Serena blasts her way into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open … and Barack Obama lost Nevada to Hillary Clinton.

You can’t win it all.

But man, I stayed up late to watch her play against the Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova. Serena did not disappoint, beating Vaidisova in two sets. I’d say Vaidisova’s downfall was when Serena’s relentless assault of near perfection got into her head when they were 2-2 in the second set.

As for Clinton, she celebrated her win by coming to my hometown of St. Louis, speaking at McClure North High in Florissant, Mo. to stump for herself. I teased my mom when she went out that evening to go shopping, asking if she was going to check out the Clintons.

She just laughed. She didn’t go.

Now it’s on to South Carolina. Things are bound to get messy. Clinton took Nevada by sweeping up the female and Hispanic vote, while Obama technically won more delegates than Clinton even though he lost.

I know. It makes no sense to me either.

Both Clinton and Obama are slugging it out over the black vote, which could make or break either candidate. News reports are saying African Americans in SC are conflicted, arguing over whether to support the Clintons or back the first ever, viable black candidate. Once again, the issues they support are largely identical. The only thing left to debate is who can win, who you believe in the most, idealism vs. pragmatism, something new vs. something familiar. Clinton’s like this brand name where you know what you’re getting, whether you like it or not.

Blacks voted overwhelming for Obama in Nevada and that could portend trouble for Clinton in SC. A sizable number of blacks are either backing or considering to vote for Obama, wanting to support him. I imagine this is going to happen repeatedly throughout the primaries as long as things look up for grabs.

Also: On CNN, correspondent Roland Martin took Obama to task over the whole “Reagan” thing. Like many black people, including myself, Roland did the “oh-no-he-didn’t,” Ronnie double-take on what Obama said, pointing out that although Obama was being philosophical, he couldn’t compare himself to Reagan in the middle of the Democratic primary. It would be too easy for your opponents to exploit it. Plus as Roland pointed out, and as I mentioned earlier, most Black people DO NOT like Ronald Reagan. Some tried to argue this away and dismiss it. But Roland pretty much never wavered from that stance.

I still don’t think it will hurt him much though.