For whatever reason I found myself not paying attention yesterday.  So I didn’t spend the evening refreshing screens on various political websites.  I wasn’t waiting for results to come in to tell me about what would eventually come to be known as the Spanking in South Carolina.  So the results kind of took me by surprise.

Or maybe I just didn’t want to be disappointed again.  After all, in the weeks prior to the primary, Obama was set for a big win in South Carolina just as he was set for a big win in New Hampshire.  And just like that primary, the picture coming to us from the media started changing.  Bill was attacking.  Hillary was gaining.  The politically potent duo could have once again flipped the expectations of the viewing public on its ears and drive fairly substantial nail in the coffin of the Obama campaign and the public’s reliance on polling data.

And then everything turned up roses.  The media declared the state for Obama practically the moment the polls closed and the final results were spectacualar.

55% of the primary voters.

Wow.

Of course, I have to wonder if it’ll mean anything in the end.   Both lead candidates have “momentum” that cancels out the other person’s momentum.  Hillary has a head start in the Super Tuesday states as Big Bill was out there being nasty for her in South Carolina.  Edwards is still…Edwards.

So now we approach Super Tuesday with six candidates on either side loaded for bear.  In the end, probably nothing will be decided on that day either.  Twenty-odd states gives each candidate plenty of room to claim some sort of mandate to keep going.

As so many people I’ve talked to have said:  we haven’t had a race like this in a long long time.

Categories: Politics And Issues