Obama Breaks Into the Open Field

Yeah, it's only one state, but.... One has to wonder whether Barack Obama's landslide victory in South Carolina yesterday will light a fuse. Despite trying to downplay expectations, Team Clinton poured a lot of sweat equity into the Palmetto State this past week--and still got blown out of the water. Two-to-one in an early primary? Unheard of.

What should get your attention is the ramped-up voter participation. The turnout from Democrats yesterday was nearly double what it had been in 2004 and follows heavy turnouts in Iowa and New Hampshire. As stock traders will tell you, when price moves are accompanied by heavy volume, a big-time trend is emerging. Obama's stock is trading higher this morning.

Cynics might dismiss South Carolina as mostly poor and mostly black, but in fact an in-migration of snowbirds from the Northeast and Rust Belt over the past several years (count my mother among them!) has broadened the voter mix there. It would not surprise me to see yesterday's result confirmed across the nation on Super Tuesday. Obama has the look of Patriots' running back Laurence Maroney breaking into the secondary: Houston, we've just gone vertical.

Listen for yourself.