• Mood: calm

Super Tuesday

I watched Life on Mars, then followed the returns of Super Tuesday last night. I was shocked that Huckabee took so many states (5) last night. I thought Romney would do better since talk radio and many blogs were dissing McCain so hard and promoting Romney. I saw Romney's speech. Granted, I've been spoiled by Obama's oratory, but Romney came off fake and lame. Huckabee is a vastly superior speaker (even if his beliefs scare me) and Clinton is perfectly serviceable. I don't think I've heard a whole McCain speech, but I'd bet he's more like Hillary in ability--decent. McCain finally came out as the clear Republican front runner.

On a side note, NRO's The Corner is openly floating the idea that Romney's Mormonism hurt him in the South, especially with Southern Evangelicals. Considering that NRO has consistently claimed that liberals overstate the effects of prejudice, this is an interesting claim. In any case, I think Super Tuesday proved there are more moderates than conservatives in the Republican party. Limbaugh and Hannity will have to readjust. Probably all of Fox News, too.

On the Dem side, it went pretty well as expected. No clear leader. Obama took more states, but Clinton has a delegate lead when superdelegates are counted. Importantly, she got California. It will be ugly and fucked up if she wins on the strength of superdelegates. Of course, superdelegates can change their votes unlike regular delegates. Begs the question of why the Dems have superdelegates. It's not exactly democratic, more like a smoky backroom where muckety mucks make the decisions.

Hillary Clinton

Pledged: 590

Superdelegates: 193

Total: 783

Barack Obama

Pledged: 603

Superdelegates: 106

Total: 709

(Source: CNN)