One of the most intriguing blog comments I’ve encountered in a while came on a response to Joe Klein, noting the demographic breakdown of Democratic primary voters in 2004, in the Super Tuesday states:

Jan. 29 State Women White Black Latino 18-29 65+ Fla. 55 69 21 9 6 35 Feb. 5 State Women White Black Latino 18-29 65+ Ariz. 59 72 2 17 7 33 Calif. 53 68 8 16 11 22 Conn. 53 89 7 2 5 27 Del. 57 79 16 2 9 23 Ga. 56 49 47 3 11 19 Mass. 54 90 5 3 9 26 Mo. 52 82 15 1 9 24 N.Y. 57 65 20 11 8 26 Okla. 53 82 8 2 6 30 Tenn. 54 74 23 1 7 23 Feb. 9 State Women White Black Latino 18-29 65+ La. 54 48 46 5 7 23 Feb. 12 State Women White Black Latino 18-29 65+ Md. 58 58 35 3 8 22 Va. 56 63 33 2 8 23

The contention being that Obama racked up his huuuuge win in South Carolina because it’s a wildly unrepresentative voter pool, with way more African-Americans than found in most other states.

Still, there are reasons for optimism for Team Obama. The numbers from 2004 may not be applicable, because their man has demonstrated at least some ability to change the voter pool, to bring out and motivate young voters and African-American voters in a way that John Kerry, John Edwards, and Howard Dean couldn’t. Obama won almost-all-white Iowa, and came within a few percent of winning almost-all-white New Hampshire, so it’s not like the guy has no appeal to white Democrats. The Ted Kennedy endorsement is going to make Obama a lot more acceptable to unions, etc.

By the way – if Hillary wins the “beauty contest” in Florida on the backs of Latinos, and Team Obama pushes to ensure those delegates aren’t seated, will we see Latinos arguing that Obama is trying to disenfranchise them?