[hytem]

Well, "Super Tuesday" is over. Don't listen to the pundits. Just look at the vote tally on USA Today.

A number of things stand out:

First, the Democrats are outdoing the Republicans in the total vote tally--in state after state--including a lot of the so-called "red" states. That's not a good sign for Republicans.

Second, Hillary Clinton has done extremely well tonite, despite all the negative media she has been getting: she has won most all the big states except Illinois, Obama's home state. Including NY, California, and New Jersey. She also won in Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Massachusetts and Arizona.
A big loss for Teddy Kennedy.
Missouri is the one big closely contested state. Obama won a lot of smaller caucus states. Some pundits like Chris Matthews are still trying to spin Obama tonite, but Clinton is still the candidate to beat for the Democrats. The race has closed in recent weeks, but Obama has been getting a ton of positive media vs Clinton. And there is hardly any difference between the two issue-wise. It's a personality horse race in the media.

Third, McCain looks like the ultimate Republican nominee, but John has an identity problem. Is he a real conservative? He talks like one today, but his voting record doesn't indicate that.

The Republican race looks like it's decided, with the winner taking all the delegates in a state. But the Democratic race is far from decided, since they proportion the delegates according to the vote.

To me, the biggest news is the size of the Democratic vote across the country compared to the Republican vote.