Raphus cucullatus britannia brexit

June 24, 2016 at 9:48 am

The amazing thing about modern science is how it is capable of continuing to astound us with discovery.  Consider the dodo, a bird we have thought to be extinct since the 1660s. As a recent Atlantic article reported, new science has made some interesting discoveries about the dodo. (Emily Anthes, “The Smart, Agile, and Completely Underrated Dodo,” The Atlantic, June 8, 2016).

The dodo developed on the island of Mauritius, and although perhaps vaguely related to the pigeon, unlike the pigeon, which traveled the world and adapted to the changed circumstances, the dodo stayed where it was, isolated from the world, stayed just the way it was, and a lack of adaptive development contributed to its extinction.  The new research is upsetting some old stories about the dodo. First, examination of skeletal remains suggests that the old stereotype of dodos as fat, lumbering, rather clumsy birds now seems wrong. It seems that in fact they had great strength and agility and some finely tuned abilities that allowed them to weather great challenges, far outlasting some other species that were born in their same evolutionary cohort.

And it looks like they were not hunted to death. The belief that the Europeans who settled on Mauritius drove them to extinction by eating them for dinner appears to be misguided. The Europeans — in this case the Dutch — seem not to have included dodos in their diet, or not much anyway. It might have been the other beasts they brought with them that were the threat to the unadapted dodos.

The Atlantic article did not mention another finding that just seems to be emerging now. There is some evidence that the dodo did travel elsewhere, creating a subspecies that has survived. As often happens with evolution, it is not always possible to recognize genetic cousins, and requires special circumstances or a new method of observation to recognize the link.

And here it is, discovered last night by the Guardian, one of the major national British newspapers:

Rcucullatusbritannia

It’s a remarkable find, if you think about it. There it is, a basically blue bird, some say, from eating and rolling in woad, a behavior that might have been learned from neighboring species. It has a bright yellow head, little wings, behind, and perhaps belly. It is difficult to tell, because this one is sitting down facing away from the rest of the world.

This is a still life, so we do not fully know its future. It looks a little sad. Some observers see a threatening crack at the neck and wonder whether we see in this picture the possibility that it will fall off the body, as tenuous as that connection is looking.

This bird looks very vulnerable, somewhat isolated and sulky. I wonder whether it can turn around and become adaptive enough to thrive?

http://bit.ly/28RJsYb   @VSapiro

By Virginia Sapiro | Posted in Politics | Comments Off on Raphus cucullatus britannia brexit

The Coming Crisis in US Higher Education, 1636-2036

June 19, 2016 at 10:14 am

Before I stepped back from deaning last year I decided to deliver a "decanal valedictory;" some thoughts on higher education that offered a little more intellectual substance than someone in that position normally dispenses on a day to day basis, and that -- not incidentally -- shared first thoughts on the research project that has occupied my time since then, and will for a while.

From time to time someone stumbles on the text and sends good feedback, so I thought I would make it available here.

Coming-Crisis-in-Higher-Ed-Sapiro-2015

@VSapiro    http://bit.ly/1QdUGGt

By Virginia Sapiro | Posted in Education | Comments Off on The Coming Crisis in US Higher Education, 1636-2036

Are Arts & Sciences Colleges Adequately Supported Relative to Professional Schools?

June 16, 2016 at 9:11 am

It is important to recognize that while in recent years the growth of scientific and technical study has increased in all universities, the number of students in the former course in Arts has possibly not kept pace with this new demand for professional education; still, as a matter of fact, every increase in the number of students has created in effect a demand for additional instruction, in the department of arts. Thus, while this important college has not perhaps formally grown, the amount of instruction required in it, and the number of students pursuing courses falling within its province, has vastly increased. It may be a question whether the appropriations for this college, which in addition to the instruction of its own students furnishes a major part of all of the instruction in the other colleges, except those of Law and Medicine, have kept pace with the amounts bestowed upon the technical schools.


(Waterman Thomas Hewitt, Cornell University: A History, 1905, p.219)


@VSapiro      http://bit.ly/1tsQJmK

By Virginia Sapiro | Posted in Education | Comments Off on Are Arts & Sciences Colleges Adequately Supported Relative to Professional Schools?

It’s Historic. And It Matters.

June 7, 2016 at 10:12 pm

It didn’t take a full century from the time the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote, until a woman became the candidate of a major party for the presidency. We left four years to spare.

Forty-two countries have had a female head of government.

It matters.

Until now, we weren’t good enough to be real contenders in the United States for the highest office.

It matters.

I have had the opportunity to see many important moments in the history of women in the United States. When I was a child, only a minority of women were in the workforce, and they were excluded from many professions. There was no word for, no recognition of sexual harassment. Women had no legal means to control whether and when they had a child. On most days of the week, we had to endure obnoxious comments as we walked down the street, just because we were women. Women were excluded from juries. There was one woman in the Senate. One. We were called “coeds” and professors made a game of us. Domestic violence was just what happened. And on and on.

But I had come to doubt that in my lifetime I would see a woman be a major party candidate for the presidency, let alone the President.

Some people have dismissed supporters of Hillary Clinton who are longing to see this historical threshold crossed, suggesting they are putting supporting “just any woman” over policy. It’s not new to accuse women of not being smart enough to make the right decisions for themselves. Women who have been around a while are used to that.

It is historic.

And it matters.

 

@VSapiro    http://bit.ly/1X9xpqY

By Virginia Sapiro | Posted in Elections, Politics | Comments Off on It’s Historic. And It Matters.

What is a Boy?

May 26, 2016 at 8:34 am

Planting season means no time to blog, but in working on my history of higher education in the U.S. (Nebraska phase), I ran across this in the July, 1951 issue of Mennonite Life: An Illustrated Quarterly. Just had to share. Don't miss the fact that they credit the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company in Boston.   Boston -- not a very Mennonite place ....

Click on the text to see it in readable form.

 

BoyTextBoyPic

Back to the garden.

@VSapiro

By Virginia Sapiro | Posted in Whatever | Comments Off on What is a Boy?

Reinventing Myself after Deanship

May 2, 2016 at 8:23 am

I was recently asked to write a little essay on how I am reinventing myself after a long time in university administration. Exciting and intimidating. I thought I might title it: "A Twelve-Step Program: Take Twelve Steps and Keep on Walking." Here's the essay: http://www.bu.edu/polisci/virginia-sapiro-essay/ .

By Virginia Sapiro | Posted in Education, Whatever | Comments Off on Reinventing Myself after Deanship

Detroit on My Mind: Lost Communities

April 24, 2016 at 8:21 pm

My father, Bill Sapiro, grew up in Detroit in the 1920s and 1930s. His parents moved there from New York in very different ways. My grandfather, Abram, was born on the Lower East Side of New York in the 1880s, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. Unusually, he made his way to Ann Arbor to pursue a law degree, which he completed in 1909.

Somehow, perhaps back in New York to visit his family, he met his future wife, my grandmother, Celia, born in the mid-1890s. The Census reports that her mother was from Poland and her father from Russia. Her family was in a very different situation. She lived on the Upper East Side (as I understand it) and went to the Ethical Culture School. Founded by Felix Adler, the Kantian/Hegelian son of rabbi who opened a free kindergarten for the children of the working poor in 1878 that later grew into the Ethical Culture School in 1895, now charging tuition and serving more wealthy families as well. It was popular among a certain set of secular Jews or, as my mother used to say disparagingly, “the Germans”. (This is what many Jews traditionally regarded as a “mixed marriage;” the more “Jewish” Russian Jews and the more secular “German” Jews. My grandfather won an important skirmish with my grandmother by assuring that my father had his Bar Mitzvah.) My grandmother and her brother went to the predecessor school of Juilliard (The Institute of Musical Art, founded 1905), and my grandmother and her mother went on a Grand Tour to Europe.

This couple settled in Detroit, where my grandfather started his own private legal practice, they raised their son, and they remained until my grandfather’s death in the mid-1960’s. A lot of family was there – someday I will have to figure out how that happened. I visited my grandparents in Detroit a couple of times when I was a little girl. The main thing I remember is the excitement of travelling there over night from New York on a sleeper coach on the train.

My father never returned to Detroit after the death of his father. But from time to time he would talk about his love of his hometown. He remained loyal to the Tigers to the end, even after over 60 years in and around New York. He talked about going to the Fox Theater, and was very happy when it was restored. He teared up when he talked about the demise of Detroit as it depopulated and lost its status as one of the great American cities. He blamed the Fords. (“Anti-semites!”) He strongly believed that while the great robber-baron families of the other major cities invested in the central city, using their philanthropy to build great public buildings and institutions, parks, and other supports for the city, the Fords invested outside the city. He was staunch in that belief. Late in his life, he wanted me to take him there, wanted me to drive him around his old neighborhoods. I regret that I didn’t so when his mind was still strong enough to handle the changes. But by the time I knew time was of the essence, it was too late.

I did not spend more than a few days in Detroit, and even when I was in graduate school in Ann Arbor, we only went in a few times, say, to go to Greektown. But I have wondered what has happened to my family’s old neighborhoods, how they are faring.

It was mesmerizing to pour through the New York Times photo gallery of the over 43,000 Detroit properties that were on the brink of foreclosure in 2014.

It all struck home – even more – when I was chatting with Daniel Bluestone, the architectural historian, and I realized he could help me find out something about where my grandparents lived. He traced them n the 1930 and 1940 census records, and found them renting in succession, two different houses on Calvert Street in Detroit. It is the picture of the house they lived in in 1930  that struck me especially. Here it is in a recent picture he sent me:

Sapiro 1930 Calvert Detroit

As Daniel wrote to me, who knows whether it still exists. Detroit is demolishing 200 structures a week, and for all we know, this is gone.

This is what I can’t get out of my mind: Looking at that picture, I think about what a sweet home that must have been for a young couple who were the children of immigrants, most of whom never learned to speak English fluently. They came from New York, and although they were renting, it was a pretty house surrounded by pretty houses. I imagine my grandfather going off to his law office each morning, the first in his family to go to college. And my grandmother home, taking care of her young son. I imagine one of those windows on the second floor with a 6-year-old gazing outside, dreaming of all of the fun things he might do. I’ve seen pictures of my father as a little boy. Cute kid.

And I think about the young and growing families who occupied that house during the many decades that followed. Families who dreamed, and talked with their neighbors, and the children who went off to school together.

All of this until the economic infrastructure of Detroit crumbled, and people left, and more people left, and more, until there were far more houses than people. And for thousands of houses in so many of the neighborhoods of Detroit, there are no more 6-year-olds looking out of the windows, thinking about all the games they might play.

There are many people and groups working hard to strengthen and revitalize Detroit. I was fortunate to hear Maurice Cox, the Planning Director of the City of Detroit a couple of weeks ago at a BU Initiative on Cities Seminar, Dynamic City: Futures for the Past. . It was inspiring. I hope it works. For the sake of the future of 6-year olds of Detroit.

http://bit.ly/1VSTqd5     @VSapiro

By Virginia Sapiro | Posted in Whatever | Comments Off on Detroit on My Mind: Lost Communities

Passion and Reason

April 3, 2016 at 8:57 am

Some juxtapositions are just too good to pass by without comment.

This morning's Washington Post has an article by Stephanie McCrummen entitled, "At rallies, Hillary Clinton's supporters are looking for logic, not passion."  It picks up on an important theme in this year's campaign which might at first seem like a matter of style, but is actually a critical matter of substance."

We see "passion" all around us. The huge screaming crowds at Trump and Sanders rallies, the beat-em-up readiness for a fight at Trump events. The unvarnished, raucous, in-your-face quality of the blogo-twitter-sphere that degenerates into a usually childish slugfest under cover of anonymity within a couple of posts, even in the conventional leading press. Then there is thread of Republicans party who find John Kasich just, well, boring in comparison. And the Democrats who might like Hillary Clinton's experience and knowledge, but (looking over their shoulder wistfully at the Sanders rallies) just don't see real passion in her by comparison. Just don't feel swept off their feet.

The WAPO article does a good job of wading into the "passion" issue -- it's worth reading, and I won't repeat the points here.

Of course politics requires both reason and passion -- the latter perhaps also translated as commitment, dedication, a mission. But this may also be a distinction that plays differently with respect to running for office  and holding office. Getting to be president puts primacy on being able to attract and energize crowds. The work of being president requires very different skills, even if energized crowds are great photo ops for an office holder.

Serious matters. But I couldn't help laughing when, in my on-line version of the article, I found the following article/advertisement juxtaposition.  Or maybe I'm mistaken ... maybe really part of the article?

Viagra

 

http://bit.ly/25EjRqb     @VSapiro

By Virginia Sapiro | Posted in Elections, Politics | Comments Off on Passion and Reason

Obsessions of Early Spring Northern Gardening

March 21, 2016 at 12:58 pm

It’s snowing here in New Hampshire, and today I transplanted some celeriac, cutting celery, and snapdragons. No one has fingers small and sensitive enough to sow the microscopic seeds of these plants so that they don’t germinate and grow up hugging each other to death. Yes, I know about mixing them -- and poppies, and the other ridiculously tiny seeds -- in dry sand and planting that to distribute them more widely. But as an amateur without tons of space to seed start or certainly, transplant while the possibility of frost lingers outside, I’m very conservative about using space, plants lights, heat mats and other necessities of indoor gardening in the northern late winter and early spring.

I start the season by nano-gardening. The term micro-gardening has already been taken for small gardens, especially urban gardens, which is very cool.  I use nano-gardening to describe the tiny, tweezer stage of plant growth. Imagine my dining room being taken over by a 3-tier set of plant trays with lights on timers, heat mats on a thermostat, and a schedule that maps out what needs to be started when so it is timed just right in an unpredictable climate to go out to my unheated glass greenhouse and then out to the gardens. I have to think about how I keep them just right – not too dry, not too damp – while I am in Boston part of every week, and how to juggle the times I am out of town or out of country for longer.

The first of this year’s planned harvest has been in the ground since last October, when we tilled up the fields, chose the location for this year’s garlics, planted the rows, hayed them over and marked them clearly so I know exactly where they are after the snow clears. They are already growing, despite the frosts and today’s snow. Other favorites for this year are also in the ground getting ready to launch themselves. I’ll look forward to seeing the volunteer sunflowers that pop up here and there, and dread the armies of borage from last year’s seed drops that will try to take over the garden. A farmer neighbor gave me 4 tomatillos 3 years ago, and I now know to expect a mass of them popping up in their corner of the garden. I will find volunteer Yellow Beam and Black cherry tomatoes, and while I am supposed to throw them out for fear of tomato diseases, as usual I won’t have the heart to do so.

Over the winter I do the usual winter chores of a gardener, and live a rich fantasy life as the seed catalogues roll in. I also work on my document about my seeds and plants – not just logistical issues about when I should start them and how I should plant them, but their histories. Everyone talks about food for thought, but this is an exercise in thought for food.

I want to know where the plants originally came from so when we eat them we know the stories. The Cylindra beet is a Danish heirloom. The Scarlet Nantes carrots go back to the 1850s. The Diamond eggplant came from Ukraine. The Ananas D’Amerique Melon was grown by Thomas Jefferson. Big Boston lettuce originally came from France. The Violet de Galmi onions came from Southeast Niger. Rat’s Tail radishes originated in Java. The Cobbler potatoes were supposedly discovered by an Irish shoemaker in the late 1800s. The Long Pie pumpkin is probably an old Native American variety and the Galeux d’Eysines squash hails from Bordeaux. Aunt Ginny’s Purple tomatoes came from Germany, the Aussie comes from (yes) Australia, Brad’s Black Heart came from Brad Gates in California, Neves Azorean Red tomatoes came from (yes) the Azores, the Paul Robeson origined in Siberia, the Wapsipinicon Peach originated in Iowa. Most of the tomato histories involve breeders whose names we know and who clearly understand the meaning of “labor of love.”

The seed-starting schedule starts with onions, parsley, and delphinium in February, then moves on through a succession of flowers (ending with Mina Lobata, Zinnia, and Cerinthe in late April), greens and herbs (the lemongrass is looking good!). March is brassica time – in my case, some different color and shape broccoli and cauliflower. My rule is don’t grow anything that will look as it does in a supermarket.

April is the marquee planting time, because my favorite seeds go in. First the eggplants and peppers – about 8 different varieties of the former and 10 kinds of the latter. Then my favorites – 30 varieties of tomatoes. Red, pink, orange, yellow, black, green, huge, large, small, and cherries. Fabulous names. More about these later in the spring.

Then later April the cucumbers (I used to do 3-4 different kinds, but I’m settling on an Asian variety), squashes and pumpkins of different colors, sizes and shapes. Winter squashes mostly.

Then, there are the seeds that will go straight into the ground. Radishes (6 varieties), peas (4), beans (6), beets (10), carrots (9), greens, lettuces, and herbs I didn’t start inside. And of course potatoes. 6 or 7 kinds. And others.

But back to this time of year. The nano-gardening of the late-winter hobby gardener is a world of attentiveness to the slightest growth, the slightest change in field of soil that measure 1-1/2 inches by 1-1/2 inches,  the bare beginnings of troubles like the dreaded damping off or the tiny nano-insects that sometimes invade, search and destroy these precious little beings.

Like all babies, these little plants are so planned for and anticipated, so precious. When I am at home in NH I visit them multiple times a day. Water from the bottom, mist them on the top. Check them out every morning before I even pour my coffee to see whether anyone else (yes, “anyone”) has poked its head above the surface.

As with all babies, it is amazing to imagine these tiny little specks of green as they will be in late summer. Can those tiny little folded green pins turn into large purple onions? Those lovely delicate pairs of leaves will be big, ugly but tasty celeriac? The impossibly small clusters of round leaves will be a dozen tall snapdragon plants that will bend with their own height and weight?

You never know what to expect. I planted three different kinds of onion seeds. The Violet de Galmi came up fast and profusely. A second kind (I’m not even sure what, perhaps Jaune Pailles des Vertus) are seeds I saved from onions that failed last year by bolting immediately. A lot have germinated – maybe a third to a quarter of them. A third kind, which I loved when I first grew them a few years ago, Noordhollandse Bloedrode, failed utterly to germinate. All fresh seed, grown under identical circumstances, but who knows. I see in online discussions a lot of people complaining about the germination rate of the Noordhollandse. So I gave up on them and started more Violet de Galmi and my bolt-derived seeds. I have transplanted my affections already.

By this second day of spring, I have transplanted the first round of onions, parsley, kale, snapdragons, and today, the celeriac into bigger pots. I could be mistaken, but I think they are all looking happier and quite eager to spread their leaves (and roots) more. The greens and herbs I threw into the raised beds in my greenhouse – the ones that are happy enough with cold -- are starting to come up. The sorrel in there is emerging, and we’ll have our first soup before the last frost.

I’m not a farmer. A farmer couldn’t treat plants and growing this way. I’m a hobby gardener. But I learn a lot from my farmer neighbors, and they are wonderfully encouraging and tolerant of my hobby.

The snow has stopped. Time to go look at my seedlings again.

http://bit.ly/1PmMBYH       @VSapiro

By Virginia Sapiro | Posted in Food, Gardening | Comments Off on Obsessions of Early Spring Northern Gardening

Smile, Joe: The Last Really Super Tuesday

March 16, 2016 at 12:35 pm

Here is a longer version of an interview I did with with Margaret Waterman of BU Professor Voices on the results of the 3/15 primaries.  As of this writing, the Missouri races have not been completed, but I'm looking at the current results and the New York Times Live Model.

We’ve had quite a few “Super Tuesdays” recently. You think this is the last one?

This is the final Super Tuesday of the season, although the primary season is far from over, and we have some important states coming up.

The concept of Super Tuesday originated with the first pile-up of not just a lot of primaries, but major ones, all happening on the same day in March. This year we saw “the” Super Tuesday, on March 1, but then on March 8 and 15 then we had Tuesdays with smaller numbers of states, but some really major ones. This is the last and pivotal Super Tuesday, although on April 26 we have a cluster including Pennsylvania and Maryland, which are large.

But look at where we are. Clinton now has 1561 delegates (without Missouri) to Sanders’ 800, including super delegates. If from now on Clinton nets exactly half the delegates at stake in every primary, it will take her until the beginning of June to win sufficient delegates, and with plenty to spare. But if the Democratic results follow the pattern we have seen, she will capture her needed delegates earlier. On the Republican side it is more complicated because there are still 2 opponents in play and there is an energetic movement against the frontrunner, but nothing suggests that Donald Trump’s march to the nomination can be stopped.

Nevertheless we shouldn’t underemphasize the importance of the campaigns still to go in battleground states. As they gain confidence we will see Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton pivoting more strongly to run against each other in some very important battleground states.

So what are the big results and big surprises, if any, this week? Let’s start with the Republicans.

The past week has seen an intensification of the anti-Trump campaigns owing largely to the way he has been encouraging violence among his supporters and how he set up a terribly scary and dangerous situation last Friday as he left his supporters and opponents to battle it out while he stayed away.

But the anti-Trump campaign has had no real effect on the outcome in terms of the delegate count. The biggest news of last night, other than the continuing progress of the Trump juggernaut, is that Marco Rubio’s candidacy is over. He suffered a very decisive defeat in his home state of Florida to Donald Trump and ended his campaign. John Kasich won his home state and is trying to make up a story about his road to the convention, but there is no way he can gather the delegates. The margin in Missouri between Trump and Cruz was super close this Super Tuesday III.

And on the Democratic side? The polls were predicting that it would be a good night for Hillary Clinton, but clearly no one seemed certain given the events of Michigan last week.

For the elections and polls nerds among us, it is worthwhile to look at some of the discussions in recent days in Nate Silver’s 538, the New York Times section The Upshot, and the Washington Post section, The Monkey Cage. All of these have had excellent analyses of what went wrong in the polls and predictions, and why they thought that unprecedented miscall would likely remain singular this week. They are great sources for data-based analysis, a welcome relief from punditry and advocacy.

This week, the polls and predictions were largely correct. Hillary Clinton took all of the races this week with a squeaker in Missouri. Her wins in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio were decisive, and the Ohio one was especially important because Bernie Sanders said he could win it, and it is a big non-Southern state. In that respect, although it wasn’t a huge gap, Illinois was very important too. As with many other northern states, the advantage Clinton seemed to begin with narrowed as time when on, but the goal for primaries is winning more delegates than the other person.

What can we say about the base of support for Clinton and Sanders, and now that we might have a clearer picture of the finish line, what are the implications for the general election?

I’ll use the exit polls reported by CNN for this.

Bernie Sanders continued to have his biggest wins among young voters and Independents. His best strength is among people who are pretty new to electoral politics and to people who have not been much associated with the Democratic party. Of course he has himself been “associated” with Democrats, but has spent his entire political career as an Independent. For some people in the Democratic party that, of course, is an issue, because the point of the primary season is to pick the candidate of the party. The open primary system is very unusual in comparison with other countries, which usually require that to select a party’s candidates, you have to be part of that party.

Bernie Sanders also has an advantage among white men and in some states, but not all, white women. Hillary Clinton’s strength is greater in general among women and among African Americans. This has been consistent all through the primary season. Of course there are variations. In Florida, a big win for Clinton, white men favored Sanders 52%-46%. In Missouri white men favored Sanders 61%-38%. In Illinois white gave Sanders an even stronger lead, and white women favored Sanders by 2 percentage points. In North Carolina white men were the only group to give the nod to Sanders.

This week we also learned something about Latinos’ political perspectives. In Florida Clinton was the overwhelming favorite of Latinos, who are generally more associated with the Democratic than Republican party. It is important to bear in mind that the Latino community is extremely diverse in their national origins and class status. A lot of people think of Florida Latinos as entirely Cuban, but that’s not true, and especially lately the proportion of Puerto Ricans has risen sharply. But this is an important sign for fall elections, because Latinos are such important populations in some very key battleground states for Democrats, like New Mexico and California.

What about income and education? Bernie Sanders works very hard to paint his opponent as representing the 1%. How does that play with people of different class backgrounds?

The issue of class and economic standing is an especially important question given the emphasis of the last couple of weeks on trade. There are two different themes one might emphasize on trade treaties, and he paints them entirely as designed to benefit big business by allowing them to send their production overseas, “exporting jobs,” as opponents of freer trade have long said. The other way to look at the issue (and the reason a lot of supporters are in favor of freer trade pacts) is opening up markets for American goods, which stimulates production and jobs. But with the emphasis on the job export theme, on “the 1%” and campaign finance, Sanders has looked to gain support among those less well off.

The exit polls show a mixed picture, as we might imagine given the racial breakdown of the vote. In North Carolina Clinton and Sanders did roughly equally well among those earning less than $50K (slight edge to her), he had an edge among those earning $50-$100K, and she won among those earning more than $100K. In Illinois she won among those earning under $50K and over $100K, and he won the income bracket between $50-$100K. In Missouri he had an edge in that least well-off group and she did in the most well-off group and they split the middle group. In Florida she took every income group decisively. So the attack on her links to the 1%, to Wall Street, and the like is making a difference, but it is not making any simple difference in slicing up the class and income pie.

There is always a lot of side commentary on social media going on during these long primary nights. Were there any interesting sideshows?

The highlight sideshow of the evening, hands down, started when Joe Scarborough, Morning Joe co-host, took the time during Hillary Clinton’s victory speech to tweet:

Joe

Other male commentators complained about her shouting. That’s not a good move. Hardly a woman has managed to get through life without being told by some guy to smile … especially in the middle of a serious discussion. The Twitter feed lit up with retorts, jokes, snarky replies. Various folks showed pictures of other candidates and told them to smile. Someone put up a picture of Mr. Scarborough and asked him to smile. He seemed to get a little

Fake

Hmmm. Fake outrage. In any case, some wondered why other candidates aren’t told to be quiet and smile. Indeed.

http://bit.ly/1Z0L4io             @VSapiro

By Virginia Sapiro | Posted in Elections, Politics | Comments Off on Smile, Joe: The Last Really Super Tuesday