They are still counting votes so a preliminary look at national vote numbers can't be done yet. But in so far as the delegate count is concerned, the evening was essentially a tie. That said, Obama's momentum really came into play. Two weeks ago he was trailing Hillary Clinton by double digits in nationwide surveys, yet we wake up this morning to find he kept pace with her all night long.
Sure, she won key states like California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts; but he won 13 states overall, many by wide margins. He managed to wrestle 40% of the vote in Senator Clinton's home state of New York, whereas she could barely muster 33% in Obama's Illinois.
Obama proved to have a geographic reach the Clinton camp could only dream of having. He won substantial victories in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Kansas, Georgia, and Alabama; and, importantly, he won the key bellweather of Missouri. While I would never expect all of those states to go Democratic in a general election, Obama's vote totals in each of them is an excellent barometer of how he might perform nationally in November.
Turn out was tremendous yesterday, and it is obvious that Democratic voters are passionate about their candidates. On "Super-duper Tuesday" it really boiled down to casting a ballot for a candidate they felt was super-duper vs. one they felt was super. Compared to the Republicans (old and not-so-popular within the GOP vs. the side show baptist minister vs. the Mormon Ken Doll), the Democrats are charged!
No...I haven't changed my mind about Clinton's chances in November (this is the America that gave Bush a second term, after all), but it's hard to deny that, on paper, she is a great candidate.
And so, much to Hillary's chagrin, Super-duper Tuesday resulted in a tie. Attention know focuses on Louisiana, Washington State, and Maine this weekend; and Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC next week.
