant.

UPDATE:
Live video from Boston Channel and more details at Gateway Pundit.

UPDATE:
Fox News is reporting the man wanted to speak with Sen. Clinton. Up to four people may be hostages. The area around Clinton's office has been cordoned off and offices evacuated.

Other nearby presidential campaign offices including those for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John Edwards, have been evacuated, as well as other nearby businesses, according to news reports.

WMUR.com reported: "A young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into [a nearby store] just in tears, and she said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,'" witness Lettie Tzizik said.

UPDATE:
Malkin is covering the developing story and notes that officials have confirmed that two people are being held by the assailant.

UPDATE:
It's real easy to be snide about the situation or motives of the hostage taker, but this is deadly serious. Peoples' lives are in danger there - and it's a situation that has to be handled delicately. This kind of violence has no place in society, and that includes politics.

UPDATE:
The fever swamps on the Left don't seem to have any problem identifying the culprit:

more from the fever swamps.

Here are the odds that this domestic terrorist is a frequent visitor of:
Foxnews.com: Even
Freeperville: 5 to 1
Stalkin Malkin: 2 to 1
Redstate: 8 to 1
Newsbusters: 3 to 1
Drudge: Even
O’Reilly.com: 2 to 1

Of course, if this individual happens to be a disgruntled leftist, Olberman viewer, Clinton patron, or other liberal leaning type, those same folks will disregard the story and/or try to find a way to blame the incident on the Bush Administration.

It's what they do. (HT: Jammie at LGF)

The latest news indicates that the hostage taker is a man with a history of mental illness.

The suspect was a well-known local man with history of emotional issues who told his son to watch the news, a well-placed law enforcement source told ABC News' Pierre Thomas.

Others blogging: Ace and Michelle Malkin.

UPDATE:
CNN reports that two of the hostages were released.

UPDATE:
The hostage-taker's name is inadvertently named by a witness, but no confirmation yet from law enforcement.