For some it's Tuesday, for some it's History

After that amazing crowd Sunday in Portland, OR--which some now estimate at 80,000, Barack Obama picked up 5 super-delegates Monday, including Senator Robert Byrd. That's history, already--in his much younger days, Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and an opponent of Civil Rights in the 60s. Monday he endorsed a black man for President of the United States.

In Montana, Obama was adopted into the Crow nation in Montana, the first presidential candidate to be so honored. More history. His speech showed real understanding of American Indian issues and point of view.

Over the weekend, this article came out, analyzing Obama's "problem" with Jewish voters, and concluding that he doesn't really have one. Jewish voters prefer him to McCain by a large margin, in the most recent Gallup poll. Speaking of Gallup, their tracking poll Monday showed Obama with a 16 point lead.

But now we're talking Tuesday. The cable/TV babblers will begin around 6 pm Eastern (when most polls close in Kentucky) and 7 (when they all close.) If the opinion polls are correct, they should project for Hillary pretty quickly. But then the talk will be more like this AP story from Monday--because even with a loss in Kentucky, that state will provide enough delegates to give Obama the number necessary to claim a majority of total pledged delegates available from all the contests this year. (The range of delegates predicted for Obama in Kentucky is 17 t0 19. He needs 14.5 for a majority.)

Hillary will claim victory but she'll be history by then. Obama will speak in Iowa and note the history his campaign has made, and the babblers will ask, dare the super-dels counter the will of the voters? Let me save you some time: No.

It won't be until 11 Eastern that Oregon begins to announce its vote count. It's a closed mail-in primary, so people will have until 8 PM Pacific to drop off their ballots. A lot of ballots have already been sent in, including a record number this past weekend. Those will be ready to count. Though one cable show I saw quoted the outlyer among polls that shows a close race to drum up some drama, most polls show Obama with a significant lead--in fact, one poll suggests that by Monday Obama had already won. So come 11PM Eastern, Oregon should be projected for Obama pretty quickly.

The predictors have Obama winning 29 to 32 delegates in Oregon. So if he wins 30 in Oregon and 17 in Kentucky, Obama ends May 20 about 62 delegates shy of the number needed to nominate.

Though the babble on Tuesday night might be about the hard-working white voters who didn't vote for him in Kentucky, by Wednesday morning the headlines are likely to be about Oregon--and maybe they'll even mention the hard-working white voters who voted for him there.