Super Tuesday Open Thread

1. Fire up the colortini and join the Super Tuesday open thread! I'll update this entry as we go through the evening (so keep refreshing your browser). You know, the one thing I miss about not having John Edwards around tonight is that America didn't get to learn something special about John, which he might have been persuaded to disclose this evening: his father worked in a mill. Yes, it's true. Tito, get me a tissue. Mo' later...

2. We've been doing candidate interviews this week in the office, and one thing I've noticed is the total absence of social issues on the candidates' agendas. I realized today we'd spent half an hour talking to four GOP primary contenders for a Texas Congressional seat, and not once had abortion, gay marriage or any of the other traditional culture-war issues that were red-hot only the day before yesterday (so to speak) even come up. It's really kind of startling, when you think about it. This is the third election cycle I've sat through as an editorial board member, and I think this is the first time these issues didn't even rate. Different world now, y'all.

3. Huck carries Alabama! How about that. He's not going to win the presidency, obviously, but I love that he's doing decently in the South. And hey, isn't it interesting that Hillary carried Massachusetts so comfortably? So much for the Kennedy bounce.

4. Huck ahead in Missouri. He's doing surprisingly well in the South. If he has a big night in the South, it will be hard for McCain to overlook him for the veep slot on the ticket. Rush Limbaugh and the talk radio folks will go all splodey-dope, but hey...

5. Speaking of, I find it hard to imagine voting for McCain this fall because of his views on the war and immigration -- putting Huck on the ticket would help a lot -- but still, I'm totally with Victor Davis Hanson: the Anti-McCainiacs are acting like absolute loons.

6. It is bliss to ponder the possibility that come tomorrow morning, poor old broke Huck could have more delegates than Moneybags Mittens. Make him spend Tagg's inheritance, Huck!

7. Mittens is in third place in every single state still in play. (California hasn't started to report yet). That's just incredible. He's getting clobbered across the board. I think he's going to have to have a hard talk with himself in the morning.

8. ABC News reports that once again, the youth vote has not materialized. Frankly, that's pathetic. Young people will be spending astonishing amounts of their paychecks to support the Baby Boomers' retirement, and yet, they can't be bothered to turn out to vote.

9. Along those lines, George F. Will just said it's no wonder old folks get out to vote: one-third of the federal budget goes to Social Security and Medicare, which Will characterizes as a massive program to transfer wealth from the working young to the retired elderly. Of course the elderly vote! The mystery is why young people don't.

10. OK, I've started drankin'. Hell, it's Mardi Gras, what do you people want from me?

11. Don't you just know that given how things are turning out, Huck is awfully glad he never tore into John McCain during the campaign? And that they made the same enemies? (Limbaugh, et alia)

12. Ross sez:

Incidentally, if Romney throws in the towel after tonight - which is by no means impossible, depending on the outcome in California - and Huckabee doesn't, will any of the McCain-haters on the right insist that all good conservatives need to rally around Huck? Just asking ...

13. Huck continues to do astonishingly well across the South. He's done this on no money at all. Just imagine if he'd have had the money even McCain did!

14. Jonah talks sense to an NR reader who calls McCain a traitor. Actually, he was gentle with this person, who ought to be slapped. Again, I perfectly understand opposing McCain, even strongly. But to call a war hero a traitor? Despicable.

15. Huck just now: "And we've also seen that the widow's mite has more effectiveness than all the gold in the world." Take that, Mitt! Would anybody have imagined eight months ago that by the end of Super Tuesday, one of the last two men left standing would be ... Mike Huckabee?!

16. Mittens just now: "One thing's clear: This campaign's going on!" Okayyyy...hot dog, he's going to spend even more.

17. Marc Ambinder's political blog on The Atlantic says these are the Republican headlines out of tonight:

a. Huckabee's surprising strength in the South.
b. Huck's collusion with McCain -- which was open in the West Virginia caucuses today -- screwing the pooch for Romney.
c. It will be extremely difficult for McCain to unite the GOP.

Sounds about right to me.

18. Gov. Bill Richardson's being interviewed on ABC right now. He's got a scraggly beard. ("By the way, you look very Justin Timberlake," said Diane Sawyer). Mrs. Crunchy literally came thisclose to spitting her milk out when she saw the poor mangy thing clinging to the governor's jowls.

19. Michelle Cottle: "That said, if the people really have spoken, at this point what a fair number of them seem to be saying is: Bite me, Mitt."

20. Larison: "Clearly, as the results are showing in many of these states, the viable non-McCain candidate is Huckabee, which is all the more remarkable considering how poorly funded his campaign is. Had movement conservatives not thrown a fit and rejected Huckabee out of hand, they might have had a candidate who could stop McCain."

21. Andrew Sullivan: "If Romney beats McCain [in Collyvornia], he doesn't seriously challenge him but he sure bloodies him - perhaps critically. This has been only an average night for the Republican front-runner. At this point, one begins to wonder if the GOP isn't in serious disarray for a while."

22. CNN projecting that Huck wins Georgia. Unbelievable. Mike Huckabee is a force to be reckoned with. Whatever happens in November, he's going to be around for quite a while. Social and religious conservatives now have a powerful voice in the party of the future.