'Bamalamadingdong

Democratic voters are now taking cues from a thriving corner of internet porn: young black stud sticking it to the white chick. And an older woman at that! Three more primaries in the books yesterday, Virginia, Maryland, and DC. Decisive victories for Obama in all three, giving him eight straight dominant wins in the week since Super Tuesday. Momentum is overrated in football and baseball, but in politics it’s real. Here he comes, squeeze play, it's gonna be close, here's the throw, there's the play at the plate, holy cow, I think he's gonna make it!

Stop right there. Before we go any further, this primary is still a long way from over. Clinton has too much money, too many political resources, too much skill and knowledge to go down quietly. She’s behind now, and only close due to superdelegates, but there are still a ton of delegates out there. The race slows down dramatically from here – a week until the next three contests (Wisconsin, Hawaii, Washington II) and then two weeks until the next four (Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, Vermont). Plenty of time for things to change, and Obama’s inexperience makes him potentially vulnerable. I, for one, still believe (and hope) that Clinton will keep it interesting and go all the way.

This recent trend is pretty interesting, though. Two things are clearly different since Super Tuesday. One is just the fact that was holding his own so long – it gives him a credibility he didn’t have before. It allows the vote-your-heart types who like Obama more than Clinton to go with their feelings without guilt. And there are a lot of them: remember there are people in the Democratic party who voted for Dennis Kucinich! (And that’s without even bringing up the half-votes some of them gave Bush the Lesser to put him over the top in 2000 by voting for Nader.)

The second different since Super Tuesday is that the Republican nominee became clear, which puts the head-to-head question into sharp focus. Does Obama have a better chance of beating McCain, or does Clinton? This issue, to me, is where Obama has picked up most of his newfound edge. I think Clinton will realize it too, and adjust her strategies accordingly.

The weather forecast calls for mud. Wear goggles.

A rushed post, missing my own deadline nonetheless. Pretend it was published Wednesday... If you need more to read, see FranIAm’s mini tour of some interesting blog posts. Well worth the time – although her judgment really goes south in the last paragraph.

-- Satan