Super Tuesday is upon us

East Coast polls close in the next four or five hours, and then polls throughout the country will close during the following hours as almost half the electorate votes on which candidate from which party will end up facing the other in November. On the Dem side, it promises to be a very close race through and through. And with proportional award of electors (usually by whichever candidate wins each congressional district) it is unlikely that either Hillary or Obama will have enough to clinch the nomination.

On the Republican side, most state contests are winner take all, and McCain looks very strong (though I wouldn't discount Romney getting just enough votes to stay in this thing). Already, the conservative coalition is cracking, with many fundamentalist (and some mainstream) conservatives saying no way to McCain. One of the kings of the gay/abortion choice/science/etc. hatred, James Dobson, had this to say:

With John McCain on the verge of winning the Republican nomination, the once-complacent anti-McCain forces on the right are getting louder than ever. This morning, James Dobson released a statement to Laura Ingraham's radio show, declaring that under no circumstances would he support McCain in the general election — a potential blow to the Arizona senator, since it could discourage turnout among some evangelical voters.

Meanwhile, John McCain decided to answer a number of articles that have been circulating about how many Republican colleagues in the Senate are not particularly fond of him:

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) took a swipe Tuesday at GOP senators who have criticized him during the presidential campaign, saying they “are not the most respected members of the United States Senate.”

McCain, who is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination heading into the Super Tuesday primaries, was referring to comments made by five-term Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran and former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.). “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine,” Cochran had told The Boston Globe after his endorsement of McCain’s main rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. “He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”

This is going to be fun to watch.