Welcome to old-fashioned politics. Ok, my thoughts:
– McCain did it. His late wins in California and Missouri are huge. He is on his way to the nomination. But the fight is far from over and it will get a lot bloodier.
– Hello Huckabee. While conservative commentators were out whacking McCain and urging conservatives to vote for Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee was strumming his bass across the south and walked away with huge wins across the south. One is left to wonder what would have happened if they had coalesced behind Huckabee very early in the race.
– Evangelicals continue to declare independence from the old religious right. Remember it was the evangelical and conservative political leadership that declared Huckabee “too liberal” on taxes, ending torture, spending on welfare programs, and on foreign policy. They labeled him as too theologically liberal as well.
– The Democratic primary season is just getting started. Obama and Clinton will come out of today with very similar delegate counts. That means, in reality, they are just getting started. Conventional wisdom seems to be saying that Obama is creating a movement and that movement is building and building and the more people see him the more they like him. If true, that bodes well for him. But Hillary Clinton is inspiring more passion among Democratic voters than she is being given credit for. Her wins tonight would not be possible without real enthusiasm among her voters. That isn’t going to disappear.