In the world of political number crunching, Michael Barone is in a league completely unto himself.  The guy knows every precinct, caucus, and street corner from the Burroughs of New York to the barrios of Los Angeles and every point in between.  He can give you a county by county breakdown of every single presidential election since 1968 - without notes.

In short, Mr. Barone is not a well man.

Having said that, he’s done some serious number crunching and come up with John McCain’s actual margin of victory over Mitt in the primary race.  What’s McCain’s magic number?

3%.  Yep, that’s it.

As much as it pains me to repeatedly burst the Huck people’s bubble, Barone’s numbers show him lagging in every single contest - even Georgia and Missouri.

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.