Tonight I'm flipping around, watching coverage of the primary elections of Super Tuesday, or Super Duper Tuesday as I've heard some pundits call it.
8 p.m.: Help, I've been assaulted by CNN's giant video wall! There are tiny head shots everywhere and I can't make out who is who. The maps are more understandable.
8:04 p.m.: NBC is airing "The Biggest Loser" (an apt description for the peacock network these days) and CBS has an "NCIS" rerun. Only ABC is going wall-to-wall with election coverage. I'll be curious to see how ABC does in the ratings tomorrow. ABC says McCain will win New Jersey for the Republicans.
8:06 p.m.: Oh my. The screen below that awful Nancy Grace asks, "Was Natalee Holloway alive when dumped at sea?" Flip.
8:07 p.m.: Brit Hume mentions "McCain momentum" on Fox News Channel. Will FNC jump on the hate-McCain bandwagon Rush Limbaugh seems to be driving?
8:10 p.m.: What kind of a name is Major Garrett? This FNC reporter's name would be better suited to a character from "M*A*S*H."
8:15 p.m.: MSNBC calls Tennessee for Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side. I heard the same thing earlier on another channel. I have to admit, I really don't care which outlet is first with the news, just as long as they get it right.
8:16 p.m.: CNN has the Great Wall of Pie Charts on. It's like walking into a donut shop and not knowing which donut to buy: Sprinkles? Cream-filled? Yeast-raised? Where am I supposed to look? Actually, there's a good Wash Post story on the CNN great wall here.
8:22 p.m.: Campbell Brown is back from maternity leave on CNN.
8:24 p.m.: Barack Obama's supporters are cheering so loudly that it's difficult to hear CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux.
8:26 p.m.: Ack! I flip to ABC and WTAE has non-news about flooding on the Mon Wharf. Like that doesn't happen all the time.
8:27 p.m.: FNC has its own interactive board, but CNN's wall is much bigger. Joke amongst yourselves.
8:31 p.m.: Wolf Blitzer tries to explain the color coding on CNN's giant maps and gets as confused as I feel looking at it. I do hope Anderson Cooper shows up with his floating UFO pie chart at some point tonight.
8:46 p.m.: On MSNBC, Keith Olbermann introduces Lester Holt, "joining us from what looks like the set of the movie 'TRON.'" Holt goes through and explains exit poll data on the issues of greatest interest to segments of voters. This is the interesting part of the night for political wonks. Of course, after New Hampshire, polling is pretty suspect these days so it may all be meaningless trivia.
8:50 p.m.: Diane Sawyer introduces a prepared-in-advance report on "America Speaking" on ABC, interviews with average citizens about the issues important to them. It's a nice interlude from all the political prognosticators.
8:53 p.m.: MSNBC calls Alabama for Mike Huckabee despire current results that give John McCain the Republican edge. Interesting. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has a beard. I don't recall him having facial hair when he was on the campaign trail.
8:55 p.m. MSNBC's Tim Russert declares that Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts have not been called, which means it's a close race. "What was supposed to be a definititive night, we were supposed to know who would be the Democratic nominee, I don't think so." One minute later, Massachusetts goes for Clinton.
9 p.m.: CBS's Katie Couric comes on with news that Clinton wins New York. She'll be on the air for the next two hours. NBC offers an update and then it's back to "The Biggest Loser." But first, a WPXI weather report! Ugh.
9:03 p.m. CBS News says Obama has inherited John Edwards' white male voters. This same point was made earlier in the evening on another network. Demographics are always fascinating, but particularly so in a race with a white woman and a black man running. Sometimes it almost seems unseemly to discuss, but it is a reality.
9:06 p.m.: More demographic data: While the Sen. Ted Kennedy endorsement didn't help Obama much overall in Massachusetts, it did have an impact among Hispanic voters. Could that be a sign of things to come in California? Perhaps, but I doubt I'll hang in long enough to learn that result.
9:11 p.m.: A CBS reporter says Obama staffers are nowhere to be found, same as they were MIA the night Obama lost in New Hampshire and unlike how accessible they were the night of the Iowa win. Interesting tidbit, although potentially meaningless. But so is much of what we see and hear in this sort of coverage.
9:17 p.m.: On MSNBC, Tom Brokaw discusses Rush Limbaugh's McCain hatred, as chronicled here.
9:18 p.m.: Nevermind about the Latinos loving Obama. A CNN analyst says that group overwhelmingly went for Clinton in New York. Don't worry, Obama fans, stick around and it's likely to swing back again within a few minutes. It's that kind of night, thanks to the talking heads on TV.
9:24 p.m.: Spoke too soon. A CNN pundit says Obama has a serious "Latino problem" because he only won 52 percent of Latinos in Illinois. Paul Begala, I think, says, not to worry, "This thing is going to rock on."
9:26 p.m.: More on Latinos! Howard Fineman is talking about their leanings on MSNBC.
9:30 p.m.: A political poll analyst explains how they decided to call Alabama for Obama on FNC. Interesting behind-the-scenes drama, and it's nice and transparent. Good for FNC and other networks that bring these details to viewers' attention.
9:32 p.m.: Karl Rove debuts as a commentator tonight on FNC. He's not breathing fire. And he doesn't sound like Satan. I'm rather disappointed. (Actually, he's not at all dynamic, one of the most boring commentators I've seen yet tonight.)
9:44 p.m.: Discussion on CNN about voiting with prejudice. Paul Begala, I think, says of age discrimination, "McCain went to school with my great grandfather, I love him!" (With so many graphics on screen, networks aren't identifying the talking heads and I'm not enough of a wonk to know all of them on sight.)
9:50 p.m.: Jeff Greenfield left his cell phone on and got laughed at by Katie Couric on CBS. CBS's lower-third graphics are so stodgy and hard to read. Click.
9:55 p.m.: ABC advertises "Oprah's Big Give," an upcoming reality show. Is this a nod to Obama supporters? Clearly we've hit an election lull as we wait for Rocky Mountain state polls to close at 10 p.m.
9:57 p.m.: On FNC, Rove says Romney may not be out yet, despite McCain's early lead.
10:01 p.m.: NBC tears itself away from reality programming to cover the campaign. I'm really interested to see the ratings tomorrow because what we've seen so far hasn't been all that nail-biting. I think much of what's happened so far is probably only of interest to political junkies, but given the larger-than-usual interest in this campaign, maybe the ratings will prove me wrong.
10:03 p.m.: NBC's Ann Curry with significant trends: Voting by race! Voting by evangelicals! Much as I love to mock Curry on "Today" for being overly empathetic and interrupting interview subjects, she's been just fine tonight. NBC's Tim Russert declares there will be "no closure, particularly on the Democratic side" tonight. Brian Williams keeps mentioning "plot lines" in the campaign, which just emphasizes the notion of the race as prime-time drama, particularly during the writers' strike.
10:11 p.m.: I accidentally flipped to WPXI's PCNC and lo and behold, "NightTalk" appears to be doing coverage of the primaries. "Appears" is the operative word. There's no "live" bug but no "recorded earlier" bug either. This poor channel is such a red-headed stepchild. Actually, this must be a re-play from 8 p.m. because they're talking about Obama winning Illinois, which happened hours ago. Time to flip.
10:18 p.m.: Tom Brokaw discusses Obama's win in Kansas and then Huckabee's speech. "It seems to me Gov. Huckabee's success this evening shows the Republican party has developed multiple personalities." Nice line. Brokaw compares Republican situation to Dems in 1968. Nice subtle book plug, Tom!
10:25 p.m.: Every time I try to watch ABC coverage, the network is either on commercial or WTAE has a local cut-in. Bad timing.
10:32 p.m.: "One thing that's clear, this campaign is going on," Romney says as his unenthused wife looks on.
10:46 p.m.: I made fun of CNN's Great Wall of Pie Charts earlier in the evening, but when the network limits the number of factoids on display, they really do the best job of presenting the results.
10:52 p.m.: Hillary Clinton is speaking to her supporters, but on CNN the audio doesn't seem to match the video. The video is off by a few seconds, giving her speech the appearance of a badly dubbed Japanese movie. It's less off on MSNBC, but still not completely in sync. Ironically, she comes off best on FNC!
11:05 p.m.: CNN is zooming into counties in Missouri to explain why it's too close to call there. Interesting stats, but I'm starting to nod off regardless.
11:14 p.m.: Maybe I'm overly tired, but the audio and video are not in sync again on FNC. I'm going to bed. We'll see who won in California in the morning.
First Published: February 6, 2008, 1:00 a.m.