KEY POINTS:
It's 12.30am in New York and I've just come back from Hillary Clinton's Super Tuesday party at a relatively small Manhattan theatre. It was quite something to see. Invited guests, staff and volunteers waited several hours for the Clinton family to appear, and in the beginning the atmosphere felt heavy with worry about how their woman was going to fare. Exit polls were clearly concerning some of the Clinton faithful, because they pointed to the much talked about Obama surge. But as results started trickling in from states where polls closed first, the mood picked up. When Clinton was projected by CNN to win New York and New Jersey, there was an enormous cheer.
Of course this in itself is a bit ironic, given that a few months ago this party would have been expected to be an emphatic victory party.
As all this was happening, Clinton campaign staff were carefully assembling a perfectly mixed group of attendees to sit behind their favourite candidate and provide the background for television shots which would later be beamed all around the world. Such images can be crucial in these races, and so it was stage-managed to the finest little detail. The people were hand-picked from the crowd. It could even be argued that the venue was carefully chosen for its size - it would have been hard to make it look empty. Having even a slightly empty-looking venue at this level of politics spells disaster.
Then finally, around 11pm New York time, Hillary Clinton appeared with former President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea at her side. The welcome was feverish. Bill and Chelsea waited only moments on the stage before stepping down to the side so that Hillary could take centre stage. Bill still has an enormously magnetic effect on crowds.
As Hillary spoke, and it was obvious that she had neither won nor lost the nomination by then, Bill Clinton stood with his hands clasped in front of him, just below his chin, as if in prayer. Chelsea, too, played her part perfectly, and you couldn't help but wonder if one day she might decide her future too is in politics.
Hillary emphasised her recent line of improving things for the next generation. She congratulated Obama for winning the states he had. She paused to speak about those affected by killer tornadoes in some of the states she knows best - Arkansas and Tennessee. She emphasised once again she would be ready on Day One.
Hillary Clinton doesn't electrify a crowd, she doesn't have the 'wow' factor that Obama does. But she did a good job of selling herself as a safer pair of hands than her rival.
When her 12 minute speech was over, a huge amount of red, blue, and white confetti shot out across the crowd, and it was hard to see the Clintons in the middle of it all. All three of them took considerable time walking around to meet the crowd, posing for photos, hugging people, shaking hands, signing autographs. Hillary lingered longest, making her exit last an hour. They were all treated like rockstars.
By the time it was all over still nobody really knew whether anyone had won. Obama and Clinton have both won a large number of states on Super Tuesday, although Clinton is in front in the race for delegates after she was projected to win some of the biggest states. Clinton supporters leaving the theatre were all talking about California - which CNN later projected she was going to win. But it is still impossible to say who the Democrat nominee for President will be.
The real loser on Super Tuesday night looks to be Republican Mitt Romney. John McCain has secured a number of states and Romney is now trailing far behind him in the delegate count. Mike Huckabee did well considering the lack of attention he has had, and his vote harmed Romney's. McCain is the overall benefactor of that and looks as close to a winner in the Republican race as he could be without actually securing victory.
The fall-out from this huge day of voting will continue all through tomorrow, all through the rest of the week, and into the next month when some of the remaining states go to the polls.
The longer Obama stays in the Democrat fight the better it is for him. He has been pulling in more money than Clinton and that could play a big role when this campaign continues on and on. What a remarkable Presidential race.
