The Super Tuesday votes are in and (mostly) counted leaving the question – who won? The short answer is no one or maybe everyone (except Mitt Romney). For the long answer, read on.

Super Tuesday, the day in which nearly half of the states held primaries or caucuses, was as exciting and indecisive as most pundits predicted. Each of the five remaining major candidates won at least a handful of states.

On the G.O.P. side, where most of the media predicted that McCain would cement the nomination, the Arizona senator did have a good night. He’s come up a bit short on the delegate count, but big wins in big states in a three person race has got to have the senator feeling pretty good. But the McCain and the party should be concerned because McCain did not win in many states that the G.O.P. has much of a chance of winning. He fared poorly in the Republican strongholds of the Mountain West (where Romney did well – due to strong Mormon support) and especially the South (where Huckabee swept Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia and his home state of Arkansas). McCain is sitting with more delegates than both of his opponents combined, but I imagine the party in particular is beginning to sweat a little.

On the Democratic side, things are much less clear. Both the Clinton and Obama camps can, and probably will, claim victory. Clinton won the big states and Obama won more of the small states and in most cases by a bigger margin. It’s not clear who won more delegates yet – I’ve seen different tallies on the BBC, CNN, New York Times and Fox News – but both campaigns have begun spinning the results. I must disclose that I’m not objective – see the sidebar on the right – but Obama’s strength in the South and Mountain West is an interesting result when considering a run against McCain in the general. If the Democrats were smart – not something the party is generally accused of – they would start to think about electability just about now. For the Democratic nominee to win in November they need to make inroads into those “red” states – the ones in which Obama is pulling in 60 plus percent of the vote.

If you’re tired of politics, I have bad news for you. If, like myself, you’re a bit of a political junky then that news is fantastic! The race continues, especially on the Democratic side. I can’t see Obama conceding or the formation of a so called unity ticket until a lot more votes are cast. Both Clinton and Obama are flush with cash and the primaries coming up are in the Midwest and the South, where Obama has had success. I suspect that buoyed by his wins in the South, Huckabee will keep the G.O.P. race interesting for a while as well. Hurrah for the U.S. election melodrama!

Finally, a bit of something that may get lost in the press accounts. My former temporary home state of Missouri has accurately picked the president in every election since 1956. They’ve not been perfect in the primaries – picking Gephardt on the Democratic side in 1988 and Buchanan on the Republican in 1996 – but are still considered one of the best presidential bellwethers. Winners last night: McCain and Obama.

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Clintons and Obamas

Here are some nice interactive maps of the Republican and Democratic primary results.

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