1. For all the talk about Tuesday's status as something close to a national primary -- at least, as close as we've ever come -- I had to wait until 1:50 a.m. before someone actually mentioned the total vote. At that point, according to CNN's David Gergen, both Clinton and Obama had about 5 million votes. By Wednesday night, the counted vote had grown to more than 7 million each, and Clinton had a four-tenths of a percent lead on Obama.
2. In the movie version of this campaign, John Edwards takes his block of delegates and becomes the compromise candidate after some tense negotiations. Or ... Al Gore comes in to save the day hours before the first ballot and accept the party's nomination on behalf of the country. We're not in a movie, although sometimes it feels like one.
3. Smooth move by Mitt Romney on Tuesday to say he wasn't exactly impressed that Bob Dole wrote him a letter defending John McCain's conservative credentials. He made it sound as if Dole had as much credibility as Teddy Kennedy in Republican matters. That's Bob Dole, former Presidential nominee who probably will have the next Senate office building or something named after him in appreciation for his work there. It's getting clearer why the rest of the field doesn't seem to like Mr. Romney.
4. Funniest moment of the TV coverage that I saw: Jeffrey Toobin of CNN was just starting to point out that Romney had only carried two states, Massachusetts and Utah, and he had lived in both of them. Anderson Cooper interrupted to have Wolf Blitzer announce that CNN had just projected Romney as the winner in ... Minnesota. Then it was back to the panel, who couldn't stop laughing.
5. One of these days, someone is going to keep track of all of the historical and cultural references thrown about by Keith Olbermann, and post them in a blog. They aren't out of right field like the ones Dennis Miller used to use in "Monday Night Football," but you do have to be sharp to keep track of them. According to Variety, MSNBC has told its anchors to have fun this year, and they are following orders with pleasure.
