The race for the Democratic nomination has officially gotten ugly.

In neighboring Norristown, Pa. last Thursday, Jose Ortiz stabbed his brother-in-law, Sean Shurelds, after a political dispute while the two were watching the Democratic debate. Shurelds, an Obama supporter, complained that Clinton was “trashing” Barack unfairly. Ortiz, a staunch Clinton backer, took offense. Shurelds recalls the conversation as follows:

Shurelds: Obama is winning this thing!
Ortiz: He can’t win, be realistic.
Shurelds: Let’s see how realistic you are when he wins.

With that brilliant last retort, there’s no doubt that Shurelds won the war of words. But Ortiz, whose candidate proclaims she is a “fighter“, then took matters into his own hands by plunging a kitchen knife into his brother-in-law’s stomach. Shurelds sustained spleen, lung and diaphragm injuries. Ortiz is in county jail and if convicted of felony assault, could face a more serious injury: disenfranchisement.

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In late October, I cheated on my political crush.

Since hearing his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, I’ve had a crush on Obama (see below). I was the first person in my small Alabama town to put an Obama ‘08 sticker on my car (and have the key marks to show for it). But, on October 30th, before the Democratic debate at Drexel, I betrayed Barack’s trust and campaigned for Hillary Clinton.

It happened for the same reason that many affairs do. Convenience.

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Don’t know who to vote for in upcoming presidential primaries? Feeling lost and confused by the vast array of information? Perhaps a brain-scan could help.

Penn’s (or should I say Annenberg’s?) very own Kathleen Hall Jameson was one of several authors of yesterday’s New York Times editorial enticingly titled, This Is Your Brain on Politics. Basically, the team of researchers took brain scans of several independent voters as they saw images of presidential candidates or watched stump speeches.

Jameson threw voters’ deepest, darkest feelings about each candidate into the limelight.

Funny picture of Hillary after the jump!

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