Hollywood writers agreed to a contract with producers, ending the strike that essentially closed down Hollywood and separated fans from new episodes of their favorite shows for more than three months:

A devastating, three-month walkout that brought the entertainment industry to a standstill ended Tuesday when Hollywood writers voted to lift their union’s strike order and return to work Wednesday.

The move allows some TV series to return this spring with a handful of new episodes. It also clears the way for the Academy Awards to be staged on Feb. 24 without the threat of pickets or a boycott by actors that would have dulled the glamour of Hollywood’s signature celebration.

So the writers will return and with them (eventually) new episodes of shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, and House. And let’s not forget that the late night comedy shows will get their writers back, which is definitely good news for Jay Leno. Man, did he stink it up without comedy to read!

All that this three months of drama really did was get writers a little bit more of what they deserve, annoy the hell out of television viewers, and expose TV as a dying medium and delivery method.

Whether the networks like it or not, the future is in Internet television, where true convergence will allow viewers to choose what shows they want to watch, when they want to watch them, and without worry of new shows getting cancelled after two episodes.

Barack Obama overtook Hillary Clinton’s delegate lead with three more wins (now eight in a row) and John McCain got his momentum back after winning the Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland primaries:

Obama’s wins in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia primaries propelled him past Sen. Hillary Clinton in the race for delegates. […]

Obama had led in pledged delegates, but Clinton had held the lead when superdelegates were factored in.

The Illinois senator has now won eight consecutive contests.

Despite regaining the delegate lead, the race on the Democratic side is far from over and may actually come down to a decision by the close to 800 superdelegates at the convention in August.

In the Republican primaries, John McCain rebounded after three losses last week to win against Mike Huckabee:

Huckabee continued to reemphasize his vow to stay in the race until a candidate reaches the required number of delegates to become the nominee.

This article was originally posted at ElectionSquad.com.

Rudy Giuliani abandoned his White House bid Wednesday and endorsed John McCain after a lackluster showing in the Florida primary:

Rudy Giuliani, who sought to make the leap from New York mayor to the White House, bowed out of the Republican presidential contest Wednesday and endorsed front-runner and longtime friend John McCain.

“John McCain is the most qualified candidate to be the next commander in chief of the United States,” Giuliani said. “He’s an American hero.” […]

The endorsement joined two Republicans who had campaigned on similar themes that highlighted their national security credentials — McCain’s status as a Vietnam POW, war hero and a Senate voice on defense matters, and Giuliani as a stalwart New York mayor during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Giuliani, who was once considered the front-runner on the Republican side, skipped several early primary states and made Florida his make-or-break state, campaigning there for several weeks. His endorsement should be helpful to McCain.

This article was originally posted on ElectionSquad.com.

John Edwards decided to drop out of the Presidential race Wednesday, announcing a commitment to end poverty from both of his fellow Democratic presidential contenders:

Former Senator John Edwards, D-N.C., surrounded by his wife Elizabeth and his children, announced Wednesday his presidential bid has come to an end.

“It’s time for me to step aside so that history can blaze it’s path,” Edwards said, making his announcement against the backdrop of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans on the site of a Habitat for Humanity home-building project.

“I began my presidential campaign here to remind the country that we, as citizens, and as a government have a moral responsibility to each other,” he said. “We must do better if we want to live up to the great promise of this country that we all love so much.”

Edwards’ withdrawal from the race means that the delegates he has won thus far are up for grabs. And many political experts expect that his supporters and delegates will largely move to support Barack Obama, and not Hillary Clinton.

Edwards did not endorse any candidate in his withdrawal speech, although he has reportedly spoken to both camps regarding an endorsement.

This article was originally posted at ElectionSquad.com.

John McCain beat Mitt Romney in the Republican winner-take-all delegates Florida primary Wednesday:

With 99 percent of Republican precincts reporting from Florida after Tuesday’s voting, McCain held a five-point lead, 36 percent to 31 percent, over Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani placed a distant third with 15 percent of the vote, followed closely by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who held 14 percent.

The results essentially put John McCain in the frontrunner position for the Republicans and essentially ended Rudy Giuliani’s campaign, after he made Florida his make-or-break state.

Democrats also voted, but the Democratic National Committee stripped the state of its delegates as a penalty because the state pushed their primary up before February 5th. The Democratic primary was largely referred to as a “beauty contest,” although that didn’t stop Hillary Clinton, who got 50% of the vote from celebrating her “victory”:

This article was originally published at ElectionSquad.com.

Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary in a landslide over Hillary Clinton Saturday:

Sen. Barack Obama claimed a significant victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday, telling supporters “we are hungry for change.”

The Illinois senator earned more than twice the vote that rival Sen. Hillary Clinton did, 55 percent to 27 percent, unofficial returns showed.

Former Sen. John Edwards was third with 18 percent.

“Tonight, the cynics who believed that what began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion were told a different story by the good people of South Carolina,” Obama said to supporters Saturday.

Obama referenced the “snows of Iowa”? Now who’s injecting race into this campaign? Geez, we already know Iowa is 94% white, Barack. Okay, we’re just kidding. We’re not going to discuss race here as the defining issue of the campaign, as some others have done.

All kidding aside, Obama won more than double the vote Clinton did, certainly giving him momentum (and the delegate lead) going into the humongous Super Tuesday contests in 24 states on February 5th.

This article was originally posted at ElectionSquad.com.

Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich is dropping out of the presidential race, according to an article in his hometown newspaper:

The Cleveland-area congressman is facing a primary challenge to his seat in the House from a number of Democrats, including Joe Cimperman, who has begun running an attack ad accusing Kucinich of being a “part-time congressman” and missing more than 300 votes in the House.

After being shut out of consecutive debates on CNN, ABC, and NBC, it seemed that the mainstream media had decided Kucinich was out of the race a long while ago.

And the FCC didn’t find itself having jurisdiction to do anything about the networks excluding Kucinich either.

For those of you who love supporting the underdog, don’t dismay, Mike Gravel is still officially running for President, at least according to his website.

And then there were 4…

This article was originally posted on ElectionSquad.com.