Michigan Decides / What Now?

Yesterday was the Michigan primary, where the big story was the win of Mitt Romney (his first since the Wyoming caucus which no one seems to count). Andrew Sullivan has some quick reactions, most of which just acknowledge what a long primary season this will be.

From what I saw of the campaign, Romney seemed to win over voters by playing the populist, by discussing the legendary economic woes of Michigan (oh noes, class warfare!). The Republicans are very concerned about the economy in theory. But seriously, all is well!

(Spending more than the others combined on TV ads probably bought him some votes too)

The Democratic side of this primary was a much bigger mess. In a decision I think was petty, the DNC had stripped Michigan of its delegates-- Florida too-- for moving up their dates in the primary calendar. Obama and Edwards removed their names from the ballot in solidarity with this, but Clinton did not. And so Hillary won this state by default with a decisive win over "Uncommitted". Except that she gets no delegates... Or does she? Like I said, a mess.

Since they were ignoring this state tonight, Democrats instead held a debate in Las Vegas, in anticipation of Saturday's Nevada caucus. I thought that, despite really awful moderating from Tim Russert, the three candidates actually had substantive discussions on the economy, Iraq, etc. Look for clips on YouTube in the morning. Wrapups/Video- here and here.

Finally, MSNBC did a commercial for their upcoming coverage of the February 5 primaries (starting at 5am?). There was a huge graphic that said 'MONSTER TUESDAY' and an explosion and stuff. We take elections very seriously in this country.