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One of my kids is home sick with strep and was bundled up on the sofa as I watched the primary coverage last night. Her question to me is what the talking heads could possibly find to discuss for the six or more hours of primary scheduling. Prescient one, my kid. Because as it turned out, things got a little punchy very early on, especially with the Race to the White House panel of David Gregory, Eugene Robinson, Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan.

Buchanan simply could not concede to the others that there are different voter motivations between primary and general elections, and for that reason, those who are counting Hillary Clinton out now are lying to themselves. Rachel Maddow tries to contextualize where Barack goes from here and Buchanan won't have it, telling her to stop with the "Marxist dialectic."

Maddow: What he needs to be saying is listen, in these big states that Pat keeps listing, sure when it’s two Democrats dividing the electorate, I’m not always winning. But I’m winning the overall race. I’m winning pledged delegates. I’m winning the money race. I’m winning the enthusiasm race. And I have a better chance against John McCain. They’re all talking about Republicans, they’re not talking about winning over white ethnic voters who aren’t going to come over to them in the general either. Buchanan: Why can’t you beat Hillary Clinton with all her negatives? You got more money, biggest crowds in history. You got the enthusiasm. Every guy in the media says you’re the nominee and you can’t beat her in one of the big ten states in the country. Maddow: There is no connection between his inability to beat Hillary Clinton and whether or not he can beat John McCain…two totally different kinds of races….

Buchanan: Let me tell you…you may be….Look, let’s hold the Marxist dialectic…you may believe right now that this thing is over, but there’s a lot of these super-delegates gotta be sitting there, saying…if I were a super-delegate for Barack, I’d say “I’m worried. Can this guy beat McCain [unclear], ‘cause I don’t know right now.”

Other than being rude, I'm not sure what Buchanan meant by that, and evidently, neither did anyone on the set either.

