Barack Obama is going to get a landslide victory in his home state of Illinois. This is big, because they haven’t called New Jersey, essentially an extension of Hillary’s adopted home state of New York. That means it’s at least reasonably close there. She did win Oklahoma, but she’s always been strong there and the Obama camp never focused on the state. The state also has few delegates. The Clintons will spin it as a red state win, but it’s a redneck state win.

The last thing I want to mention is how well Obama did with white males in Georgia — winning 43%. This is a marked improvement over his performance in South Carolina. It shows that he is doing well with ex-Edwards supporters and doing better with white voters in the South. Both are good omens.

CNN called it the second the polls closed. Looks like South Carolina revisited. The Clintons are spinning this, but both Bill and Hill campaigned there in the past week. They tried to win Georgia, no matter what they say. Here’s a little Ray Charles to celebrate…

“Michigan and Florida shouldn’t count for anything.” - Hillary Clinton

Those EXACT words came right out of her mouth not too long ago. Regardless, even if her Florida “win” — isn’t 0-0 in delegates actually a tie? — it does influence a few voters, she wasted a day on a state with no delegates. As the article linked below states, she may have partially squandered her biggest advantage — time.

(hat tip: Huffington Post)

First of, I want to remind all of our readers that the Florida Democratic Primary was, for all intents and purposes, a “spring training baseball game.” Stole that one from Keith Olberman, but it’s fitting. Florida was punished by the DNC for moving up its primary without permission, and lost all of its delegates as a result. Even though Hillary Clinton responded like she had just won the Indy 500, the contest put the “M” in meaningless.

The good news is that Barack Obama made encouraging progress among Florida voters after both his lopsided South Carolina victory (that was a real one) and his endorsement from the Kennedys. The amazing thing is that he swayed many voters without ever appearing in the state. We’ve all heard that once you’ve seen Barack Obama in person, you’re on board. Anyway, this bit from the Huffington Post bodes well for Obama, and shows that he has Big Mo:

Yet a closer look at the exit surveys shows some notably positive trends for Clinton’s chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama.

Despite losing the state overall by 17 points, Obama actually won more support than Clinton from voters who made up their minds in the last three days (46 percent to 38 percent), in the last week (39-31) and in the last month (47-40).

Clinton did defeat Obama among Floridians who decided on a candidate on the day of the primary. But overwhelmingly, Clinton’s support came from those who made up their minds over a month ago (63 percent to 27 percent), and from early voters who used absentee ballots (50-31). Floridians began receiving absentee ballots in late December.

According to the exit polls, those early deciders and early voters made up fully 59 percent of Florida’s Democratic electorate.

The results seem to indicate that Obama picked up significant momentum in Florida following his victories in Iowa and South Carolina, as well as his high-profile endorsements (49 percent of Florida voters said Ted Kennedy’s support was important to their decision).

If this is any indicator of things to come — and I think it is judging from what I’ve heard out of other states — Obama might not only do well in Colorado, but also in crucial states like Arizona, California and New Mexico. From the Denver Post:

The Democratic caucuses hold more potential for high drama in the presidential race, with Colorado voters split evenly between Barack Obama at 34 percent and Hillary Rodham Clinton at 32 percent — well within the poll’s 3.5 percentage-point margin of error. John Edwards was the choice of 17 percent of likely caucus-goers. Fourteen percent said they were still undecided.

Obama’s strength in Colorado may come from the fact that the state’s Democrats see the desire for change as a driving issue in the campaign. The poll showed 51 percent of Democrats see change as more important than experience — and the ability to bring change is a trait they overwhelmingly associate with the Illinois senator

It’s pretty ironic that a candidate who routinely downs the importance of hope and words got absolutely blown to smithereens in a state whose motto is “While I breathe, I hope.” Important words she obviously should have paid more attention to. In fact, the political beatdown that Hillary Clinton received compliments of Barack Obama in the Palmetto State of South Carolina was so monumental, so severe, that it needs its own phrase, term or Southern colloquialism (big hat tip to John Dickerson for the idea).

Kinda like John Kerry and “swiftboating,” or Kingpin’s Roy Munson and “Munsoned.”

I got it — Barack straight “Palmettoed” that ass. You know…

pal·met·toed

1. To defeat a supremely overconfident opponent to the point of utter humiliation.
2. What Barack Obama did to Hillary Clinton in the 2008 South Carolina Democratic primary.

Ahhh… I like that. Hopefully, it will catch on. Who knows? Maybe the New York Giants can even “Palmetto” the New England Patriots on Super Bowl Sunday?

This was truly the most impressive political performance I have ever witnessed, and the numbers back that up. We know that Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton and John Edwards combined, but he also beat the combined number of South Carolina votes for John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Simply incredible. From the Huffington Post:

In last week’s SC GOP primary, McCain and Huckabee (the top 2 finishers), got 147,283 and 132,440 votes respectively. That’s a total of 279,723. Obama just pulled down 291,000 by himself.

Obama is undoubtedly the most electable Democratic candidate. Hell, Obama personally received more votes than the ENTIRE 2004 South Carolina Democratic primary. While Hillary Clinton and her hubby will keep voters they’ve rubbed the wrong way — like me, for instance — at home, Obama clearly brings regular voters and new voters out in hoards. Even conservative CNN analyst Bill Bennett flat out said that Obama is “the stronger candidate” and other pundits alluded that many Republicans are rooting for HRC because they fear the movement rallying around Obama.

Thoughts like these are really starting to catch on, and they should — they make sense.