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Getting RacyJohn Dickerson takes readers' questions on the fast-moving primary campaigns.

Posted Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008, at 5:55 PM ET

John Dickerson was online at Washingtonpost.com on Thursday, Feb. 7, to discuss the outcome of Super Tuesday and speculate on the upcoming twists of the presidential race. An unedited transcript of the chat follows.

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Denver: Obama generally has run a brilliant campaign with the exception of managing expectations. He seems to have turned a major achievement of reaching stalemate on Super Tuesday into a disappointment. Are his pollsters as wrong as Zogby?

John Dickerson: I'm not sure it's seen as a disappointment. He won more states and may have won more delegates and he made up pretty big deficits even in places he lost. Managing expectations is almost impossible and particularly hard for a momentum candidate like him. If you're claiming you're building a movement you can't then say: don't move too fast.

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Austin, Texas: Does Romney's withdrawal lessen pressure on McCain to make nice with the right wing of his party?

John Dickerson: No I think he still wants his base in the general and as a news management issue he wants fewer questions about how angry his own party is with him so there are still reasons to try to build bridges.

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Arlington, Va.: No offense to Donegal, but we really don't care what the rest of the world thinks, and I find it offensive that he'd think it matters. When people start asking Ireland to intervene in Bosnia or Sudan, or to fix the crises in North Korea or Iran, then we'll care.

John Dickerson: I think there are a great number of voters though who do care what the world thinks— both Republican and Democratic voters.

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Kamloops, B.C.: Why are so many people carrying on about an Obama/Clinton ticket? Wouldn't a red state governor be the smart/safe choice? What is the rational for such a ticket? What are the advantages/disadvantages?

John Dickerson: It's a parlor game. I think it's silly too but what can we do about it. It would also be stupid for both of them. Hillary wouldn't want to be outshined and Obama would want someone who is new generation the way he is. Or he'd want a serious red state governor for ballast (if he sees that as a problem)

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Re: Limbaugh (yuck!): Do you think that Rush Limbaugh effectively has marginalized himself as an influential broadcaster, what with his vendetta against John McCain and especially his obscene insinuation re: McCain and Lindsay Graham?

John Dickerson: I think he'll be more popular than ever. He's not effective clearly but he now has someone to rail against and his listeners do too. Two targets is better than one. But he took a pretty strong rebuke on Super Tuesday.

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Minneapolis: John, can we divine anything about Obama and Clinton's governing styles based on how they've run their campaigns thus far?

John Dickerson: Great question. I dunno. They've both run pretty great campaigns. Clinton's money problems aren't a plus for her and you'd have to give Obama the edge on organization just because he built it fast and it has run so well— and he's younger.

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Fort Lee, N.J.: I don't expect you to agree, but there's something faintly racist about the media's apparent surprise that Hispanic voters don't all break in favor of Obama, as if there was no difference between all minority voters, or all Hispanics for that matter. Well, there's a hell of a lot of difference, and I wish these guys would stop being surprised.

John Dickerson: Is that the surprise? I thought the surprise was that Obama couldn't pick up a bigger share among Latinos. I've seen similar surprises with women voters (Though Obama was able to win women in IA).

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Princeton, N.J.: Any signs that Democrats in Florida and Michigan might hold caucuses to choose delegates? Those states could have a huge impact now. Would the national party welcome caucuses, or would it spark a big fight because Hillary won most of the delegates that at present don't count?

John Dickerson: There is some hint of this but for the moment Howard Dean has suggested that the two campaigns try to work out a compromise.

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St. Mary's City, Md.: Do you see McCain trying to win over the religious right by putting Huckabee on the ticket? If so, do you think it will work? I'm concerned that this may turn out to be a Faustian bargain for both McCain and the GOP. Also, McCain in 2000 had strong appeal with independents and GOP mavericks. Is that the case this year, or have they switched to Ron Paul? On the Democratic side, my impression of Obama is that many of his supporters are independents and party mavericks as well. It would be interesting if the national race had both Obama and McCain chasing after independents.

John Dickerson: That won't buy off the right. They are not easily bought and there are a lot on the right who don't like Huckabee. Will it help him with evangelicals? Maybe but probably not. Also McCain gets 1/3 of evangelicals even with Huckabee in the race so he's got some inroads there on his own.

If McCain and Obama ran against each other it does seem to me that it would be a big fight for the middle and lots of states would be in play.

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