Quotes From Around Yon Primarysphere

The gist of the Republican argument against McCain seems to be that he is not pure enough for many conservatives. I submit that that is precisely the point. The pure products of extreme ideology don't win elections in this country. The pure products of ideology start, well, civil wars.

-- GERARD VANDERLEUN

It's still looking like the GOP 1976 for the Democrats. If Hillary has to rely on the superdelegates to beat Obama at the convention, it will be a disaster for the party. They needed a more decisive outcome yesterday, and what they got was a complete muddle.

-- ED MORRISSEY

The biggest news? I'd say it's Huckabee's astonishing resilience, with so few dollars and so little organization. The Bush-Rove party is a disproportionately religious organization and the pastor cannot be denied. The GOP's natural ticket is obviously McCain-Huckabee. It makes a lot of sense for the logic of today's religiously-based, war-motivated Republicanism. It's also a huge reminder that the so-called leaders of the conservative movement - Limbaugh, Hewitt, Dobson, Levin, et al - are very scantily clad emperors. Their bluff has been called. And it couldn't happen to a nicer crowd.

-- ANDREW SULLIVAN

The results suggest that money and political muscle are not the be-all and end-all for getting to the White House.

John McCain now has a clear path to the Republican nomination, while Mike Huckabee remains to haunt his hopes for a unified Party and may very well end up as his running mate.

Barack Obama has leveled the playing field with Hillary Clinton, cutting into her lead in the delegate count to the point where the once-certain nominee is now calling for more debates to bolster her chances.

What Obama and Huckabee have in common is that a year ago they were candidates with messages who didn't have the money, the name recognition or the organization to challenge the Clintons' political juggernaut, Rudy Giuliani's 9/11 aura or Mitt Romney's wealth.

But somehow, in the face of those odds, they persuaded different segments of the electorate that they represent the best hope for change from the dismal Bush years.

-- ROBERT STEIN

Only Clinton derangement syndrome can explain the alliance of so many otherwise thoughtful people of both parties who speak well of the candidacy of a man with scant knowledge of the world who has never been tested and has never run anything larger than a senatorial office. The question that we need to ask is whether this man — who candidly admits, "I'm not a manager" — can manage the vast apparatus of the federal government. Will packaging be enough to deal with our problems?

In 1965, appalled by the unearned adulation for mayoral candidate John Lindsay (who was also considered a future president), Robert Moses warned: "If you elect a matinee idol mayor, you’re going to have a musical comedy administration." And that's just what New York got. Substitute "president" for "mayor," and you can anticipate what might be coming.

-- FRED SIEGEL

It's f***ing absurd. Isn't it? The attention to bs from the major corporate news channels to delegates, states won, who's spinning what. It's not what I need from this race. What I need is some idea why people are voting as they are. What issues are moving them? What do they believe a particular candidate will do for them? I don't see any of that from our vaunted analysts in the corporate media. They are pushing McCain and Clinton as if that is the only solution. What does that tell you, as a voter?

-- STEVEN D

Surveys of voters leaving the polls suggested a reprise of the identity politics that has so long characterized — and at times bedeviled — Democratic politics. Black voters overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama, suggesting an end to a period in which Mrs. Clinton could remain competitive with Mr. Obama for the support of that segment of the Democratic electorate.

Women went, by large margins, to Mrs. Clinton. But in one development that augurs well for Mr. Obama, white men — who had largely voted for Mr. Edwards before — appeared to be heading in his direction. And young voters also went overwhelmingly for Mr. Obama, suggesting a generational divide.

-- ADAM NAGOURNEY

Obama truly is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. He was born to a single, teenage mother, but he grew up middle-class, and rose to the level of elite. He was raised by white people but was made black by a country that can't get past his skin color or his name. As an American voter, there's a piece of your own dream that's represented by Obama, whatever your color or class.

Of all people, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, a man known more for his poetry in motion than in speech, said it best . . . when he asked the rally-goers to "be aware of how you are feeling when [Obama] is speaking..." Some leaders, when they speak, said Bradley, "begin to swell." Not Obama, said Bradley. "He reflects the light that's shining on him, back onto you."

-- ADELE M. STAN

For most the race, I argued that no movement was good movement for the front-runner Clinton. So long as the race dynamics didn’t change, she comes out ahead. But tonight, that’s been reversed, and my instinct is that Obama merely needed to keep steady in order to be well positioned down the line. After all, everyone agreed that the winds were changing in Obama’s favor — the only question was whether it was happening fast enough. If the race ended on Super Tuesday, it would end for Clinton. But it didn’t end today, and now we need to look at what’s next on the Democratic schedule these coming days.

-- DAVID SCHRAUB

So what does this tell us? Nothing except that this was a really, really close race. The good news: Exciting! The bad news: Contrary to the storyline the talking heads have been feeding us, this hasn't really been a very nasty race. But it might turn into one now. Fasten your seat belts.

-- KEVIN DRUM

Cartoon by Tony Auth/The Philadelphia Inquirer