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 …

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.

The Repudiation of Rove  —  John McCain had a surprising but pleasant evening last night — watching Mitt Romney go down to defeat in nearly every contest and encountering a newly victorious but ultimately unnominatable Mike Huckabee all across the Bible Belt.

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.

McCain Didn't Close the Deal  —  John McCain's strong showing in the February 5 primaries wasn't enough to close the deal.  He could have done it by winning enough delegates to be the prohibitive favorite or — conversely — by Mitt Romney making so poor a showing that he would be unwilling to fight on.

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 …

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.

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 …

Confused Florida voters try to cast ballots in Super Tuesday primaries  —  The problem?  Florida had its presidential primary LAST week.  —  Millions of Americans in 24 states are turning out vote to in Super Tuesday presidential primaries from Georgia to Alaska today.

Long lines of voters - may be record turnout  —  (02-06) 00:14 PST SAN FRANCISCO —  An extraordinary surge of California voters cast ballots in Tuesday's presidential primary - resulting in long lines, a shortage of ballots, criticisms about voting procedures and polls that remained open late in Alameda County.