Super Tuesday - The Morning After

So what did yesterday's Super Tuesday primary and caucus results prove? Not much, but I can find a few things to say about them.

Hillary Clinton won the biggest states in contention among the Democrats yesterday - California, New York, and my home state of New Jersey - but Barack Obama won more states, thirteen to Hillary Clinton's eight. (The jury is still out on New Mexico.) As a result, due to the proportional representation of delegates, the race came to a virtual draw. Even the pundits can't decide who won more delegates, but they agree that the margin is very small.

I would give the edge to Obama, because he upset Hillary in Connecticut and was able to take Georgia, which will soon outpace New Jersey in population figures. Obama's big win in a state that normally goes Republican showed that he could excite and bring in a large number of Democratic voters - particularly black voters - in a Southern state. It was the strength of black voters in the South, as Jesse Jackson once pointed out, that helped the Democrats win back the Senate in 1986 during the Reagan administration. Obama's presumed ability to bring in voters in "red" states could help him in a general election and help the Democrats win in the South. The fact that he eked out a victory in Missouri - a state that reflects the mood of the country at large in presidential elections - speaks volumes about his appeal. This will give Obama great momentum in the primaries and caucuses still to come.

Hillary Clinton had to lend (not "loan," as some pundits said) her own campaign five million dollars to keep it going up to Super Tuesday as the Obama campaign rakes in the dough, and that alone is significant. As the popular momentum swings toward Obama, he's getting a lot of his money from small donors. It says a good deal about the mood of the voters. Mrs. Clinton might be able to hold onto her coalition of older women and Hispanics in later contests, but more people seem to be deciding that, as a potential President, Hillary makes one hell of a senator.

On the Republican side, John McCain is clearly going to be the nominee. Mitt Romney won a few states, but he can't seem to get much traction. Ominously for McCain, though he won in Northeastern states that he could be competitive in come November due to his strength with independents, the states in the South went solidly for Mike Huckabee. McCain still has trouble with Dixie voters he's going to need in a general election - particularly if his opponent is Barack Obama - and he'll need Huckabee's support to reach out to the evangelicals and cultural conservatives who supported the former Arkansas governor.

This is ironic, as McCain has a solid conservative record of his own. Yet, due to his stands on immigration, campaign finance reform, and combatting global warming, conservative talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh are disgusted by him. As I recall, John McCain once called Limbaugh "the best thing to happen to America." Limbaugh has a peculiar way of showing gratitude.

Whomever the Democrats and Republicans nominate for President - hey, is Mike Gravel still in the race? - neither side will get an ideologically pure candidate. But each party will have a pragmatic nominee who will work to solve the many problems this allegedly great nation faces. That will hardly be a bad thing.

Now about former candidate Bill Richardson. . . . What's up with that beard? :-D