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News Digest, 2/6/08: Yesterday Was Super Tuesday

Super Tuesday is over. Need I say more?

So let's start off with the news everyone's been waiting for — yes, Zogby emerges triumphant over SurveyUSA in yesterday's huge polling disparity between the two. (EDIT: Well, in Missouri. SurveyUSA was much closer in California.) Wait, that's not the biggest news of the day?

I kid, I kid.

The day started off with a bit of a tussle, as Huckabee won the first contest in West Virginia on the second ballot and Romney, who was leading after the first ballot, complained about Huckabee having cut a deal with McCain to do so — a claim which prompted the Huckster to call Romney a "whiner." No reports yet on whether Romney has gone to tell the teacher on big bully Huckabee. If that comes out, rest assured that you'll see it here first.

There was other turmoil, too, with ballot problems in Los Angeles and reports of heavy storms turning into tornadoes hitting Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama, killing 47 people and injuring hundreds others during election time.

Overall, it was a pretty neck-and-neck race for the two Democratic candidates, with Obama winning the most states, but Clinton tallying victories in the most populous and most delegate-rich states — including Massachusetts, surprisingly, in a sign that maybe the heavily courted Ted Kennedy endorsement didn't end up doing all that much good in the state or the region. Clinton also picked up a fairly decisive victory in California. Missouri ended up being the other hard-fought state between the two, and remained too close to call until 99% of precincts had reported and an Obama victory was imminent. New Mexico's also been fairly close, and remains too close to call this morning, with Obama holding a slim 500 vote lead with 91% of precincts reporting.

The Republican results are much less likely to be called "close," as McCain largely ran away with the big victories for the day, as well as front-runner status — much to the consternation of many within the Republican party. Mike Huckabee wins second place with five states and a total of 140 delegates picked up, and Romney takes a back seat with seven states and 171 picked up as of this morning. Wondering how that makes Romney third instead of second? Well, it's all about the expectations game. Huckabee was supposed to win Georgia and just about nothing else, and leave the rest of Super Tuesday for the "big boys" to duke out. Except that Mitt Romney, who ostensibly was supposed to be fighting for first with his millions and millions of dollars, ended up looking more like he was in a competition with Huckabee instead — as indeed he was, because neither was remotely close to McCain. So now Huckabee looks ascendant, and there is talk in the Romney camp about some "frank discussion" having to go on before the campaign proceeds, and of campaign events being canceled after Thursday. Josh has some commentary on how Romney's not likely to be in the race for much longer; I'm not sure if I'd go quite that far, considering the many turnarounds we've already seen this election cycle, but it sure is getting pretty late for a turnaround.

In other news, Karl Rove is the newest addition to Fox News' "fair and balanced" coverage. I hope no one came here for a review of his first day as commentator yesterday. News of his appearance was enough to keep me off of Fox News for the entire day. Well, that's not entirely fair — Fox News is usually enough to keep me off of Fox News for the entire day.

The stock market dropped and dropped hard yesterday as it got the news that the service sector experienced negative growth for the first time in nearly five years. The market seemed to be willing to bounce back after news last week that the financial sector was worse than expected, but this additional blow just confirms to many people the idea that we're in a recession. I don't care what the interest rate is: in a consumer-driven economy, be it Wall Street or your local Best Buy, if the customer isn't willing to consume, it doesn't matter how cheap you make growth — it won't happen.

And the Christmas Mountains will remain public property for now, as the Texas School Land Board has rejected two attempts by private bidders to purchase the land, much to the chagrin of Republican Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who would prefer they turn into privately-owned hunting grounds.

Conspiracy

Anyone else find the timing of the tornado suspect?

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