Super Tuesday

Yesterday was what is referred to as Super Tuesday in the United States. 21 states held elections to help determine the nominees for both the republicans and democratics. John McCain was the big winner on the republican side winning delegate rich states including New York, California and New Jersey. He now has 516 of the 1,191 delegates needed to win the republican nomination according to msnbc.com. Polls had showed that Romney had overtaken McCain in California but when it was all said and done, it was McCain that won the biggest prize which happened to be winner take all. Romney says he's not dropping out but his chances are very slim right now. If he had won California and won those 170 delegates then it would be a much different story right now but that loss was huge and I think it's sealed his fate.

Mike Huckabee was the surprise of Super Tuesday. It started when he won West Virginia in what Mitt Romney called a backroom deal between Huckabee and John McCain. Regardless of how it happened it was Huckabee that won the 18 delegates from the Mountaineer state. But that wasn't the only surprise win for Huckabee. He won Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama in addition to his home state of Arkansas and nearly won Missouri. That success in the south all but guarantees that he'll be John McCain's running mate in the general election. John McCain may have been the big winner on the republican side last night but Mike Huckabee was a winner as well.

Things are a lot closer on the democratic side. Hillary Clinton won the big states, California, New York and New Jersey, as well as a few others, but it was Barack Obama that won the most states. Barack won Georgia, Conneticut, Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota, Utah, Delaware, Alabama, North Dakota, Kansas, Idaho, Alaska and his home state of Illinois. Hillary still has the edge in delegates, 582 to 485 for Obama, according to msnbc.com, but Obama isn't out of it by any means.

I think the only real surprise on the democratic side was that Hillary Clinton won Massachusetts and won big. I think a lot of people expected Barack Obama to get a boost from the support he got from the Kennedy's but that didn't seem to help him at all in their home state as he lost to Hillary by 15 percentage points.

Looking ahead, I think that you'll see the republicans unite around John McCain and start focussing on the general election as soon as possible while the democrats continue to fight it out. The republicans want to make sure that they don't drag this out any longer. I think that they have to unite now and focus on the general if they have any chance of winning. If you look at the vote totals on both sides, the democrats are having a far higher turnout than the republicans and if that translates to the general then the democrats will win regardless of who their nominee is. People like Rush Limbaugh and others will have to put aside their ego's and unite around John McCain unless they want a democrat to win the general. If they don't then I don't believe that enough republicans will come out to the polls in the general and that will cost McCain.

As for the democrats, it's still a close race but it looks like Hillary is going to be the nominee. She has a 97 delegate lead over Obama and she'll probably have the support of most of the super delegates at the convention. But I believe that Barack will stay in the race until the end and if that happens then it will take a lot longer for the democrats to unite than the republicans and that could hurt once the general election race starts. And with Obama still having a shot at winning, things could get nasty again and I don't think that will be good for the democrats.

If things stay the same though, it will be McCain vs. Hillary in the general. I think Mike Huckabee will be McCain's running mate and I have no idea who Hillary's running mate would be but I don't think that it will be Obama and I don't even think that it will be John Edwards. If Hillary was smart she'd choose one of the two but the divide between her and the other two may be too big for her to choose one of them. I'm going to take a guess and say that she'll choose Bill Richardson as her running mate. But regardless, it looks like McCain vs. Hillary and just the fact that it's Hillary in the general will make this a nasty general election. I don't know about you but I'm tired of seeing that type of politics.

Bob Knight Retires

Today was a pretty slow day in the U.S. until Bob Knight retired as the coach of Texas Tech. I know he had planned on turning the program over to his son Pat one day but most figured it would be after the season not during the season. But then again Bob's always been his own guy so this shouldn't be that surprising. He's never followed the status quo so no one should expect him to do things the way others would.

I'm too young to remember Bob's championships but even I know how great he was. Yeah he was a pain in the rear to just about everyone that knew him, and even those that didn't, but you can't argue his accomplishments. 902 wins is the all time record and probably will be for at least 5 or 6 more years. Mike Krzyzewski is at 794 right now and will surely surpass Knight's record but even coach K will tell you that he never would have had the success that he did as a head coach if he didn't learn from Bob Knight as an assistant.

Unfortunately though, Bob Knight will probably be remembered more for his temper and ego than for his success but he only has himself to blame for that. Then again if you ask him he would probably say that he couldn't care less what people think. That's Bob Knight for you.

WOW. JUST WOW

I don't even know what to say. I can't believe the Patriots lost. I can't believe they lost to Eli Manning. I mean seriously. Did that really happen? Did Tom Brady lose to Eli Manning? I guess that commercial is finally right. "Unstoppable. Eli Manning is."

New York's defense was excellent. They did the one thing that you have to do not just against Brady but any QB. Get consistent pressure on him. They sold out on the blitz all night long and it worked. They decided that if they were going to lose then they were going to lose being aggressive and in the end that's why they won. Their defense was just awesome.

New England on the other hand looked average. I guess that's what happens when you aren't cheating. Randy Moss wasn't a factor even though he scored a TD. They pretty much abandoned the run and their defense wasn't nearly as aggressive as New York's. The Giants just wanted it more. New England played the game like it was just inevitable that they were going 19-0 and you just can't do that and expect to win. The Giants wanted it more. I'm still in shock though. I never would have thought the day would come where Tom Brady loses to Eli Manning in any meaningful game, let alone the Super Bowl. Wow, just wow.