Obameter: Eight straight for Barack

As expected, Barack tonight made it eight straight primary victories with commanding defeats of rival Hillary Clinton in Virginia, Maryland, and District of Columbia. Although few of the ballots have been counted in Maryland as I type this, exit polls show it will go the way of Virginia and DC, with Obama defeating his opponent by an almost two-to-one-margin.

What was not expected was the way Obama won. Hillary to date has been winning with the Latinos, women, seniors, and the less educated. But tonight, according to the DrudgeReport, Barack won:

• Latino Voters By Six Points: 53-47
  
• All Religions (Including Catholics)
• All Age Groups (Including Seniors)
• All Regions
• All Education Levels
• And Women by 21 points!

Also as expected, for the first time all major news outlets are reporting that Obama now has more delegates than does Clinton. Since counting delegates is as much art as science at this stage of the primary, there previously was some disagreement as to which candidate was leading prior to this evening. Not any more. MSNBC is reporting Barack with 1,017 to Hillary's 942. Over at CNN, they've got it called Barack with 1,195 to Hillary's 1,178 delegates. And ABC has the delegate count at 1,193 to 1,183 in favor of Obama.

Hillary's campaign is bracing for more losses before an important showdown on March 4th. She's expected to lose Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Washington next week, although her campaign is still hoping one or two of those states are in play.

At this point, Clinton's campaign has significantly less cash than does Obama's, and she'll be investing much of what's left in Ohio and Texas to try to prove she's still viable. Should Hillary win those states, then the convention could get very interesting (and potentially very messy). If she loses, she'll be low on cash, delegates, and momentum; even though neither candidate will likely arrive at the convention with the necessary majority, it's hard to imagine Clinton can make much of a claim if she fails to take any of the 15 races from the primaries on February 9th, 10th, 12th, 19th, and March 4th.

As if Hillary didn't seem to have enough of a hole to climb out of, most of the latest polls that pit her against probable GOP nominee McCain show her losing at this point. Of the nine national surveys taken in the last two weeks, only two have Clinton beating McCain and the average is a one-point edge to McCain (which is, it should be pointed out, well within the margin of error of these studies). Obama-versus-McCain paints a different picture; of those same nine national polls, only one gives an edge to McCain and the overall average is 3.7 points in Obama's favor.

My personal feeling is that she cannot overcome the likability and trustworthiness issues quickly enough. Even today, there were more headlines about the fact she refuses to release her tax returns as has Obama. Clinton seems to continue to operate under the idea that she can turn the tide based on connections and her policies, but these are not the things that win the hearts of voters. The quicker she can become transparent, the better (but I don't see that happening).