The media couldn’t help spinning the Super Tuesday results in favor of Hillary Clinton, at best calling the outcome a tie. But with Barack Obama’s sweep this weekend in four states across the country, the overwhelming call for change can no longer be ignored. With blacks in Louisiana, rural voters in Nebraska and liberals in Washington, Obama’s Saturday Triple Play was widely expected – but not by the huge margin that he got. And few predicted he would win Maine the following day (and not by 18 points) – given Clinton’s strength in New England, the state’s older working-class population, and its long tradition of electing woman candidates. Obama is positioned to win tomorrow’s Beltway Primary – Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. – putting him well in the lead among pledged delegates for the National Convention. But if Clinton were on a similar streak, wouldn’t the media be pressuring Obama to drop out?

Last week, Obama accomplished what no insurgent presidential candidate has ever done before – survive Super Tuesday, the front-loaded primary day where the establishment wraps up the nomination. Insurgents could have their fun in Iowa and New Hampshire, but the game was always over by now because the establishment always wins. Obama denied Clinton a blowout victory, leaving February 5th with more states, more delegates and proof that he would be a more electable nominee. But the press – fixated in their bi-coastal bias on Clinton winning California and New York – didn’t get that message.

But after this weekend, it’s a totally different ballgame. That’s because Obama managed to rack up landslide victories in four different parts of the country – regions where he had already done well, regions where he needed to make a win, and regions where he’s been struggling for quite some time. Any spin we heard last week is now obsolete.

Washington State:

Of the three states that Obama took on Saturday, winning Washington by 68-31 was the most significant. He already proved he could win Southern states with a large portion of blacks, and red states where Democrats know that he’d be a more attractive nominee than Clinton. What Obama had yet to do was convincingly win a coastal blue state.

One of Clinton’s many advantages has been a wide gender gap among Democratic voters. With women a solid majority of the Democratic electorate, Obama could simply not win the nomination if women kept voting for Clinton at the rate they did in New Hampshire and Nevada. Washington – which has two women in the U.S. Senate and a woman Governor – could have proven fertile ground for another Clinton victory. But Obama’s organization edge – along with support from white liberals – gave him a blowout victory.

Louisiana:

In Louisiana, the Obama camp faced the danger of inflated expectations. Blacks in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina had already given Obama solid victories – but it was unknown how many voters were still around after the post-Katrina displacement. Those who have stayed are rightfully cynical about the federal government’s ability to do good, and voter turnout was low in New Orleans. But Obama pulled off a 20-point victory, in part because he got 90% of the African-American vote – his best showing yet.

But the Louisiana returns do give reason for caution. More than any other Southern state, the results were very racially polarized – as Clinton carried 70% of the white vote. She easily beat Obama among white men, suggesting that Southern whites who picked John Edwards were more inclined to support Hillary Clinton. It may just be the nuances of Louisiana politics, and will hopefully not be repeated in other Southern states. We’ll see what happens when Mississippi holds its primary on March 11th.

Nebraska:

In Nebraska, Obama’s 68-32 victory was similar to what happened last week in Kansas, North Dakota and Idaho. Red-state rural Democrats know that having Clinton at the top of the ticket would not help build the party – while Obama has crossover appeal. But what it also did was generate huge turnout and new energy for the Democratic Party. More Nebraskans came out to caucus for the Democrats than in Washington – although it’s a state with less than one-third of Washington’s population.

“I went to three different caucuses on Saturday,” said Scott Kleeb, who ran for Congress in 2006 and may run this year for a U.S. Senate seat. “In our state, being a Democrat is not something that you wear on your sleeve – but neighbors were coming up to each other in the caucus and saying ‘I didn’t know you were a Democrat.’ It infuses a new sense of can-do among Democrats; something we haven’t felt here in a long time.”

Kleeb may end up benefiting from such an influx of energy within the Democratic Party if he runs for the Senate seat. In Douglas County alone (where Omaha is located), 5,000 new voter registrants turned out to the caucus – more than the turnout you get in a typical state legislative race. “There’s a sense that one party here is invigorated, and the other is not.” One newscaster even said on the air that it’s now embarrassing to be a Republican.

U.S. Virgin Islands:

In a lesser noticed primary, Obama got 90% of the vote on Saturday in the Virgin Islands. While residents of this U.S. Territory cannot participate in the general election, registered Democrats can send delegates to the National Convention – and Obama will get all three of them. With the race for delegates going down to the wire, everything counts.

Maine:

Obama was expected to prevail in all the Saturday contests – but the Maine caucus on the following day was a different story. As the Sunday Washington Post predicted, “Women Could Give Clinton the Edge In Maine's Caucuses” – and its analysis was reasonable. Both of Maine’s U.S. Senators are women, and the state has a long tradition of electing powerful women – like Margaret Chase Smith.

It didn’t look good for Obama regionally either, since he had under-performed in New England before. Clinton scored an upset in New Hampshire, got a larger than expected win in Massachusetts, and Obama barely won Connecticut by 4 points. Maine’s older working-class population boded well for a Clinton victory, and the state’s political establishment – including the Governor – campaigned heavily for the New York Senator.

But Obama surprised everyone yesterday with an 18-point victory. Like Nebraska, every report that I read about the Maine caucus showed a huge turnout and great excitement for the Democratic base. This may help Congressman Tom Allen, as he takes on Republican Senator Susan Collins this year.

With an unexpected Maine victory for Obama, Hillary Clinton may not win a single state between February 5th and March 4th – when Texas and Ohio hold primaries. But don’t expect the Clintons to give up, as Obama continues to widen the gap in pledged delegates who are chosen through the primary and caucus process.

It raises the question: if Obama were losing every state for a month, would the media ask him to drop out? They’re certainly not asking Clinton to do so – while on the Republican side, Mike Huckabee is being asked to step aside.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Outside of work hours, Paul Hogarth volunteered at the Obama campaign headquarters in San Francisco.