CAMPAIGN STATUS REPORT

Barrack Obama thrashed Hillary Clinton in South Carolina's Democrat primary yesterday, far surpassing his expected vote total. The polls predicted a eight to ten point win for the Illinois Senator, but he finished with a twenty-eight point victory that netted over double the vote total for Hillary. Now the Dems move on to Super Tuesday while the Republican contenders face a Tuesday Florida primary with polls showing a slight Romney advantage over McCain. Now is probably a good time to review the situation on both sides and assess prospects for the future.

The reactions of both sides in the Democrat race last night illustrates the differences in strategy. Obama gave a soaring victory speech calling for unity and rejecting the politics of the past. The Hillary camp sent out a concession email and promptly proceeded to Tennessee. Slick Willie has compared Obama's victory to those of Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, attempting to relegate him to a "black candidate" status. Despite all the pronouncements of Bill Clinton as the most effective politician of our time, his contribution so far has been to divide the Democrat electorate along racial lines. He might have blown his status as the "first black President" over the past two weeks. He managed to turn a small win for Obama into a spanking of epic proportion. The Clintons are running on the idea of a co-presidency, odd for the first viable female candidate. Hillary claims to be strong enough to run for President, but has her husband out on the trail as her hatchet man to do all the dirty work. It's natural for conservatives to support Clinton opponents, but don't be fooled by Senator Obama. He gives a great speech, but he's as far left as they come. The policy differences among the Dems are few and minor. Hillary continues to run the Clinton political machine that feeds opponents into a meat grinder and will do anything to win. If Obama beats Hillary on Super Tuesday, he could be hard to stop with the usual Clinton dirty tricks. The Democrat electorate has tired of the same old dirty tricks and may continue to punish Billary for them.

The Republicans are campaigning across Florida ahead of the Tuesday primary there. Mitt Romney holds a slight poll lead over McCain, Huckabee is a distant third, and Rudy looks near finished. Romney had a superb performance in the last debate, and his business successes in the past have given him credibility to speak credibly on current economic issues. He currently leads in delegates, having won Michigan and Wyoming. A Romney victory could propel him with significant momentum into Super Tuesday. Mitt has enough money to finance his own campaign, so he's in the race to stay. McCain comes off his South Carolina win hoping to make nice with all the conservatives he has smited in the past. Florida is the first primary to allow only Republicans to cast a ballot, so McCain cannot rely on independent support that has helped him in the past. Huckabee is working on proving Iowa was a one time event and that he has no chance anywhere else. Rudy has pinned his hopes on winning Florida, having bypassed the earlier primaries, but the polls show him in fourth place and approaching single digits. The scandals involving his time as mayor of New York reported in November and December didn't help, and neither did his complete absence from the early part of the process.

Both races have developed into two person contests. Mitt and McCain battle it out to go against Obama or Billary. The sure bet is that nothing will be settled anytime soon. The party conventions this summer could be real floor fights instead of coronations. All the candidates will be forced to review their plans after Super Tuesday, and by then the picture may be a little clearer. Until then, sit back and watch the fur fly.