Chesapeake Regional

Some links about the primary, everyone's favorite discussion topic. (TV will be back soon; this is all almost over.)

* I know more than a few people in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and I hope these people get out and vote for Obama their conscience for Obama today. The last ARG poll—as I've said, not the friendliest poll outfit for Obama—has numbers that look pretty fantastic, not that they mean anything until the real polls close tonight. ARG has Barack in the lead by twenty points in both states, including in key demographics like "men" and "women." There's room to be cautiously optimistic here.

* The front page of the New York Times today paints the picture of a Clinton campaign in crisis:

“She has to win both Ohio and Texas comfortably, or she’s out,” said one superdelegate who has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment. “The campaign is starting to come to terms with that.” Campaign advisers, also speaking privately in order to speak plainly, confirmed this view.

Several Clinton superdelegates, whose votes could help decide the nomination, said Monday that they were wavering in the face of Mr. Obama’s momentum after victories in Washington State, Nebraska, Louisiana and Maine last weekend.

Some said that they, like the hundreds of uncommitted superdelegates still at stake, might ultimately “go with the flow,” in the words of one, and support the candidate who appears to show the most strength in the primaries to come.

This of course is what I've been saying all along—the superdelegates are politicians, they aren't going to cut their own throats and the throat of the Democratic party writ large. If Obama is ahead in pledged delegates, he'll be the nominee.

Hopefully he can get a win in OH, TX, or PA, though—a win in any of those three would seal it.

* Josh Patashnik succinctly explains at the Plank why the Florida delegates must not be seated.

* CNN's Political Ticker has a post up that backs up my latest theory about what Al Gore is waiting for. Thanks Neil.

The sources say Gore talks with both Clinton and Obama, and is on good terms with both. But with Sen. John Kerry and Bill Clinton both aligned to a candidate, Gore has a role to serve as the neutral elder statesman in the party.

If an agreement needs to be struck between Clinton and Obama down the road, Gore is in position to be the likely facilitator of that discussion.