Maine

A bad weekend for Hillary Clinton just got a whole lot worse.

Along with her husband and her daughter, Clinton had campaigned aggressively in Maine, with an eye toward blunting the impact of Barack Obama’s expected Saturday night sweep of Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington and in an effort to avoid being shut out for the entire month leading up to the Ohio and Texas primaries.  read more »

An on-the-ground source (a.k.a. my sister) at the only caucus site in Maine's largest city reports that turnout is astronomically high, almost certain to shatter any previous record.

Caucus-goers began assembling outside Portland High School well before 2:00, when registration was to begin. Two separate lines on either side of the school snaked back at least several blocks. Organizers, my sister reports, seemed unprepared for the onslaught -- especially when wet snow began falling around 2:00, which agitated the already impatient masses.  read more »

Four states will hold Democratic nominating contests this weekend. Overall, Barack Obama has the clear advantage in most of them, but Hillary Clinton’s campaign would dearly like to avoid a sweep—and has been working overtime to pull out a face-saving win in one state in particular.

Here’s what it looks like:

Saturday

Louisiana primary:

Even after Katrina, which may have reduced the overall influence of black voters in this state, Barack Obama is in a strong position here.  read more »

On the downtown streets of New York, in the hipster hangouts of Los Angeles and on college campuses in between, the young and style-conscious are affecting a look that until recently could not claim to be either. In the few years since Luke Wilson sported a full beard as an anachronistic oddball in ''The Royal Tenenbaums,'' it has shaken off its fusty image as the badge of the out-of-date guy who refuses to make concessions to fashion.... ...And with their fully furry chins Ariel Foxman and Bruce Pask, the editor in chief and the style director, respectively, of Cargo magazine, the metrosexual manifesto, seem now to be endorsing a lumberjack ideal.

On city streets, too, trends in scruff have reached new levels of unruliness, a backlash, some beard enthusiasts say, against the heightened grooming expectations that were unleashed with the rise of metrosexuality as a cultural trend. Men both straight and gay, it appears, want to feel rough and manly.... Bruce Pask, the style director of Cargo magazine, grew a beard on a vacation in Maine, "to blend in with the locals,'' he said. Back in the city he found that his mangy Maine growth needed tending."What I love about it is, the alarm goes off, I shower, dress and am out of the house in 20 minutes," he said. ''But zero maintenance is a lie.''