I get the impression if General Jack Ripper (the guy that started the war in Dr. Strangelove) would be Limbaughs/O'Rielys perfect candidate.

I can absolutely picture an O'Reilly rant about fluoridation being a commie conspiracy.

Well it's just about 1AM and I think I'm going to bed. Unfortunately my internet connection in the hotel has been crap ($10/day if you can believe that), don't stay at a Sheraton.

Anyway as of now Obama has won Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Deleware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and Utah (so if you're playing at home that's 3 wrong)

Clinton has won Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Tennesee.

New Mexico has only reported 1% and it's likely to take forever to get accurate vote totals.

Of note for Obama the bellwhether state (Missouri), The oddly competitive state (Delaware), and one in Clinton's backyard she was expected to win Connecticut. And he's won many more states than her.

Of note for Clinton, obviously the states she's won are quite populous (New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, etc.) They are also, unsurprisingly, the most liberal.

My screw ups? I used the delegate numbers including the super delegates apparently. So I'll prorate them and give you totals on how wrong I was. Also I probably should have mentioned that the Democrats abroad internet primary spans several days.

Romney's Out, Expect Huckabee to follow. Huck was a spoiler, and McCain may just owe the nomination to him. I wouldn't be surprised to see him try to shore up his lack of evangelical support with a Vice President Huckabee. There may be some concern that the far right will deem them both too liberal, but then the far right would call Generalissimo Franco too much of a lefty.

As for Obama and Clinton, I expect the Clintons to get VERY ugly. It'll be slash and burn, win at all costs. The 5th was supposed to be Clinton's day. They were supposed to be the only ones with enough money to compete in 22 states at once. Unfortunately for her Obama has been outraising her. Word came out yesterday that she had loaned the campaign 5 million of her own dollars, and it is a little unclear how much of that, if any, is counted in the 13 million she says she raised in January. For comparison Obama raised 30+ million dollars in January. Now these aren't FEC filings so the numbers may be fast and loose. In fact they could be total lies, but it would be dumb since it'll be public Mar. 31. Anyway, nasty attacks have a way of making both sides look bad, and turning off voters particularly voters who believe a candidate is a different kind of candidate (reads: Obama voters)

Of note is the fact that Obama has done really well in caucuses, a weird form of voting that favors candidates with a devoted and energetic following. In a primary anybody can vote, and it usually only takes a few minutes. In a caucus you have to show up at a specific time, hang out, divide into groups, and try to convince others to come around to your line of thinking. It tends to disenfranchise older, more feeble voters, who prefer mail in ballots, or quick vote and get it over with types.

There are two ways of looking at Obama's dominating a caucus: They probably don't have that much support in the state as a whole, but the support they have is enthusiastic enough to spend 1-3 hours voting.

There'll be time for a critique of both candidates later, but here's the thumbnail view. Clinton continues to do well with Latinos and old people. Obama does well upper middle class voters, middle class blacks, and has recently shown quite a bit of appeal with white men, a group the Dems tend to lose.

One thing I was thinking as I was watching results come in. Wow John McCain, the presumptive GOP candidate wins a lot of "blue states", and Obama wins a lot of "red states". I doubt it will be this way in a general election, but it does raise the possibility that these two could significantly reshape the race for the presidency. Still waiting on final results from NM, where Clinton is up 1123 votes at the moment.

A memo from the Obama campaign accidentally leaked today identifying that they believe they will have a small margin of delegates, but not enough to win over Clinton (without Florida and Michigan). Florida and Michigan are going to loom large over the convention, as will the superdelegates. I certainly hope the sham election we had (where everyone fully expected it to not matter at all, and no candidate but Clinton was on the ballot) doesn't decide who the winner is. This thing needs to wrap up before the convention, and hopefully without the superdelegates. If they decided the nominee it'll likely be Clinton, since Bill Clinton got most of them into their offices. It will seem like the bad old days of machine politics and smoke-filled rooms if that happens, not good. Here's to a victor soon.

Huck's still in. When a reporter asked why he still tries when even if he takes all the rest of the states by 10%, he would still lose, he said, "I didn't major in Math".