Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with primary

How can I help my (nearly) seven year old son "get" maths?

h00py — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:00:14 -0800

How can I help my 6 1/2 year old son to *get* maths? It hasn't clicked with him at all and I find myself getting frustrated with having to repeat really basic stuff when helping him with his homework. I'm not a maths genius myself and I really don't want to put him off by getting cranky because he's just not getting it. How do I help him get it? He's a really very bright little fellow who can read exceptionally well and his vocabulary is excellent. He's good with words. It's numbers that he hasn't come to terms with yet. Reading the clock, money, simple addition (and subtraction); all of these things are not within his frame of reference at the moment. How can I help him get the decimal system? I figure that once he's got the whole 'there's only 9 numbers and zero and then you go up a notch and then another notch and so on' at least he'll have somewhere to work from.

He doesn't have to become a mathematician, I just want him to find a good place to start so it all makes some sense. At the moment, he's baffled.

Doesn't this defeat the purpose of a primary?

jujube — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:54:15 -0800

Is it common practice to have a slate of official party endorsed candiates in a primary election? My state (NJ) has its primary election tomorrow. I noticed on my ballot that there is a slate of candidates that have been endorsed by the offical party committee for my local area, and then there are other candidates that haven't been endorsed by the offical Party Powers-that be who are also running. Is this common practice that I've just never noticed before, or something very peculiar to the local branch of my political party? To explain further, the first column says something to the effect of, "regular party", with a slate of candidates under it. The next column says "candidate for change", etc. The label of "regular party" is where you would normally see party affiliation "democratic", "republican", etc., in a general election.

Having a slate of official party-endorsed candidates for a party primary election seems to defeat the purpose of having a direct primary election in the first place. Is this just another weird NJ-ism that I'm noticing as a recent transplant to this lovely state, or is this a common practice? Also, to clarify, I'm not talking about endorsements for a slate by, say, the local LWV that you might receive in a mailing. But rather, an official endorsement by the local party chapter powerholders for it's own primary election candidate of choice.

QUICK, need help on most enviro Friendly candidats for NC Dem Primary!

DetonatedManiac — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:30:06 -0800

QUICK - I'm voting early in the NC primary, along with the rest of my family. ASIDE FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE, who are the most environmentally friendly NC Democratic Primary candidates? We already know how we are voting for the presidential race, but my family all said they are leaving the rest of the ballot empty. But, they said if I find a reputable list of the most environmentally friendly candidates etc we would vote that way.

(We should have been more issue involved, but most of us just don't follow local politics since we recently moved here)

Please help. Thanks

Delegate hunting

brandz — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:51:32 -0800

what will happen to the 26 delegates won by john edwards? he also won some unseated delegates in florida (maybe 13 or so). does he get to give those delegates to whomever he wants, presumably obama or clinton?

Where can we eat and publicly support Obama in Phoenix?

notjustfoxybrown — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:49:24 -0800

My sister and I need a place where we can both eat and watch primary results this evening in or around Phoenix or the East Valley. Bonus points if we can also get drinks there.

Democratic Primary Delegate Count of Terror

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:33:51 -0800

The CNN delegate count says Clinton: 818, Obama: 730, including estimated superdelegates. The MSNBC delegate count says Clinton: 834, Obama: 838, seemingly NOT including estimated superdelegates. What's up with that?

Help Me Find People

billysumday — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:58:15 -0800

How can I find and approach supporters of one of the Democratic candidates in a medium sized town in Ohio (about 25,000 people) in order to interview and possibly film them? I would like to find people that are outside of my personal group of friends and demographic. I am late twenties and work at a college but would like to find older women and blue collar workers. What is the best way to approach or find people who support a particular candidate without just randomly walking up to people in Wal-Mart and asking them (and therefore possibly getting beat up)? Does anyone have any experience doing something like this? How do journalists find and interview people across broad demographics? Ideas that work the quickest are the best. Thanks.

How can I donate more money to Barack Obama?

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:57:15 -0800

How can I donate more money to Barack Obama? I would be willing to donate more of my money to Barack Obama's cause, but I have already donated the maximum legal amount of $2300 for the primary.

I have read that you can donate not just $2300 for the primary, but also another $2300 for the general. In fact, this is encouraged on every politician's website that I've seen. However, it's not clear to me whether the candidate can use general election donations for the primary; if not, I'd rather hold on until it's clear that he's actually going to run in the general.

Another alternative: You can give additional money to... uh... PACs and stuff?

So, my questions are: If I donate now towards the general election, would he be able to use those funds in the primary?

If not, what PAC (or whatever) would most help Obama win the primary?

Submitting anonymously because I'm not interested in having people know that I'm giving thousands of dollars away.

PA Primary deadline?

furiousxgeorge — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:53:52 -0800

Is there a deadline to register as a Democrat to be eligible to vote in the upcoming primary in Pennsylvania? I'm registered as independent, and I'm used to the primary in PA not meaning much, but it is possible this time around it could be important. I feel pretty strongly Obama should get the nod and Hillary will be his toughest opponent, not the Republicans, so I'd like to give him a vote now if I have time to switch my party affiliation.

Do I need to reregister for Alabama's Primaries?

robtf3 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:03:40 -0800

I'm thinking about voting in the Alabama primary. This is something I've never done before. I'm already registered as a voter. I didn't vote in the last election but I did vote in the two (presidential elections) before that. According to UAB's Kaleidescope, I should register by January 25th. Is this the same registration as the last time I registered (for the general elections)? Should I register again? Should I just show up at my voting location? I haven't moved or anything. Am I right in assuming that I only get to vote for one candidate? I would personally like to vote for two, one for the republican of my choice and one for the democrat of my choice.

I'm pretty sure that's not how it works. I can definitely see how it could be abused. Maybe I shouldn't worry with it?

Should I vote in the primary at home or abroad?

grouse — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:09:55 -0800

I currently live overseas but am registered to vote in Texas. If I want to help Obama's campaign the most, should I vote in the 4 March Texas primary, or the 12 February Democrats Abroad primary?

How to get tickets to an invite-only debate?

kingjoeshmoe — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:00:09 -0800

How can I get tickets to the Democratic debate in Los Angeles on January 31, 2008? It's in the Kodak Theater. Their site says that the debate is by invitation only. How do I go about getting myself invited?

Didn't Clinton and Obama tie in New Hampshire?

bryanjbusch — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:25:09 -0800

If the point of a Presidential Primary is to determine how many delegates will vote for a given person in the next phase of picking a nominee, and both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama got 9 pledged delegates in New Hampshire, didn't they tie? I'm not necessarily for Clinton or Obama, and I don't want to talk about the merits of any candidate. I'm just curious about the mechanics of this one thing, and why, even though they both got 9 delegates, Hillary Clinton is the winner of New Hampshire.

What happens to the Democratic delegates from FL and MI?

jaimev — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:02:50 -0800

What's going to happen to the delegates from the Michigan and Florida Democratic primaries? So I read that because these 2 states are holding their primaries too early, the Democratic National Committee are punishing them by not seating their delegates at the convention. Does that mean that, literally, no delegates from Michigan and Florida will be at the convention, and thus will not contribute to the delegate count for any of the candidates?

Do two wins make you the nominee?

cjoh — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 10:22:02 -0800

How many US presidential candidates, democrat or republican, have lost the first two primary/caucus contests and come back to become their party's nominee? The only one I can name off the top of my head is Bill Clinton, who lost both New Hampshire and Iowa but came back obviously to win his party's nomination in 1992.

"I am a member of no organized political party..."

kc8nod — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:34:16 -0800

The Democratic party in Michigan has seen fit to royally screw up the upcoming primary. Will my vote really be worthless? In a sane situation, I'd prefer to vote for Edwards or Obama. But things being as they are, should I:

A) Vote uncommitted on the Democratic ballot and hope that some like-minded delegates get seated at the convention.

B) Vote strategically in the Republican primary. (Ron Paul LOLLZ!!)

C) Something else?

i don't want to squint!

kidsleepy — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 06:05:47 -0800

Why did my external monitor lose confidence overnight? I hate wasting my MeFi question on technical stuff like this that probably is really simple to fix, but oh well. I'm frustrated enough.

My work computer is a Windows 2000 laptop. I have it set up to use an external monitor as the primary desktop, and the laptop display as the secondary desktop. Yesterday I came into work after leaving the computer in sleep mode over night (as I usually do during the week) and my external monitor would not wake up. Instead, it flashed the message "Input Check, H:Off V:Off." then went into "Power Save" and then shut off.

However, when I change the settings to use the laptop display as the primary monitor, my external monitor wakes right up and is functional as a secondary desktop. When I try to change the external back to primary, it goes back into "Power Save." For some reason it now only functions as secondary and not primary.

What did I do wrong and how do I fix it?

Help me recommend an interactive whiteboard.

flabdablet — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:49:34 -0800

Can anybody recommend an interactive whiteboard package for an Australian primary school? I've been tasked with costing a 20-workstation computer lab for a primary school, in pursuit of grant money. One of the must-haves is an interactive whiteboard. As a technician, rather than an educator, I have zero experience with these toys.

Most of them seem to be offered as a package deal with bundled software, for what strikes me as very high prices. So I'd like to hear from people who have used interactive whiteboards in a primary school setting, to find out whether the bundled software is worth paying a significant premium for. Should I be shopping around for a good bundle, or is it more important to get the best deal on good hardware? And what is the most reliable, least troublesome hardware?

I would also be very please to be able to present an Edubuntu-based lab as a costed option, based on a couple of grunty servers and a bunch of el cheapo thin clients; so, bonus points for anybody who can tell me about using interactive whiteboards with Linux.

Life during the rise of Hitler?

unSane — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:14:30 -0800

Life in Germany between 1929-1933? I'm looking for (preferably first-hand) accounts of life in Germany in the early 30s, during Hitler's rise to power. The period leading up to the Reichstag fire, in effect.

Shirer's RISE AND FALL, plus the Isherwood books which CABARET is based on are obvious starting points, but what else is good and immediate?

Bonus: Shirer is persona non grata among historians these days so what are more reliable accounts of Hitler's rise to power?

The whole primary debate online?

thrako — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 13:28:35 -0800

So I missed the presidential primary debate yesterday. Is it available in its entirety somewhere online? MSNBC seems to only have clips. Audio only would be just fine.

Gore 2008?

matkline — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:19:55 -0800

I'm interested in a potential Gore entry into the Democratic Primary. Are any pundits predicting this? Are there any comparable historical entries?

Returning to school, but in the big desk

bystander — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 02:51:57 -0800

Becoming a Primary teacher (in NSW, Australia). Tips/Suggestions? A decade ago I finished with a Masters degree in Education with computing and science majors and was considering teaching high school.
I promptly abandoned teaching for well paid tech jobs, but have lately considered returning. The twist is I think I would rather teach little kids, based on how I have found my kids and friends little ones.
The education department suggests I will qualify academically, but I am a little sketchy on just showing up in a class after 10 years of corporate life and with no experience of younger kids.
So...any pointers, maybe a good book dealing with classroom management for younger kids, or comtemporary ideas in education I can use to get my self up to speed?
I am not necessarily averse to going back to school either, if it was compatible with earning an income at the same time.

Question number 5316

drezdn — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 14:39:32 -0800

In Wisconsin, you don't have to declare a party in order to vote in the primary, which has me wondering, since George W. Bush is a lock on the republican side, why don't republicans vote in the democratic party for the person they think is the least likely to win?