Barack Obama and John McCain has won all three contests within the Potomac primaries.  On the democratic side, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia gave Barack Obama significant victories over Hillary Clinton.  More specifically, Virginia was very significant.  Considered a sort of bellwether state, Obama won over voters that have previously voted for Clinton.  For example, Obama won the latino vote 53% to Clintons 37%.  In Virginia and Maryland, Obama won 59% of the women vote.  Obama split the Virginia overall white vote with Clinton by winning 48% of the total demographic.  Further, Obama also won heavily among white men in Virginia.  In addition, Obama won the catholic vote.  As for Obama’s across-the-isle appeal, republicans represented 8% of the vote in the Virginia democratic primary and Obama won 70% of their vote.  The Senator from Illinois has managed to broaden his coalition by reaching across the isle with a unifying message.  Both candidates were vying heavily for Virginia voters.  Clinton considered Virginia her best chance of a win within this group of contests.  However, Obama won a substantial victories over Clinton in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.  The final tally for Virginia is 64% to 35%, Maryland, 59% to 37% and the District of Columbia, 75% to 24%.  These wins will give Obama eight victories in a row thereby giving Obama a delegate lead over Clinton.  Before this contest, the Associated Press reported that Clinton lead with 1136 delegates to Obama’s 1108.  After the Potomac primaries, Obama takes the lead with 1210 delegates and Clinton falls slightly behind with 1188 delegates.  These AP totals includes Superdelegates.   Additionally, Obama has won a total of 21 states to Clinton’s 10.  The Clinton campaign has said that their focus is on the March 4th primaries of Ohio and Texas.  Clinton is already campaigning in the Lone Star State in hopes of building a firewall against the Obama momentum.  Though, continued wins by Obama could put a kink in Clinton’s strategy.  It will be difficult for the Clinton campaign to spin eight successive wins by Obama as insignificant.   As damage control, Clinton made telephone calls to several of her donors and supporters asking them to hang in there with her until Ohio and Texas.  However, if Obama’s momentum continues to build, Ohio and Texas may not be the result that the Clinton campaign expects. Obama has already hit the ground in Wisconsin campaigning for its primary on February 19th.  As for the Republicans, McCain also won all of the Potomac primaries.  It seems that McCain in winning over conservatives, at least he did so in Virginia and Maryland.  The final tallys were Virginia, McCain 50% and Huckabee 41%, in Maryland McCain 59% and Huckabee 29%. and the District of Columbia, McCain 68% and 35%.  Virginia is especially significant due the large amount of conservatives in that state.  The fact that McCain won Virginia may be an indication that the tide may be turning and the far right of the GOP has begun to rally around the Arizona senator.  Huckabee was hoping to win Virginia to legitimize his continued participation in the race.  However, the former Arkansas govenor is not dropping out and vows to stay in the race uintil McCain hits the magic number of 1191 delegates.   The McCain campaign has labeled the affable Arkansan an “irritant.” After McCain’s win of Virginia, most have concluded that he is the Republican nominee.  There isn’t a math calculation that adds up to Huckabee becoming the GOP nominee for the 2008 Presidential niomination.  As a side note:  Clinton’s deputy campaign manager, Mike Henry, resigns.

The governor from Arkansas has taken Kansas and Louisiana.  Kansas is a very conservative town and flocked towards the conservative candidate to give him an landslide victory.  Huckabee won 62% of the vote.  In Louisiana it was a close race between McCain and Huckabee but Huckabee squeaks out the win.  However, according to Louisiana rules a candidate must receive 50% of the vote to receive any delegates at all.  Unfortunately for Huckabee, he did not reach the threshold.  McCain wins Washington.  Huckabee reiterated yesterday that he is not quiting.  Even though pundits speculate that it is nearly impossible for the Huckabee to win the nomination given that  John McCain is so much further ahead in delegate count.  However, Huckabee stated that he would rather be right and lose rather than be wrong and be part of the crowd.  It looks like he stood out from the crowd in Kansas and somewhat in Louisiana. 

If there was any doubt as to Huckabee’s legitimacy and sincerity about continuing his run for president, all doubt has been removed.  Rather than attend the commencement of one of the most influential conferences for any GOP presidential nominee, Governor Mike Huckabee went to New York to be on,  wait for it………..the Tyra Banks show??  That’s right.  The Conservative Political Action Conference boasts over 6000 conservatives in attendance.  But Mike Huckabee chose to go be on a liberal chat show rather than be with family.  Not to mention the fact that Huckabee’s long time friend John McCain will be making his very public plea to the group (see story below).  On top of that, the attendees of the conference are his core constituents, the exact people who gave him his wins in Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, and Tennessee.  Instead of taking advantage of this rare opportunity to reach out to his base, Governor Huckabee made the choice to reach out to a much more significant GOP voting block, viewers of the Tyra Banks Show.  I expect that we will be hearing his concession speech any day now.

Mitt Romney has just dropped out of the republican race for president of the United States.  Mitt Romney has effectively suspended his campaign.  Two remaining.  I suspect that we will be hearing from Mike Huckabee soon.  Mitt Romney will confirm his decision during his speech today at CPAC . CPAC is the Conservative Political Action Conference and is hosted by the American Conservative Union.  Romney said during his speech that if he were to continue, he would be aiding a Clinton or Obama win.  The former Massachussetts govenor said that he disagrees with McCain on a lot of issues but agrees with him regarding the Iraq war.  Romney then said that in this time of war, he must step aside. My question is…what will Huckabee and McCain do now that they don’t have Romney to pick on?  For now, it seems that Huckabee will continue his campaign and will speak to CPAC tomorrow morning in an attempt to convince it that he is the viable conservative candidate.  

McCain is scheduled to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference today in Washington DC. The Arizona senator, and recently self-proclaimed frontrunner for the GOP nomination, has decided that it’s time for the his conservative detractors to “calm down” and rally around the inevitability of him as the GOP nominee.  Several conservative talk radio personalities, namely Rush Limbaugh, have attacked the Senator for his refusal to always fall in line with conservative dogma.    It is believed that his speech today is an attempt to begin to bridge the divide between him and the far right, an essential voting block for any GOP candidate seeking the White House.  McCain has been labled a rebel with his own cause. This does not sit well with the far right.  According to reports, McCain ”blew off” last years gathering.  One of the nation’s most influential conservative organizations, the American Conservative Union, hosts the event.  The very high profile attendees are a virtual who’s who of the republican party. Others scheduled to be in attendance are Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Ron Paul.  Mitt Romney is also scheduled to speak today.

The polls closed at 8pm in several of the Super Tuesday states.  McCain won Illinois, New Jersey, and Connecticut.  McCain’s effort to beat Romney in Romney’s home state of Massachusetts failed, to Romney’s relief.  Romney won his home state and is now anxiously waiting for the California results.

The first primary decision of the day is Mike Huckabee takes West Virginia.  After the first round of the caucus in West Virginia, Romney led.  However, at the second round, McCain voters gave Huckabee their support thereby giving Mike Huckabee the win. 

Has anyone noticed how Mitt Romney’s campaign slogans and positions change depending on who is leading in either party, Democrat or Republican, at that particular moment?   As a voter, I cannot figure out which Romney would end up President.  At least, with the other candidates, I have a pretty good idea of the person that I will end up with in the White House.  With Romney, however, his sudden adoration of Ronald Reagan and Bush, even though he ran for governor on an anti-Reagan and anti-Bush platform, makes me question who he really is and where he really stands.  Now that the Democrats have raised this issue of “Change,” Romney has jumped on board and is now billing himself as the “agent of change.”  As a voter, it’s a bit insulting to my intelligence when a candidate assumes that I am incapable of seeing the disingenuousness of such comments.  Even a blind man can see the artificiality of such comments.  Please don’t get me wrong, Romney definitely has a capable grasp of economic issues.  However, we are also facing issues far and beyond the economy, i.e. national security, healthcare, social security.  I cannot say that I know how he would approach such issues.  I do know however, that Romney was not for timetable withdrawals from Iraq…thanks CNN.  Many have speculated that the only reason Mike Huckabee remains in the race is to siphon off votes from Romney…which is a statement that I wholeheartedly agree with by the way (heads-up Huckabee, we’re onto you).  But I honestly think that Romney does not need any help in this department.  One thing that is important to us, the voters, is putting a person in office that we trust. Romney would do much better by deciding what his positions are, where he wants to take the country, and sticking to those principles and ideas.  Pandering to the popular group or slogan of the moment leaves us dissuaded and deterred.

The republicans are battling for delegates in Florida.  McCain and Romney are currently neck and neck in the polls.  Currently McCain is polling at about 33%, Romney at 31%, Giuliani at 14%, and Huckabee at 13%.  A million people in Florida have already voted.  Voter turnout is expected to be about 2 million. Whichever candidate wins the Florida primary will receive a huge boost of momentum going into the Feb 5th primaries, i.e. Super Duper Tuesday.  Most are speculating that whomever wins Florida will most likely win the nomination.  In terms of delegates, unlike in the Democratic primaries, in the Republican primaries, the winner takes all.  This is a huge deal for the Republican candidates and the two front-runners, McCain and Romney, are not holding any punches.  Both  candidates have accused each other of being the “L word,”  that would be liberal.  Both McCain and Romney are laying it all the line for what is turning out to be a crucial win.