Some very quick thoughts before heading to bed for the night.
+ On a purely personal note: Phone-banking is very hard, very tiring, and very, very worthwhile - both personally and politically. With my old hometowns of DC and NoVa set to provide a big boost to Obama next week, I'm more committed than ever to doing whatever I can to help push the Obama campaign over the top.
+ At the beginning of the day, the Obama campaign was hoping he would be within 100 delegates of Clinton. At the end of the night, it was clear they were within single digits of Clinton. Forget all the rest of the stats, because this is the only one that matters. Obama outperformed his own goals by roughly 100 delegates.
+ In January, Obama brought in donations totaling roughly 2 1/2 times Clinton's. Clinton's supporters, meanwhile, are far more likely than Obama's supporters to have already maxed out their contributions. If Obama can build on today's win over the next few weeks - first this coming weekend in LA, WA, ME, and NE, and then next week in VA, DC, and MD, its likely that the fundraising gap between the two campaigns will increase in a way that increases Obama's advantage.
+ The Chesapeake/Potomac primaries (VA/DC/MD) on Feb 12 won't be the only action in DC. There will now be a full-on battle over congressional Super Delegates. Clinton currently holds an 89 delegate lead, but given Obama's success in red states - particularly in the Mountain West - we could see some significant movement to Obama. Combined with a strong performance in the Chesapeake states, Obama should be able to take an outright lead in total delegates by mid-February.
+ I know Obama supporters - myself included - want him to deliver a knockout blow that shuts this thing down early. That's not going to happen, but that's no reason for despair. It's tight, but after tonight, the trends are all pointing the right way. Keep on keepin on...
+ On the GOP side, much more tomorrow. But.... I told you early on not to underestimate Huckabee. Then, of course, I made the mistake of underestimating him myself. Well guess what.... he's baaaaack. And if the rumor's about Romney's campaign are true.... if he actually drops out in the bizarre hope that he can preserve his prospects for a second run at the White House in 2012... well, we just might have a real 2-person race on our hands. Remember: the states of the Northeast are done, the winner-take-all states are done, and reports are that Huckabee is about to raise a boatload of anti-McCain cash. Damn...I should kept my doubts to myself a week or two longer, eh?
More in the early afternoon. Until then, sleep...
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