I see that Obama is up by 14% on TPM with 99% reporting, but Fox seems to be only source I can find at this moment reporting 100% and Obama took NC by just over 15%.

Obama:  57.52%

Clinton:  42.48%

Sometimes it helps to tune out the noise of the delusional (pro-C) or angst ridden (pro-O) crowds and look to what the markets are saying. 

Obama's numbers are surging today in political futures trading on Intrade.  His odds are back to where they were pre Wright. 

Hillary, on the other hand, is continuing to tank.  Down 5% less than 24 hours before NC and IN go to the polls.  Only a week ago political futures traders were giving her a 27% chance of winning the Democratic nomination.  They are now giving her a 22.5% chance. 

Following the Rev Wright outburst on Monday, the market in Obama panicked.  His political share price at prediction market, Intrade.com, tumbled by over five percent by Tuesday afternoon. 

His losses, however, were split between Hillary and Al (Gore).  Though Clinton took over sixty percent of Obama's loss, Gore performed surprisingly well.

Today, Obama opened down 1.7 points, but has fully recovered those loses and looks set to resume his up trend.

Hillary Clinton's shares have crashed by 10% today!

Opening at 25 (percent chance of winning the Dem nomination), her price has fallen 2.5 points to 22.5. 

The trend is NOT Hillary's friend, indeed.

I thought this quote from H L Mencken on the natural course of democracy was very apt for what has been happening to the US for the past few election cycles.

The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Don't know how much to read into this, but if you look at the Alexa ratings for hillaryclinton.com (where one would presumably go in order to donate online), while there has been a bump in traffic since Pennsylvania, there doesn't seem enough to believe that her campaign could have raised more than any other campaign by far in a single day. 

What do you think?

The noise of the MSM that somehow Clinton has closed the gap and is actually gaining momentum on Obama needs a cold hard dose of market reality. 

If you look at the political futures markets (intrade.com), there has been zero gain for Clinton since Pennsylvania. 

For THREE years the political futures contract on Hillary was riding at over 50 (this meant the market was giving her a better than 50% chance of being the Democrat's nominee).  Her contract surged to nearly 80 by early January of 2008. 

But her price fell off the cliff in early February. 

The saying is 'buy on rumor, sell on history.'  This girl has been history for months now. 

And not one single rumor to the contrary has convinced buyers to come back into the market for Clinton, even at her current price of 17. 

Another saying is 'never catch a falling knife,' and, yes, despite, Pennsylvania, Clinton is still falling.  Earnings expectations were that Hillary would win the state by over 15%, she failed to meet those expectations with her 9.2% win.  And while her stock price hasn't been punished for failing to meet those political earnings expectations, she has definitely not been rewarded in anyway as would be suggested by the media madness or the irrational blogosphere angst.

According to her futures contract, Clinton went into Pennsylvania with an over 17 percent chance of being Democrat nominee and she came out of it with a 17 percent chance.  

Obama went into Pennsylvania with a contract price of 81.0 - 82.0.  He is now trading at 80.1.  His contract is being held by strong hands unmoved by the madness of the crowds shouting his ride is over. 

This is very bullish for him.  The trend is Obama's friend. 

Huffpo's Max Keiser on why you shouldn't spend your stimulus check. 

As such, the value of these checks as un-cashed mementos of the failed Bush presidency should appreciate at the inflation rate plus a collector's item premium rate for years to come.

As a matter of fact, an enterprising soul might make a pretty penny by setting up a website to buy people's un-cashed stimulus checks at the face value plus a small premium. Five to six years from now, you might be able to re-auction and sell these un -cashed checks on eBay for double or triple the price you paid to Asian and European collectors buying these up like visitors to the Berlin Wall who buy chunks of concrete left over after the collapse of East Berlin.

My question . . .  with your Bush stimulus check in hand, what is the next phase of history going to be now that explosive debt growth as national policy has ended so ignominiously?