Dispatches

Presuming no misfortune delays the paper from coming out today, an update on a story contained within it follows.

Update: It was delayed and should be here tomorrow. While rain nor snow nor dark of night does not stop the Post Office, they aren’t delivering the paper.

This current issue of the Chronicle has a cover story about the election that I wrote, and though it went to press Friday it is already out of date. Huckabee continues to be a thorn (stinger?) in McCain’s side, but McCain’s victories tonight are beginning to push back against the popular former governor of Arkansas (not to be confused with the other popular former governor of Arkansas who is a running mate — by which we mean the mate of a running candidate).

Obama’s victories in the days since the story was committed to the printer have been seven, counting the US Virgin Islands with their 8 Democratic delegates. His margins have been impressive and so has his ability to steal support from categories that Mrs. Clinton had ruled a week ago Tuesday. He drew a crowd of 19,000 to a college stadium in Milwaukee (Wisconsin’s primary is next Tuesday) and Mrs. Clinton has been forced to basically cede the remaining contests this month in favor of heavy campaigning in Texas and Ohio — hoping to build up a firewall to stem the flow of states and delegates to Obama.

That said, political analysts far wiser than me are drawing the likeness of Hilary’s strategy to the strategy of a certain former mayor of New York who is no longer in the race as a result of his strategy collapsing quite horrifically, and predictably. People like voting for winners, and if Obama continues his steamrolling for the rest of February he may prove impossible to stop.

—Bill Peters