Obama claims delegate lead  —  In a surprise twist after a chaotic Super Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) passed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in network tallies of the number of delegates the candidates racked up last night.  —  Clinton was portrayed in many news accounts …

Democrats' Identity Politics Getting More Sharply Defined  —  Exit polling for Super Tuesday contests show a growing trend towards division by ethnicity among Democrats.  With the race as tight as it is, the identity politics that the party has fostered over the years has now become one of the points of division.

Now we see if McCain really wants conservatives  —  Numbers don't lie and on the morning after Super Tuesday it's clear the numbers for the GOP presidential nomination add up one way - barring something completely unforeseen, Sen. John McCain is headed to the top of the ticket for 2008.

The Morning After  —  I think John O'Sullivan is right.  There was an explicit anti-Romney vote in the South.  A mere month ago, in the wake of Iowa and New Hampshire, I received a ton of e-mails from southern readers saying these pansy northern states weren't the “real” conservative heartland …

Who Won Super Tuesday?  —  It's hard to say, but if you put a gun in my head, I'd say John McCain and (very slightly) Hillary Clinton, but the elections revealed weaknesses in McCain and in both of the leading Democratic candidates.  McCain blunted Mitt Romney's challenge, but he failed consistently to win over conservative voters.

NRCC probe scares GOP  —  Top House Republicans were told in recent days that a former employee of their campaign committee may have forged an official audit during the contentious 2006 election cycle and that they should brace for the possibility that an unfolding investigation …

Top Officer Calls U.S. Forces ‘Stressed’  —  Top Uniformed Officer Says U.S. Forces ‘Significantly Stressed’ by Iraq, War on Terror  —  The military's top uniformed officer says U.S. forces are “significantly stressed” by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan while simultaneously trying to stem the tide of violent extremism elsewhere.

Re: The Die Has Been Cast  —  Remember the Clinton years?  We should — we may be on the verge of reliving them.  But I recall being most frustrated when some anti-Clinton zealot would claim the president had ordered an assassination or run cocaine through Mena Airport.