These are the final four it appears.  Who do you like.

To follow is my best guess going forward...

McCain and Romney are beating hell out of one another in Florida.  Hillary and Obama and Bill have waged a menage a trois that has gotten downright nasty in South Carolina. 

Being the cynic, I think the Clintons have decided to "Sister Souljah" Obama to make this race about race.  By this I mean they have purposely made race an issue to isolate Obama and rile the redneck vote.  In 1992 they did this when Bill was on a stage with Jesse Jackson and others, played some Sister Souljah lyrics and then launched into a lecture that left the audience speechless and wooed back Reagan Democrats.

This time around it looks like they are ceding South Carolina by making it about race.  It's riled blacks to rally round Obama, but now he is getting all of 10% support from whites in SC.  Blacks are a disporportionate element of the SC registered democrats.  Now they can leave SC and bite their lips and lament the loss in SC was because, sadly, Obama played the race card.  It can explain a loss they realized they were going to endure in racial tones that'll work with blue collar dems in the 20-odd states in Super Tuesday.

Florida is a closed primary so McCain support from independents matters not a damn.  Romney has personal funds and McCain is running on empty.  His campaign has called me several times in the past week for cash, and I am already at the limit.

Romney's a horrible campaigner who sucks ass when attacked.  Kennedy had him so he didn't know whether to shit or go blind when he hauled in laid off workers from firms Bain Capital bought and tore apart for salvage.  He won't stand a chance against Shillary and company.

What I don't know is the number of open primaries on super tuesday that might give McCain a shot.  I could also see this one being stalemated and going to the convention.  I do think Hillary is going to make it on the democrat side, and think Rommey will get it and not know what hit him when he gets to the general campaign.

I think Shillary is the next presdent at this point.

Heaven help us.

Aw, man. I don't think I agree with any of them. I don't want another presidential election to feel like I'm simple choosing the lesser of two evils....although I'm beginning to suspect that is all the election will ever be.

I could live with him as well, Badger, but would like a republican congress to curb any of "his" excesses as well.

Sadly, I think he's been "swift boated" or "Sister Souljahed" in South Carolina that will make that a pyrrhic victory for him.  I think he was absolutely correct to call them out on what they have done and really do not think he has initiated the mud nor been as nasty an inaccurate in his counter claims.  The twisting of his words on Reagan were transparent as shit and an insult to our intelligence **IF** you heard his exact words.

But how many of the electorate bother to investigate the words?  That's the sad part.  What passes for dialog punishes those who give a thoughtful, 4 or 5 minute answer to a question when a 20 second sound bite can be lifted out of context to be hung around your neck.  The Clintons mastered this with Newt Gingrich who was a long winded talker.  Newt was far more intelligent and thoughtful on things than ever given credit for and was turned into a cartoon character by these guys in the mid 1990s.  Newt was the best thing that ever happened to Clinton as he had a new punching bag who had a large ego and fell victim to his own hubris when he became majority leader, far exceeding his wildest imagination of how successful the 94 election would be for him.

Man, those people suck.

What we're experiencing hasn't happened since 1952 in that neither side has a presumptive nominee in terms of a sitting president or Veep looking for the nomination.  As such it is wide open on both sides.

I am not *positive* but I think the last brokered convention was Aldai Stevenson in 1952, as well, and the republican one could come down to a floor fight as well.

What I do NOT know is how many of the 20 in Super Tuesday are open rather than closed primaries.  Open ones play to McCain and to Obama, apparently.

I loooove this stuff and find it fascinating.  I haven't a clue how it is going to play out and will be curious as to the impact of this front loaded primary.  The conventional wisdom I bought into had this sewing it up by february and then leading to a horrificly LOONG national campaign.  But, it could well be that the Republicans will carry the fight through to the convention.  If Hillary locks it up, it could be the closest thing to a presumptive nominee got the advantage.

Who knows.

Maybe it's not a foregone conclusion.  I heard FL Gov. Charlie Crist's McCain endorsement and rumor has it this guy is popular in FL.

I was not expecting that, as supposedly Crist has been passing the tin cup trying to get Presidential candidates to support a government bailout program for catastrophic home insurance in FL.  Guliani supported it, Mitt has been non committal, and McCain had said there was FEMA and 20-odd other agencies, so we didn't need anything else.

I figured that candid commentary would tube any chance of McCain getting this character's endoresement.

I am not sure how much it means, but this thing is supposedly becoming a dead heat, so any little thing helps.

McCain wins FL, and I am far more optimistic about his long term chances against Mitt.

I also think he can handle Shrillary a lot better than Mitt....

Hey Modmeister's ... is there anyway to add a second poll to a thread?  I'd be curious as to whom is the second choice of people in this final four.  Obama has it pretty much locked up, but then whom do people like?  Do they like Hillary, McCain, or Mitt?  (I suspect Mitt gets few mentions, if any, but am curious as to how it breaks between McCain and Hillary if Obama's toast.)

A lot of people are thinking Edwards is going to broker a deal at the convention where he gives Obama his delegates in return for a VP slot.

I think that needs to be a motivational poster.

So, Ted Kennedy's endorsement.

Political boost or kiss of death?

Sure, he's an influential Democrat with a lot of history, but he's also the ultimate symbol of the ineffectual pork-barrel establishment left.

I'm also amused that some papers are spinning this as the Kennedy 'dynasty' pitting itself against the Clinton 'dynasty'.  I wouldn't have thought there was a Clinton 'dynasty'.  So, you get one Presidency and a Senate seat, and you're a dynasty?  Standards are getting lower on that...

That event today will go down in our political history as a truly historic moment, I think.  Hell, I was moved, and I can't stand Teddy.  I love Obama's oratorical skills and can respect him as a person, but I likely will not like his policy specifics at all.

But that damn thing even moved me.  It would be nice to respect the opposition again.