McCain Wins Big on Super Tuesday

The F-word (front runner) may finally fit

Mike Huckabee gave John McCain a little help today, wooing an additional 79 delegates to the Republican National Convention to his side.

McCain helped himself a lot by winning 364 in the 2008 Super Tuesday primary. American voters didn't help Mitt Romney at all, as he claimed only 57 delegates, good for a distant (475-151) second place.

McCain's victory was doubly padded by winning California, good for a whopping 170 delegates. This, added to victories in Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Delaware and (predictably) Arizona, made for a very, very good day for McCain, who now finds himself in the driver's seat.

For McCain, the test from here on out will be in winning over conservative elites. With James Dobson and chronic blowhard Rush Limbaugh aligned firmly against him, McCain will have his work cut out for him. It's said that as goes talk radio so go American conservatives, and Mitt Romney certainly holds the loyalty of talk radio.

Then there's Mike Huckabee. He's back in third place, but not far enough back to justify dropping out of the race. If he decides to stop playing nice with the McCain campaign and start playing to win, Romney may have a lot to gain from that.

Then again, with McCain already having claimed more than a third of the delegates necessary to win, he may simply be too difficult to catch.

The coming days will give us a better picture of where the Republican nomination truly stands. In the meantime, however, McCain is certainly entitled to bask in the glow of the huge victory he's won today.