Maryland: Obama and McCain Declared the Winners

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Obama is genuinely in the lead for the first time in this election. Before the Maryland prediction was announced, analysts have Obama leading Hillary Clinton by 8 delegates when counting both pledged and committed superdelegates. His lead is razor thin, but it is a lead. He has momentum.

DC Goes to Obama

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I have no idea whether either Obama or Clinton promised to secure real voting rights for residents of the District of Columbia — but if it hasn’t come up, someone better get it on the to do list if a Dem wins the White House.

Bursting the John Bolton as Secretary of State Bubble

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Mike Boyer over at Foreign Policy Magazine‘s Passport blog just offered a number of sensible reasons why John Bolton probably would not be appointed by a President McCain to serve as Secretary of State. Boyer is right on the whole — though he need not worry about classifying Bolton as a neocon. He is not….

Maryland Polls to Stay Open For An Extended 90 Minutes

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Weather in Maryland is very bad right now. Bridges are shut down all around Baltimore, Annapolis, Chestertown, and the broader Eastern Shore. So the State of Maryland where I occasionally reside has decided to get CNN, MSNBC, Fox and other network pundits some overtime pay by keeping the polls open an extended 90 minutes.

The Potomac Primaries

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Like some of these folks mentioned on Washington Metroblogging, I am a registered Independent — so I didn’t get to take part in the voting activity that took place today in DC’s closed primary.

Did John McCain Get a Tilt in the al Qaeda Trials?

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So after years and years of doing nothing with the detainees at Guantanamo, the Bush administration decides to launch the “al Qaeda trials” — which the administration is comparing to Nuremberg — during this stretch of the political campaign season.

More on Superdelegates

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I tend to disagree with Scott Paul below about the role of superdelegates in this year’s contest. Reform and redirection of the process may make sense for the future — but once the gun went off this year, my view is that you leave the structure as it was when the race began.