Mississippi

There's a long time between now and the next contest. For now, I'll look at Mississippi. Pennsylvania, my current home state, warrants lots of analysis, though. :)

Exit polls showed me two interesting things:

1. Obama struggles to win Southern whites in these Democratic primaries.

Whites went for Clinton 73-26. Blacks went for Obama 90-10. The two races were roughly even in Mississippi.

2. Obama actually lessened the gender gap this time. He won men 61-37, but he also won women 57-42. That's quite interesting.

Still, whatever happened today is pretty irrelevant, I think, as far as momentum goes. There's over a month until PA (April 22), and a lot of stuff can happen in a month. Whatever momentum Obama could retake after tonight is fairly irrelevant for the next race.

Here's what matters here on out:

1. Pennsylvania: If Obama wins PA, it's probably over.
2. The overall popular vote: If Obama has a larger share of the primary popular vote at the end of all of this, Clinton has a really difficult case to make, considering Obama's exceptional caucus performances.
3. What happens with Michigan and Florida.
4. The delegate count
5. The superdelegates.

All are worth watching, and it makes for a very exciting cycle.