Gov. Tim Kaine turned some heads a year ago after he endorsed for president Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, within eyeshot of the former Confederate Capitol.

"I am very happy to say it is a very simple decision for me in terms of what I think is important in my assessment of where the nation is to endorse Sen. Barack Obama as our nation's next president," Mr. Kaine said the time, standing outside the governor's mansion in Capitol Square.

(He reminded some folks of his reasoning over the weekend at the Democratic Party of Virginia's annual Jefferson Jackson dinner, which drew a massive Obama crowd.)

At the endorsement I recall Kaine, who like Obama has family ties to Kansas and graduated from Harvard, saying his "gut" told him it was the right thing to do. He soon became Obama's national co-chair, campaigning with him before the Iowa Caucus and also traveled to Georgia.

Tonight, he showed his gut got it right and he has a good grip on the Virginia electorate.

Minutes after polls closed, MSNBC called the race for Obama. Roughly two minutes later the governor explained to Chris Matthews why he thought things went Obama's way, which was similar to what he told reporters a year ago and about 15 minutes before his spot on MSNBC.

"My sense is when I endorsed Sen. Obama a year ago is that he would be very appealing to Virginia voters," he said. "Virginians are a pretty independent bunch. We don't have party registration here, so even those who self declare Democrat or Republican will often vote in another primary or pull another level in the general election."

He repeated, "My sense is the Virginia electorate is a very independent electorate, and I believed Obama he would be very strong among independents because he has strong views, but he tends not to demonize the opposition."

"He is always working in the state legislature and Congress now to find others on the other side of the aisle to work with," Kaine said. "I think that could well be the reason for a solid performance tonight."

When I asked him what he would do following the election, Kaine said he may travel before the March 4 states and continue to work with the campaign on economic and business related issues.

How about the growing controversy over whether superdelegates should follow the popular vote that comes out of the primaries instead of casting a vote based om their personal choice?

Kaine said, "My gut is telling me if the momentum starts to break for one of the candidates -- it really has seemed to be breaking strong for the Senator now, but don't take that for granted -- I think the momentum starts to move the superdelegates to the winner's direction. And I would be very surprised if it ended up different than that."

It is hard to argue with the governor's gut. It was right tonight.