A Good Old Fashioned Drubbing

That's really the only way to describe the victory Mordecai claimed last night at the stock show. Mordecai dominated the field to take the crown of official mascot of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

I guess there's also really no other way to describe what happened in South Carolina last night - so I'll just highlight a couple of newspaper front pages that capture the spirit of the coverage:

This is certainly a big deal for Obama since he beat the expectations down there. He was expected to win, but largely along racial lines. But he took almost a quarter of the white vote, and nearly tied Hillary among white men. He won 44 of 46 counties and pretty much every demographic you can think of besides white voters. This is the jolt of energy Obama needed going into the February 5 contests.

So what happens next? Well, the Clinton campaign, having seen how Michigan's results helped them despite being meaningless, is moving to emphasize the importance of Tuesday's Florida primary. Florida, like Michigan, lost its delegates because it scheduled its primary too early. Hillary promised this week to seat the delegates should she be the nominee. No one has campaigned there, but polls show that Hillary is likely to win the primary - and she'll visit the state for fundraisers and hold a rally as soon as the primary is over. But, as with Michigan, the action on the GOP side is likely to overshadow any sort of extended victory celebration.

Obama has picked up the endorsement of Sen. Ted Kennedy - described by a senior Democrat as "the biggest Democratic endorsement Obama could possibly get short of Bill Clinton" because of the respect he garners with traditional working class democrats and hispanics, two areas where Clinton has dominated so far. There's also reports out today that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius will also endorse Obama later this week, adding to his tally of Democrats from states that have voted republican in recent presidential elections. Both endorsements are likely to further extend the halo of the SC victory and let the Obama camp lay further claim to a broad coalition of support.

All the while, we seem to be inching closer and closer to an out and out scramble for delegates. With 1600 delegates up for grabs on Feb. 5, and it looking like neither Hillary or Barack will run the table in those states, I think we'll still be talking about this battle in March.