Hope is not without tremendous power. It is a formidable force that can transform matter. Prayer has been proven to have an affect on an ill person. One word or gesture of hope offered to a hopeless person can ignite action and invite new energy. We've seen it throughout history, in prison camps, in lives broken by disastors, in our everyday lives. Without hope weakness sets in, apathy, and all kinds of negative feelings. People do die of broken hearts. The human spirit can be destroyed by hopelessness.

I guess if you have never experienced the miracles hope can perform, then it might seem like a silly or delusional thing.

"Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence." ~Lin
Yutang

The demographic breakdown of the vote in South Carolina does not bode well for Clinton in the South. Edwards won white men with Obama and Clinton essentially tied for second, and Obama won black men and women by 70 points over Clinton. The only large segment that Clinton won was white women, and that by only nine points over Edwards. If Edwards continues to draw white Democrats (who tend to be much more liberal in the South) and Obama smashes everybody in the black vote, Clinton is going to have a hard time, even in states with lower percentages of African-American voters.

Given the limits of time and money, I'll bet she cuts her losses in the deep South and border states and emphasizes liberal northern states and states with large Hispanic populations for February 5th.

Interestingly, late deciders in South Carolina broke heavily for Obama, the opposite of what happened in New Hampshire. Apparently South Carolina voters didn't much like what went on there the last few days and blamed Clinton for the worst of it, or so says the exit polls. I have to say it all made me pretty queasy, too, but I couldn't trust my gut since I'm surely influenced by already being an Obama supporter.

You know what I like best about tonight? Once again there was record turnout in a Democratic primary.

And more folks voted in the Democratic primary than the Republican primary. In South Carolina.

This bodes well for November, whoever is the nominee.

I can hope that I can eat. Does that count?

How about aspiration and augury and wishes and fairies and unicorns?

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With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.

All the Dixiecrats are Republicans now (ok, not all, but most, I'd say).