Tuesday results are in; who the heck's ahead?

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C'mon now. You didn't really expect Super Tuesday to definitively settle anything, did you?

At least in the presidential race, math said it couldn't happen. No candidate could win enough delegates Tuesday to clinch the nominations for the Republicans or Democrats.

But the voting does help put various factions into three boxes: Winners, Real Winners, and, yes, Losers.

Elections 2008: Continuing coverage

The Winners are Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Republican Sen. John McCain and California. The two Democrats can claim reasons to continue the delegate hunt, while McCain looks like his party's likely nominee. California, with its early primary, played a huge role in both of those developments.

The Real Winners are former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and political junkies. Huckabee won a handful of Southern states and established himself as a possible vice president and-or voice of the evangelical Republican wing. Political junkies can count on intrigue, lead changes and closely watched votes all the way to the summer nominating conventions.

And the Losers are Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and early voters. Romney's wins came mostly in low-delegate states, and he was trounced in the big states. Paul's supporters may be fiercely loyal, but the results suggest there's just not enough of them (cue a chorus of "Blame the Media").

And with so many voters casting ballots by mail before election day, the results reflect a lot of "ghost votes" for such lately departed candidates as John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson.

Going into the primary, there were fears that Obama could benefit in areas where Clinton would be seen as unelectable to the top post, even though she is the more experienced candidate.

Instead, California's results show more of the traditional east-west split, with Obama doing well in Bay Area congressional districts but poorly in the Central Valley. Clinton took all three Northern San Joaquin Valley districts by percentages of 55 percent or better.

In Southern California, Obama won a handful of districts with large black populations, and took a trouncing most everywhere else, suggesting that Latinos stayed in Clinton's camp.

For Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, California was an even worse adventure. He tried to appeal to conservatives and voters more concerned with economics, but won only three districts statewide, with a fourth still in doubt.

Like Clinton, McCain won all three valley congressional districts, but by smaller percentages than she did.

The vote total within congressional districts is significant because Democrats and Republicans apportion some of their delegates based on who wins those districts.

For the parties, the results suggest that valley voters went for front-runners anointed weeks ago, which may reflect a surge in vote-by-mail ballots. In Stanislaus County, for example, nearly 44 percent of all voters cast mail ballots.

The results also reflect that valley voters in the major parties are more moderate than the fringes of their parties, and picked candidates accordingly.

By the way, be skeptical of polling that suggests Republicans may be competitive in California in November, because simple math suggests otherwise.

Statewide, Democrats received far more votes than Republicans on Tuesday, and general elections usually have more voters than primaries do. A larger turnout is usually better for Democrats.

A few other points to take away from Super Tuesday:

Nationally, Clinton did well in high-population states, but Obama did well in states expected to be "swing" states in November. That means the presidential race probably is still a toss-up.

California voters, in passing four propositions that add more Indian casino slot machines, apparently figure that with casinos already widespread across the state, what's a few more one-armed bandits in the desert?

Judging by Proposition 93's defeat, state legislative term limits are just fine the way they are. Watch now for jockeying not only for termed-out seats, but for leadership positions in Sacramento.

State Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, is being mentioned as a possibility to take over for termed-out Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin.

Bee staff writer Ben van der Meer can be reached at bvandermeer@modbee.com or 578-2331.