Call it Sorta Significant Tuesday.

But just how significant: Will Oprah return to the city that remembers her when to campaign for Barack Obama? Will we get a Kennedy or three? Dare we hope for one of Hillary Clinton's "Solutions for America" rallies, or for John McCain to pull his Straight Talk Express over to the side of one of our roads?

Ah, perchance to dream.

If you're a political junkie, if you long to upgrade your Tim Russert-like whiteboard with a touch-screen to better track the states, if you find yourself muttering about superdelegates or parsing the meaning of every debate, voting in Maryland's primary generally has been like sitting in the cheap seats during a blowout game. Most of the action happens so far away, and the ultimate outcome is no mystery.

This year, though, at least for Democrats, the state's primary gets to matter, at least briefly, as Obama and Clinton scrape for every vote.

"I imagine you'll see me in both Virginia and Maryland," Clinton said this week when asked about campaigning in the region in advance of Tuesday's Potomac AKA Chesapeake AKA Beltway primary in those two states and the District of Columbia.

For Marylanders, though, the operative word might be "imagine," as nothing had been scheduled in the state as of yesterday. Clinton spent the past couple of days in Virginia, before heading off yesterday to Washington state and then Maine before a scheduled return to Virginia tomorrow night.

That still leaves Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, although with polls like one taken by The Sun last month showing the state likely to fall into Obama's camp, it makes sense that Clinton might focus instead on more winnable ones. And bigger, more delegate-rich ones.

Clinton conceded as much Wednesday, when she spoke - hoarse from Super Tuesday - to reporters at her campaign headquarters in Arlington, saying she'd compete in every state but indicating she was already thinking ahead to later-voting and bigger states such as Texas and Ohio, where she was expected to do better than here in the Mid-Atlantic.

"Every state's important," Clinton said. "But clearly the number of delegates to be harvested from big states like New York and Massachusetts and New Jersey and California, Texas and Ohio, you know, make them particularly attractive because there's a lot of return on your investment."

There's been chatter of a possible Obama rally in Maryland this weekend, but that too remained unconfirmed yesterday. As for the Republicans, the front-runner, John McCain, was to attend a Lincoln/Reagan dinner in Halethorpe last night, instead of the previously scheduled speaker, Mitt Romney, who dropped out of the race earlier in the day.

Even if the candidates don't swarm to the state in the flesh, it may not matter. So much of the campaign seems to be happening online this year, from videos of Hillary's tear-up in New Hampshire, to the much-circulated "Yes we can" music video that will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas made in support of Obama.

While it's been building in importance every election cycle, the Internet has loomed immensely this year. In fact, yesterday, word circulated in the blogosphere about Romney's withdrawal apparently before even his staff had heard.

What next? Who knows?

That's what's made this such a great campaign so far - no one knows what's going to happen next. No one. Not the talking heads on TV, not the breathless bloggers on the Internet, not the insufferable know-it-all at the table next to me at a restaurant a couple of weeks back who was declaring that senators never win the presidency.

Sorry to break it to you, Sen. McCain, Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama. But who knows, maybe he's right, maybe it will be Gov. Mike Huckabee, or Congressman Ron Paul. Just remember, you heard it here first.

What's great about this year is that nothing is going according to script: Rush Limbaugh and other would-be radio kingmakers demand Romney be nominated; he drops out. Ted Kennedy endorses Obama; he doesn't deliver Massachusetts. Unions endorse a candidate, their members vote for someone else.

Not only does no one know where things are headed, we're not even sure we know what's already happened. No one seems to know who won how many delegates on Super Tuesday. Maybe it's always been that way, but this year it really does matter, down to every last delegate.

So bring on the presidential campaigns. Even their ads would be welcome, if only to crowd out those dueling Andy Harris-E.J. Pipkin ones.

Maybe Obama will even spend some of his millions on a new commercial - I've seen that anti-outsourcing one enough by now, thank you. And yet, I must say, every time I see it, I wonder: Is his raptly engaged audience mesmerized by him, or the fact that the specials on the blackboard behind him actually includes something called "cheeseburger chowder" and something else called "lasagna soup"?

jean.marbella@baltsun.com