Wham, Ma’am, Thank You, ‘Bam

After an exhilarating and exhausting draw on Super Tuesday, there was a whole lotta love at Hillary’s expense for Barack Obama today. The Illinois Senator absolutely destroyed his New York opponent today in the Nebraska and Washington caucuses, and is in the process of handing her a 19-point throttling in the Louisiana primary.

My own Washington state was the hugest prize in the Saturday derby, with 80 of the day’s 161 up for grabs (the state has 97 delegates, but only 80 are chosen by the caucuses, and the rest are the dreaded and suspect superdelegates). Obama cleaned Hillary’s house with a dominating 68-31 percent clobbering. A lot of pundit eyes were on Washington, with a female governor and two female Democratic U.S. Senators. Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray gave their stamp to Hillary, but Governor Christine Gregoire weighed in at the last minute for the Barack Star.

Obama rocked tonight, but what that all means in the long run, the jury is still out. He has won twice as many states as Hillary, which is all super on paper, but means absolutely nothing if you count delegates. Texas and Ohio and Virginia are coming up. Hillary and her brain trust are sharpening their knives in anticipation. As much as I miss the Clinton Years, this is a crew that not only likes to win, it hates to lose, and they’ve got a Texas-sized can of whoop-ass in their holster that they’re not afraid to pull out and use on their own if it’s going to win them the votes that they need. Don’t be surprised if somewhere today, Dick Morris’ phone is ringing. Add enough zeros to the check, and he’ll take all the enmity he’s had for the Clintons in recent years and happily turn it on Barack Obama.

It’s going to take another day or so for my brain to assess the potential mutiny within the party if the superdelegates do their very dirty business. But I’m tired, and I’ve got a beehive-caliber buzz working. I’ll tackle this weighty issue tomorrow.

ON THE CLOCK AND OFF THE CAUCUS: Just to get this straight right now and not wait for some weisenheimer to try and “gotcha!” me as a Ben Affleck/Art Alexakis Sit Out The Vote Republican’t or Hypocrat in the coming weeks and months when I start berating people to be part of the process and lambasting the civicly lazy who will spend two hours painting their faces team colors or standing in line at WinCo to buy beer and nacho cheese before kickoff but can’t be bothered to spend less than an hour exercising their right to choose the next leaders of their city, state, and country, here you go: I didn’t caucus in Washington State today. It sucked and I wasn’t happy about it, but I had to be at one of my three jobs, 70 miles away, and I need beer, nourishment, and a roof over my head to continue this blog, and caucus rules and processes aren’t as flexible as those of the primary and general elections. Also, my utility providers like to be paid, and it encourages them to continue supplying me with electricity and Internet access.

I will be at my polling place next Tuesday either before or after work, or I’ll drive up from Portland on my lunch hour, when Washington holds their utterly useless primary. File this under “Washington Weak”–state delegates here are selected by caucus. The primary exists only to determine who’s cuter or has had better luck with their teeth whitener. It’s no way run a democracy, but I’ll be there, and I will cast my vote regardless. This is only one reason I want to move away and never darken this state’s doorstep with my shadow again. I want to live somewhere that takes the democratic process deadly serious and where every single vote is sacrosanct and counts. You know, like Ohio or Florida.

SHUSPENDED: Hell hath no fury like a Clinton scorned, and Hillary took her eye off Barack Obama to lambaste MSNBC and political reporter David Shuster for his unfortunate suggestion that Hillary’s deployment of Chelsea Clinton to woo the celebrities and super delegates might be at its core something less than motherly. “Doesn’t it seem”, Shuster asked, “like Chelsea’s sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?” …….Well, you know that wasn’t going to end well. Shuster will be watching the Chesapeake Primary from his living room this Tuesday while he serves out his MSNBC suspension.