THE POWER OF political staging. "The rally took up maybe a quarter of the floor space in the arena. Part of running a decent campaign is knowing how big a crowd you might have and planning accordingly so as not to embarrass yourselves with a woefully understuffed venue." Check out the photos.

NEW MATH: "The campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has begun urging party officials and news organizations to include the disputed Florida and Michigan delegations when figuring the number of delegates needed to win the nomination."

"I WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR YOU:" Hillary's speech sounds a bit Shrummy.

CBS EXPLAINS its early Indiana call. Meanwhile, what's taking so long on that Indiana vote-counting?

D.C. SNIPER UPDATE: "Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad asks prosecutors in a letter for help to put an end to his legal appeals from death row. Muhammad says in the letter released Tuesday that he is waiving all rights to appeal his 2003 conviction and death sentence for the sniper killings in 2002 that terrorized the Washington, D.C., region."

DAVE WEIGEL: "If Rev. Jeremiah Wright had greeted the new year with a self-imposed exile to Tibet, or if—even better—he'd turned off the cameras in Trinity United Church and never recorded himself saying 'God damn America,' Barack Obama would be knocking Hillary Clinton out of the race today."

Plus this: "The Daily Kos has the only early exits that are ever any good: racial voting. Blacks went against Clinton in both states by about 85 points. That's nightmarish and much worse than in the polls that showed her closing strong--they showed her climbing back into the teens."

UPDATE: "Take that, Jeremiah Wright!" Obama blesses America, instead of damning it.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Prelude to the convention?

MORE: Megan McArdle wasn't that impressed with the Obama speech: "Gack. Now Obama is ranting about how he's going to make the corporations give us super fuel-efficient cars, find awesome new sources of oil, make renewable energy affordable, and invent a really delicious fat-free ice cream. However did we manage to get through the first 200 years without Barack Obama to beat some progress out of the corporations that have been holding us back?" And she's an Obama supporter. . . .

STILL MORE: Rapture!

CBS HAS CALLED INDIANA FOR CLINTON, but other networks are holding off.

MARKOS CALLS HAROLD ICKES a "scumbag." Hmm. Maybe Ambinder's right. (Via NewsAlert ).

IT'S ALL MY FAULT. Well, not quite . . .

MARC AMBINDER: First Glance At The Exits: Democratic Party Cracking Up?

Obama supporters really don't like Clinton, and vice versa. Some of that will fade by election day, of course. But how much?

UPDATE: Dems must be worried, because Obama just addressed this question in his speech.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The CNN folks sent me a transcript from earlier this evening, and here's a choice bit:

BEGALA: We cannot win with egg heads.

Let me finish my point.

We cannot win with egg heads and African-Americans. OK, that is the Dukakis Coalition, which carried ten states and gave us four years of the first George Bush.

President Clinton -- reached across to get a whole lot of Republicans and Independents to come. I think Senator Obama and Senator Clinton both have that capacity. They both have a unique ability -- well it's not unique if they both have it. They both have a remarkable ability to reach out to those working-class white folks and Latinos.

Senator Clinton has proven it; Barack has not yet, but he can. And I certainly hope he is not shutting the door on expanding the party.

Will Obama fix this? So far I've seen a lot of talk about unity, but not much actual effort to compromise with people who aren't already in his camp.

MONEY PROBLEMS for gun-control advocates?

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