So here we sit, once again faced with the post-primary hangover question of: What did it all mean?
I dunno. No one really knows -- not on the Democratic side of things, anyway. But three conclusions that transcend the present do occur, in increasing order of human interest:
* Republicans still know how to get behind their one electable candidate the earliest, notwithstanding the bloody trail they traveled to get there this time around.
* Democrats still do not.
* Chris Matthews is, in clinical fact, physically, intellectually and emotionally incapable of keeping his mouth shut for longer than five seconds.
Good lord, his is the most severe case of logorrhea ever known to medical science. I marvel at his guests' supreme self-control, though I suspect the day is coming when, in a mad and desperate attempt to finish just one declarative sentence, one of them reaches over and throttles him.
Permit me, however, to backtrack just a bit on my otherwise relevant, opening agnosticism. For there was, perhaps, one reasonably reliable indicator last night of what lies ahead for the Dems. It was the thinnest of squeakers -- 49 to 48 percent -- but it was one that favored Obama and the state's traditional role as signpost may well have signaled the remaining squeaks to the finish line.
And that signpost was? Missouri.
Most of the states in the Democratic contest yesterday were predicted and predictable, from Georgia to California. Missouri, however, was not. It was the one to watch. Sure enough, it remained in play and indeed went right down to the wire, even to the point of the Associated Press at first calling it for Clinton. But that wasn't to be. Obama pulled it out.
The state's major metropolitan areas saved him, according to the sketchy data yet available from exit polling. And in those areas Obama did more than just win -- he crushed Clinton, and I mean crushed, such as by nearly 70 percent.
Missouri has an intriguing knack for picking winners, and I say that out of more than just fondness for my native land. It's a historical fact.
With the exception of opting for Adlai over Ike in 1956 -- I was, then, but a babe in arms and therefore immaturely unable to help save the state from its electoral embarrassment -- Missouri has somehow sided with the victor in every presidential contest since James Buchanan. If one can extrapolate from its primary as well, it's not that audacious to conclude more than just hope for Obama and his remaining road.
Furthermore, Obama's dominance in Missouri's metro areas (which lie in the north) would rather obviously indicate that Clinton dominated downstate, which, I can tell you from firsthand familiarity, is as red as Ozark clay. Any downstate denizen who knows anything of the universe outside of what Fox News broadcasts is instantly labeled an unnaturally inhuman Limbaugh-hater of communistic proportions, and presumed to be in cahoots with al Qaeda as well.
In other words, and extrapolating further, it would seem that Clinton did exceptionally well mostly among the most conservative of Democrats -- that peculiar breed of muscular foreign-policy fixations that resides largely in red states, which is to say, states that won't vote Democratic in November. Hence in further, other words, her 48-percent Missouri showing was largely a throwaway, as were her victories in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Broader demographic data from around the country offered even more hope for Obama. According to CBS News exit polling, "Clinton had only a slight edge among women and white voters, both groups that she has won handily in earlier contests."
Such is the stuff of indisputable momentum. Whether it lasts or not is, of course, the unanswerable question for now. But for my money, Missouri was the one solid and leading indicator.
Hence by next Wednesday morning -- after the primaries in D.C., Maryland and Virginia in which Obama is already favored -- he may be justified in parroting McCain from last night: "I think we must get used to the idea that we are the ... party front-runner."
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Personal note: My deepest, sincerest thanks to all of you who so generously helped me out over the last few days. I simply cannot thank you enough. If you meant to contribute but just didn't get around to it, there remains an eager "Make a Donation" button near the top of the sidebar. Again, thank you so much.
-- P.M.