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Posted Tuesday, February 12, 2008 6:30 PM

Primary Day in D.C.

Howard Fineman
WASHINGTON -- I always have to go somewhere else to cover politics, but today national politics came to me. At the Methodist Church down the street from our home in Washington, D.C., voters lined up early this morning to play their role in what has turned into a riveting presidential primary season.

My neighborhood is Obama country: upscale, highly educated Democrats. (I'm an independent and am registered as such, so I was out of the ballgame today.) As motorists whizzed by in their vehicles on Connecticut Avenue this morning, bus drivers, truck drivers and commuters alike honked at Obama signs. But Hillary Clinton had plenty of supporters, too, and voters emerging from the church social hall looked especially pleased with themselves, as though they had made more history than usual.

But the talk on the sidewalk -- remember, this is Washington -- was about "superdelegates." Could Obama finish the season with a lead in pledged delegates, having won more states and more votes than Hillary, and still somehow have the nomination taken away from him by the equivalent of a backroom deal?

"There would be riots," said one woman carrying an Obama sign. She was no hothead -- a 30-something editor for a health-care publication. But she was vehement on the topic. "They couldn't take it away from him that way."

They could try. If the final numbers of pledged delegates are close -- that is, if Hillary is behind by perhaps 40 delegates or so -- the Clinton campaign thinks it will have the political leeway to try to muscle her through to victory with superdelegates. If they are behind by a couple of hundred pledged delegates, they concede, no amount of muscle will matter.

The Obama campaign thinks it won't come down to that -- that they will win going away. They have to hope that they are right.

But this is how to think of the stories over the next few weeks: Is Obama ahead by 30 or 40, is he in the hundreds? In that detail -- in that number -- lies the whole tale.
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Posted By: Michaelrf (February 13, 2008 at 11:44 AM)

I find it amazing that there is so much negativity toward Washington these days, that we are so easilty manipulated by Obama's fancy rhetoric and the press.  Come on people !!  Do we want to win in November?  I dont care about polls, I dont care about fancy talk.  I want real solutions to real problems.  DUH.  THE ONLY OPTION IS HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON.  Come on Texas! Come on Ohio!  Come on Pennsylvania!  

Hillary's gotta win big!  Its our only hope!

Clinton/Bayh 2008

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Posted By: uuforyou (February 13, 2008 at 8:53 AM)

McCain is a HOPE killer.

Obama asks me to work hard and dream big!

Obama is a hero of the American dream!

I want to feel good about my country again, and

Obama offers that!

McCain just tells me I have to live in fear.

I'm tired of fear, I want HOPE!

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Posted By: Time for Change (February 13, 2008 at 8:51 AM)

More often than not, I'm starting to hear the Latinos speak as if they have the last word on every election. This act of superiority is only going unite the other Americans to push harder in securing the border.

It's fine to support your candidate, but the constant "Latinos are going to do this, and going to do that" can create racial tensins that's not needed here in this country. The rest of America should model themselves after Virginia. We vote across part lines, racial lines, and economic status. Yes, we have pockets of contaminated Virginians, but Obama's victry here was contributed to a diverse group of voters. He

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