Good Wednesday morning, Fellow Seekers,

After six hours of following the Super Duper Tuesday returns and listening to the talking heads, I’ll just blurt my impressions, then come back and discuss them a little.

1. John McCain has about locked up the Republican nomination. All he has to do is avoid a meltdown and run the clock. For some reason, this is a forbidden thought.
2. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama gained any significant ground at the other’s expense. It’s all about the delegates now, not the momentum. They’re still counting, and the formula for awarding delegate is very complicated. But it appears likely that when the counting’s done, Clinton’s small lead in delegates going into Tuesday will remain a small lead.
3. The more polls you read, the more clear it is that they can’t tell you what’s gonna happen.
4. Who’da thunk this: You can carry the white vote and the black vote and still lose by a wide margin.
5. If you listen to CNN, Fox and the broadcast networks long enough, they’ll say everything that’s sayable and then keep on talking. Some of it will be insightful. Plenty of it will be the sound of two gums flapping. But they sure have some cool new gadgets for displaying and analyzing results.

The coolness factor is way over my head. I don’t recognize many of the performers. And I’m such a prosaic substance junkie that I have trouble crediting such a poetic and hip political appeal.

But if you haven’t already seen it, this cool video puts Barack Obama’s New Hampshire concession speech to music with the help of an undoubtedly cool collection of performers. The only ones I recognized were Scarlett Johannson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but they’re all identified in the credits below the video.

Good Wednesday morning Fellow Seekers,

The big political trends favor Democrats in countless ways that would have almost unthinkable a few years ago when Karl Rove could talk, with some credibility, about his vision of a permanent Republican majority. At the moment, one contrary factor should worry Dems very much: John McCain’s proven appeal to independent voters.

Writing this as McCain has just been declared the Florida primary winner, with reporters buzzing about rumors that Rudy Giuliani will drop out of the race today and endorse McCain, it’s hard to resist the impression that McCain is pulling into a commanding lead in his quest for the Republican nomination.

Now, with all due skepticism about polls taken in January about a theoretical matchup in November, one fact leaps out from trial matchup polls being taken around the country: McCain is by far the only Republican that matches up favorably against either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. He doesn’t just match up favorably, he runs ahead. And he runs ahead of them in states — including Minnesota — that are part of the Democratic base in the Electoral College.

First, some national numbers: An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken a week ago, matched McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Giuliani against both Obama and Clinton.

Clinton beats Romney 52-36, beats Huckabee 50-41, beats Giuliani 52-37 and loses to McCain 46-44. Sure, that’s well within the margin for error, but you get the idea.

Good Tuesday morning Fellow Seekers,

Rachel Paulose is ensconced in a new Justice Department job in Washington, but the issues and allegations raised by her stormy tenure as U.S. Attorney for Minnesota linger on — in fact, they are flaring up anew.

The federal Office of Special Counsel, which is still investigating some of the allegations against Paulose, accuses the Justice Department of stonewalling on the Paulose case, among others.

In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Special Counsel Scott Bloch said his investigation of Paulose and other matters, including the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, is “being impeded.” Bloch demands to know whether the deputy attorney general and the inspector general of the Justice Department, who are impeding the Paulose investigation, are acting under Mukasey’s orders.

The Justice Department did not respond to my inquiries Monday. Mukasey may be asked publicly about the matter Wednesday when he is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The letter was sent Friday to Mukasey, the White House counsel, the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The letter was not made public, but Black Ink obtained a copy.