Fox calls Massachusetts for Clinton, despite Kennedy endorsement.
Laura Ingram (talk show host) on Fox: Huckabee taking votes away from McCain, not Romney. Question: What could McCain say to you to get youy to support him? Ingram: I support the Republican ticket. Question: Aren’t you concerned that your criticism of McCain could hurt the ticket. No. Reagan supported Ford in 76, picked Bush in 1980. Ingram says he should take Romney.
No Democratic state is winner take all.
Minnesota and Colorado are caucus states. Edwards was doing well in Minnesota, where to his voters go.
coming up on 9 p.m. eastern DING!
Hillary wins NY.
Can’t call Arizona for McCain. He has made a lot of enemies there over immigration. Remember, the exit polls showed 43-39. It’s winner take all.
Report from Tempe: Immigration is a decisive issue here. McCain and Romney disagree on everything about it. 91% of Rs think it is a major issue. California it’s 85%.
Clinton leads in New Jersey, 66K to 31K, but too early to call. Senator Menendez, checking on precincts, says that Latino precincts are splitting as much as 88-12 for Clinton over Obama. He’s very optimistic. Clinton will take any kind of victory she can get out of New Jersey.
Connecticut: Michael Barone says, interesting contrast with Massachusetts. She won big in blue collar towns in Mass, but in CT working class towns are 50-50, very close, areas with virtually no African Americans. That’s why he’s leading statewide.
Juan Williams says Kennedy endorsement and large number of young people should have created momentum for Obama in Massachusetts, but it didn’t. If you look at the tally tonight, the player is Huckabee, not Romney.
Clinton takes early lead in Missouri.
McCain carries Illinois.
I forgot to mention that Rove said that McCain made a mistake by campaigning on the East Coast instead of California. I mentioned this in my first blog post tonight. I guess you could argue that he swept NY/NJ, but that still doesn’t justify going into Massachusetts, Romney’s home state, when he could have been in California.
Fox calls New Jersey for Clinton. This is a big win for Clinton.
Carl Cameron in AZ — From the McCain camp: McCain will have 600+ delegates after tonight, more than halfway to the number of delegates (1190) needed to win, and Romney and Huckabee will continue to split the conservative vote. Too steep a hill to climb.
MSNBC: Chris Matthews says, perceptively, that McCain seems to win states that Republicans can’t carry in the general election, and loses states that Republicans need to carry in the South. (UhEr, Chris, what about Florida?)
Tom Brokaw tells story that Romney reminds people of the actor who dresses up in medical garb on pharmaceutical commercials: I’m not really a conservative, I just play one on TV.
1678 D delegates available to night. 840 is a majority. Who is ahead?
Obama folks got 170 delegates out of Illinois and Georgia.
Clinton overperformed only in Mass. and Ark. She won Tennessee handily, but leads only 38-30 in delegates.
Matthews: McCain the Metroliner: Connecticut, NY, NJ, Delaware.
Howard Fineman: Why did Hillary win Massachusetts? Last week we were all talking about theatre of Kennedy endorsing Obama. People want to break out of the old mold, and Teddy didn’t make that much of a difference. Teddy couldn’t get Richardson to support Obama. Kennedys don’t have as much pull in the inside game or the outside game as they used to.
Obama wins Alabama (MSNBC) easily, leads 2-1 over Clinton.
Keith Olberman — he was polling 22% at the time of the Kennedy endorsement. Teddy helped them with American born Latinos, but Spanish language speakers were for Clinton. (This seems wrong to me. American born Latinos are MUCH more likely to vote than immigrant Latinos, many of whom aren’t even eligible.) Latino community only constituency that has stuck with Kennedy. Obama folks say Kennedy endorsement helped them nationally. Matthews defends Kennedy, says his endorsement at American University will help next week in Maryland, DC, Virginia voting.
