Maine?!

Call me a Numpty if you will, but I am staggered that Obama has won in Maine.

Maine!

"Murder she wrote" was set there! It's cosy coast country where the Bushes have their retreat.

59 (Obama) to 41 (Hilary) !

In October 2007, Clinton was beating Obama in Maine by 47 to 10!

There is something serious going on!

Matthew Yglesias comments beautifully:

My understanding, though, is that this doesn't really count because it's a small state, much as Utah doesn't count because there aren't many Democrats there, DC doesn't count because there are too many black people, Washington doesn't count because it's a caucus, Illinois doesn't count because Obama represents it in the Senate even though Hillary was born there, Hawaii won't count because Obama was born there. I'm not sure why Delaware and Connecticut don't count, but they definitely don't.

And Obama is now ahead on delegates.

If I was in Clinton's campaign I'd be wearing brown trousers to work now. Her campaign chief has quit or been pushed. But Hilary is of course able to take all these blows and carry on regardless. And of course, she'll take Texas and Ohio big and be home and dry. Of course. Yeah. Yeah.

While I am at it, this business about the Republicans looking forward to Obama and Clinton ripping themselves apart while McCain establishes himself as the front-runner has an element of BS (Bovine Scatology) to it. The Democrats will get great publicity from the ongoing race and there's already been record audiences for debates and record turn-outs at primaries and caucases. As long as Clinton and Obama keep roughly to their peace pipe routine, as established at the last debate, they should be able to keep the public interested and positive about the Democrats. After all, they (Clinton and Obama) only have a couple of substantial policy differences. And the personalities come down to "change" versus "experience". Not really a whirlpool of vitriol.

And by the way, McCain is getting all manner of cack thrown at him by the likes of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. And Huckabee is clearly sponging up most of the southern states, making McCain look very vulnerable in the nether regions. So it's not all beer and skittles for the Republicans.