St. Louis: We Have A Problem

Super Tuesday 11:30 p.m. CST as War Room yields to Bed Room

State News. Make No Mistake. The biggest state tonight is Missouri. The Show-Me-State is a bell weather state. It’s the best indicator of who the nominee will be and who will be elected in the fall. As of this hour, the state has just been called on the GOP for McCain, ahead of Huckabee by 1 %. With 97% of precincts reporting, it has just called the race for Obama over Clinton by 1%.

Momentum with Obama. The Clinton's won Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Tennessee. Obama won Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Utah. The movement is definitely moving in his direction.

Mitt got Hucked. As of this writing, in view of a decisive defeat in California, Romney campaign officials announced "frank discussions will take place Wednesday within the Romney campaign." Romney gave a great speech tonight and did something no one else has ever done, beside the ProConPundit: referred to President Bush I as "a great president." God bless him. The South rejected Romney as the authentic conservative to Huckabee who won Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Huckabee isn’t a spoiler. He has performed admirably with no money. If Huckabee could give all of his delegates to Romney, Romney would only have half as many delegates as McCain. Romney won Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and Utah. Romney has been talking about being Reaganesque for a long time. Watch for him in the coming days to play the role that Reagan played in 1976. When he lost the nomination to President Ford, he knew that in order for him to have a future possibility to be president, he had to get out of the way, endorse the front runner and go on to get elected four years later. McCain will only serve one term. Romney is a bright guy.

McCain won Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma & Tennessee. He did great. He stressed that he has not yet clinched the nomination and reached out to Huckabee and Romney. The bad news is that California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey & New York are almost certain to be carried by the Democratic nominee in the fall. In a year that heavily favors a Democratic win, there is cause for hope without the need for audacity. For example, its plausible to think he could carry every state that George Bush did in 2004. The choice of his running mate will be crucial.

Final thoughts:

1. Chris Matthews bemoaned that "These Republicans are not acting like Republicans." He is exorcized that there is a real fight for the Republican nomination and that the damn fools on TV cannot predict every last thing. That’s a good thing. Republicans have a second term president who is, at this point, among the least popular president ever. Its an uphill grind to extend the least on The White House to the GOP.

2. Hillary Clinton is on the decline in terms of getting the Democratic nomination. It pains me to say this because I would really like to see her lose, but I NOW BELIEVE THAT THE ONLY CHANCE THE GOP HAS TO WIN THE PRESIDENCY IN THE FALL IS WITH HER AS THEIR OPPONENT. I like Obama and I admire his ability to fight the most formidable political operation on the planet. The Dow dropped 370 points today and we are at war in two countries. He does not possess the kind of experience we desperately need. That said, if he is the Democratic nominee, I don’t believe that McCain or Romney or Huckabee will beat the momentum.

3. I have all along thought Huckabee was running for VP. I can no longer dismiss that as a possibility–perhaps even a necessity.

Folks, it doesn’t get any better than this. I had lots of calls and e-mails to the War Room tonight.

Thanks...on we go.

Sidebar: Its merits mention that the Clinton’s won Massachusetts despite the endorsements of the Kennedy’s and John Kerry. However, Obama was polling at 22% prior to endorsement, and finished with a 38% victory. The Kennedy’s didn’t endorse Obama to win Massachusetts but for national appeal, to get a victory or near-ran for proportional delegates in California and for a boost among blue collar/union workers, Latinos and the poor. As of this writing, Obama did very well. He garnered 43% of the white vote nationally, while Clinton received 61% of the Latino vote, down from what she may have had without the Kennedy clan push.