What To Watch For From the Potomac Primary Results (and Spin)

• Who calls it the Potomac Primary and who calls it the Beltway primary?  Those who use the latter phrase clearly hate the nation's capital and environs.  [By the way, for those who don't know, the Beltway  does not touch DC; is calling it the Beltway Primary a form of further marginalizing the voters of the District of Columbia?]

• Will the turnout continue to be huge?  The weather in the DC area is expected to be awful in the next few hours, with freezing rain coming in with the afternoon rush hour.  If the weather is bad, it will be worth looking to see if Dems still managed to come out and vote while Repubs just gave up and didn't bother.  

• What will happen in the mountains, and what might it indicate about future primaries?  The southwestern counties of Virginia and the far western counties of Maryland—roughly the areas west of I-81--vote similarly to West Virginia, southeastern Ohio, eastern Kentucky  and southwestern Pennsylvania.  This area is northern Appalachia.  Traditionally these areas were solid Democratic areas.  Today they are swing areas that usually vote for Democrats downticket but are up for grabs in close presidential races.  The voters in these areas are mostly white, not likely to have a college degree and lower income.  Clinton has done better with these voters, and she will probably win these counties.  But can Obama cut the margins?  If he can, that's good news for him in Ohio and Pennsylvania.  If he can't, that will be encouraging news for the Clinton campaign.  

• How will the results be spun?  Clinton is looking ahead to Ohio and Texas.  But she can't continue to get blown out, or her donors (and unpledged delegates) will lose faith in her candidacy.  If she gets blown out, her campaign has a big task in mitigating the fallout.  Conversely, if she keeps it close, and especially if she pulls off a win in Virginia, Obama's campaign will face questions of whether he can meet expectations, and whether he really has momentum.  

• The polls close at 7:00 EST in Virginia and at 8:00 EST in DC and Maryland.  We'll keep you updated as the results start to come in.    

[Update] As some readers have pointed out, when the Beltway crosses the Potomac on the Wilson Bridge, it's technically in the part of the Potomac river that's within the boundaries of the District of Columbia.  So you can walk from DC to the Beltway without crossing in to Virginia or Maryland, but you're going to get very wet.