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The Decider

By Michael Weiss
Posted Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, at 5:27 PM ET

The decider: The blogosphere devotes itself almost exclusively to Super Tuesday speculation. Some cast predictions of who will win where, while others assess broader memes, such as the conservative putsch against John McCain and Barack Obama's supposed purity as the anti-war candidate.

Christopher Orr at the New Republic's Plank predicts: "My guess (and that's all it is) for how things will shake out today is that Hillary Clinton will do well, winning the states she's supposed to and most of the presumed toss-ups. Barack Obama may come close in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and even New Jersey, but my gut says he probably loses them all (though, as an Obama supporter, I'd be delighted to be wrong)."

Andrew Sullivan is livid that Hillary Clinton got misty-eyed again Monday speaking at Yale University after an introduction from an old friend: "It's time feminists realized that Clinton is a dream gone sour. If you believe in women in politics, in female leaders who lead by themselves, on their own merits, with no strings to pull and husband-presidents to rely on, do yourself a favor and vote for Obama."

At the Weekly Standard's Worldwide Standard, Michael Goldfarb hits back at conservative radio personalities—Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity—who have denounced McCain: "Has Rush been paying attention to what the Democratic Congress tried to do to the war effort this year—and the role McCain played in stopping it? Is he unaware that right now Clinton and Obama are one-upping each other in a game of who could surrender first? That both would withdraw American troops regardless of the recommendations of General Petraeus, regardless of whether we are winning or losing, regardless—in short—of reality?"

And Jennifer Rubin at Commentary's contentions is appalled by Mitt Romney's dismissal of McCain as another Bob Dole: "Romney himself seems lost and dwarfed by the fury he has unleashed. He is, after all, nearly irrelevant to the argument which his nominal supporters are making. He is reduced to denigrating another war hero and conservative (not a great candidate, but undeserving of opprobrium from the likes of a man who cannot decide whether he ever wanted to serve in the military): Bob Dole."

At Roger's Rules, Pajamas Media XPress blogger Roger Kimball defends McCain against the conservative onslaught: "John McCain is not perfect. Far from it. I would prefer to pull the lever from Mitt Romney myself—assuming, that is, that Romney could win in the general election. Can he? Many pundits say no. But the unanimity of that conventional wisdom makes me regard it as highly suspect—akin, for example, to the wisdom that told us last summer 1) that Rudy was a shoo-in 2) that McCain was finished, and that more recently assured us 3) that Obama was finished 4) that Hillary was finished. The conventional wisdom is never wise and seldom more than merely conventional, i.e., a shot in the dark which is then magnified by repetition into seeming truth. We just don't know what will happen."

Jim Geraghty at NRO's Campaign Spot notes that: "A couple of winner-take-all states would have added some real drama … and wrapped the race up further. … Suddenly, Democrats are going to have to pay close attention to primaries that never get much attention—Nebraska on Saturday, Maine on Sunday, the "Chesapeake Primary" a week from tomorrow (Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C.) ... Hawaii and Wisconsin the week after that."

Ana Marie Cox at Time's Swampland comments on McCain's decision to campaign in Massachuttsetts, Romney's home turf: "In discussing this, McCain staffers practically rubbed their hands together and cackled. One consultant compared their Boston overnight to Bush visiting Arizona in 2000. It probably felt good at the time, but if they lose California by even a hair (perhaps especially a hair), then their premature victory boogey will seem way off the beat."

Megan McArdle endorses Obama and Romney, the former because: "He's slightly to the left of Hillary on goals, but he's well to the right of her on process. His goal is not more government so that we can all be caught up in some giant, expressive exercise of collectively enforcing our collective will on all the other people standing around us in the collective; his goal is improving transparency and minimizing government intrusion, while rectifying specific outcomes."

Read more Super Tuesday posts. At the "XX Factor," the women of Slate are picking apart an essay by feminist Robin Morgan on voting for Hillary.

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Michael Weiss is the New York editor of Pajamas Media. His personal blog is Snarksmith.
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