'Half-Votes' Given to Michigan and Florida Delegates in Compromise

Democratic Party leaders agreed Saturday seat Michigan and Florida delegates with half votes into this summer's convention with a compromise that left Barack Obama on the verge of the nomination but riled Hillary Rodham Clinton backers who threatened to fight to the August convention.

McCain Takes Wisconsin; Obama Beating Clinton

Barack Projected to Take Virginia

Barack Obama apparently defeats Hillary Clinton in Virginia's Democratic Primary.

Exit Polls in Virginia

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, had a couple of supporters too, like Sharon Webb, a homemaker and former military careerwoman.

“His values are in line with mine,” said Ms. Webb, a Hispanic woman. “I don’t think McCain has the same values as me on immigration.”

Ken Kessler, 68, an Army veteran and an engineer was a Mitt Romney fan until he dropped out of the race last week. He said he voted for Mr. Huckabee because “I’m conservative, and he’s the best I could do.”

Barack Takes Maine Easily

Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic Party's Maine caucuses on Sunday, grabbing a majority of delegates as the state's Democrats overlooked the snowy weather and turned out in heavy numbers for municipal gatherings.

With 70 percent of the participating precincts reporting, Obama had 57 percent of the vote, while Clinton had 42 percent.

Barack and Mike Take States in Saturday's Primaries

Barack Obama beat Hillary Rodham Clinton in contests in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington, while Mike Huckabee embarrassed John McCain with wins in Kansas and Louisiana.

Jockeying for Position: Barack and Hillary

Mike Huckabee Wins Arkansas as Does Hillary Clinton

Former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee is projected winner of Arkansas Republican primary while former first lady, Hillary Clinton is projected to take the Arkansas Democratic primary.

Barack Projected to Take Illinois; Hillary Takes Oklahoma

NBC projecting Barack taking Illinois while Hillary takes Oklahoma.

CNN Projects Barack Obama Takes Georgia

Based on exit polls, CNN says that Barack has won Georgia. Delegates won are based on proportions, so CNN can not predict number of delegates for Barack.


NBC News also reporting that Barack has taken Georgia and also 40% of the "white vote."

Mike Huckabee Takes West Virginia

Mike wins West Virginia!
NY Times reports:

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, West Virginia, which was the first to release its votes, favored Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor. At a hard-fought Republican state nominating convention, Mr. Huckabee won 18 of the 30 national delegate slots that were up for grabs, with the remaining 12 to be decided in May.

“Other candidates have had bigger budgets,” Mr. Huckabee said in a victory speech at the Charleston Civic Center on Tuesday afternoon. “But you know what? I’m almost tied in delegates with those who have spent 10, 15, 20 times what I have. And it kind of tells me something — that it’s time for the people to elect a president, and not just the national media and the pundits.”

CNN Predicts Hillary Clinton Will Win Florida But No Delegates to be Awarded

CNN (just as the polls close in Florida) predicts Hillary Clinton will win Florida, resulting however in no award of any delegates. Presently, she has taken 48% of the Democratic votes.

Obama and Huckabee in Florida

Fifteen minutes before the polls close in Florida, Mike Huckabee has taken 13% of the Republican vote while Barack Obama has taken 29% of the Democratic vote.

John Dickerson on Barack Trouncing Hillary in South Carolina

In SLATE, John Dickerson writes:

What increased the impact of the trouncing is not just that it's a more than 40-point swing from polls in November where Clinton led Obama by 20 points but that the Clinton campaign worked so hard to knock Obama down in the previous week...

Bill Clinton was unleashed across the state taking on Obama and the press, which he upbraided for giving the challenger an easy ride...

Going into primary day, the national press and political class obsessed over whether Obama's victory would be diminished because he performed disproportionally well among African-Americans. Obama did in fact obliterate his opponents among black voters, winning 82 percent of the vote, but he also got a quarter of the white vote. Obama also did well among independents, who made up 23 percent of the primary electorate: He beat Clinton 40 percent to 23 percent, which helps his argument to Democrats voting in future states that he can capture those swing voters in a contest with Republicans in the fall.

Barack Has Routed Hillary in South Carolina Democratic Primary

Associated Press reports:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially-charged South Carolina primary Saturday night, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates.

I'm still not certain about this being a racially-charged race, but hey... I also did not realize that Barack had lost momentum, except that the media has been telling us that he has been for the last several days, but hey...

South Carolina Voters Will Look Beyond Race to the Issues

photo credit: Patrick Collard




JEFF ZELENY and JULIE BOSMAN write:

Voting took place against a backdrop of intense racial discussions. One poignant reminder of South Carolina’s historic racial divide, the Confederate flag, was swaying in the cool breeze on Saturday only a few yards from where supporters waved placards for Mr. Obama, who would become the nation’s first black president.

Some of Mr. Obama’s strategists worried that the discussions on race could influence the outcome here on Saturday and drive some white voters away from Mr. Obama’s candidacy, boosting the efforts of Mr. Edwards or Mrs. Clinton.

Rick Wade, a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, disagreed with the suggestion that support from white voters had decreased or that race would be a deciding factor in the primary’s outcome.

“At the end of the day, I believe that South Carolinians are going to look beyond the rhetoric and the conversations taking place and are more concerned about issues,” Mr. Wade said. “You have to build a broad coalition. It’s the only way you can win in this state.”

I couldn't agree more. Most people, despite the confederate flag on the statehouse grounds, are not as concerned with Barack's race as they are with their pocketbooks and the cost of gasoline, healthcare, and food.

Why Barack? 'The Color of My Skin, I Guess'

Photo Credit: Stephen Morton
SHAILA DEWAN writes from Orangeburg, SC:

On Thursday, on a dirt road near the small town of Bowman, Townsend Pelzer sat in his truck with his two lap dogs while his beagle chased rabbits in the woods. Mr. Pelzer, 83 and black, a retired maintenance worker for the state highway patrol, said he was going to vote for Mr. Obama.

Asked why, Mr. Pelzer shrugged, smiled and pointed to his face, saying, “Color of my skin, I guess.”

Scott Mattingly, 22, a white economics teacher at a virtually all-white private school in Bowman, said that many of his fellow volunteers at the Obama campaign office were “ignorant of the issues and are far more excited about the concept of a black leader.”

Although it makes perfect sense that Mr. Pelzer, at 83, would vote for Barack because their skin colors match, it makes less sense to me that volunteers at Barack's headquarters would be ignorant of the issues.

Black Voters Are Realizing Whites Will Vote For Barack Obama

Voice of America's JEFF SWICORD writes:

Scott Huffman is a professor of southern politics at Winthrop University in Rock Hill South Carolina. He says race and gender will play a significant role on primary day. "African-Americans make up about 30 percent of South Carolina's overall population but they will make up to about 50 percent of the Democratic primary vote on election day."

Early opinion polls show Senator Hillary Clinton had a significant lead in South Carolina prior to the Iowa caucuses. Both she and husband, former President Bill Clinton, have strong ties to African-American leaders across the country.

Professor Huffman says African-American support began to change in South Carolina when Senator Barack Obama won Iowa, a state with a 2.5 percent black population. "The black voters in South Carolina realized white voters will vote for Barack Obama. That caused a trickle of soft supporters of Hillary Clinton to begin moving over to Barack Obama. And his lead in the African-American community has been growing ever since."