You are absolutely right about the coalition building and some serious errors in judgment on Obama's part, Susan, and voters will start looking at that now that the Obama celebrity/rock star train is pulling out of the station in earnest.

As the primary season progresses (people seem to forget it is in it's infancy, and has a LONG way to go until it wraps up--Ohio in March, Pennsylvania in April, and a smattering of primaries in May that could end up making a very large difference in terms of delegates), Obama is going to have do some serious coalition building--and fast. But I'll give him this. With some of the heavy hitters from the Democratic Leadership Council coming out swinging for him this week (John Kerry & Tom Daschle), will undoubtedly help him. He is bound to get a big rush of significant African American endorsements now too.

But the Democratic Leadership Council without the Clintons can't deliver the South. And outside California, none of the 3 candidates can deliver the West (which is why we are now hearing from Daschle, but he doesn't have that strong of support and deep organization outside South Dakota, which is completely insignificant in the big picture). Look to see if Bill Richardson endorses anybody.

It will be an interesting couple of weeks between now and Super Tuesday.

I think the biggest news coming out of South Carolina is there is a big shift happening within the Democratic party itself, and the Republicans are completely demoralized because Obama just plunked SC in the possibly purple column in the general election.