Decision ‘08

There Are Some Primaries Today…

…in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington, Maryland, and Kansas (well, some for one party and not the other, and some are caucuses). No results yet, though polling showed Obama way ahead in Maryland. I would be not at all surprised to see Mike Huckabee win at least once today: best shot is probably the Kansas caucus. More later when we know something…

UPDATE 1:32 p.m.: Chris Cillizza sees a big day ahead for Obama…

UPDATE 1:37 p.m.: Oops - Maryland is not today, but Tuesday - my bad!…

UPDATE 6:48 p.m.: As I predicted earlier, Mike Huckabee has won in Kansas…

UPDATE 7:28 p.m.: Barack Obama has taken Nebraska and has a commanding lead in Washington at the moment…

UPDATE 10:18 p.m.: It’s a big day for Huckabee, with wins in Louisiana and Washington apparrantly also imminent. That makes McCain 0-3 on the day. Does it change anything, really, regarding his eventual nomination? Probably not…but it gives plenty of life to the anti-McCain forces and makes it much harder to seal the deal. At this point, Huckabee is playing spoiler and enjoying every minute of it, but he’s forcing the Republicans into a more drawn-out primary season than is necessary. We are underfunded, big time, compared to the Democrats, and, in this observer’s opinion, Huckabee needs to do the honorable thing and step aside.

Nevertheless, the fact that he is winning all three states today shows that McCain has to work much harder on the South…

UPDATE 11:45 p.m.: It’s official - Huckabee wins Louisiana (though it was very close)…however, McCain has jumped back ahead slightly in Washington…

UPDATE 1:15 a.m.: The night wasn’t a total wash for McCain, as he holds on to (barely) win Washington…

4 Responses to “There Are Some Primaries Today…”

1 Aaron Says:
February 9th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Well, the one bright spot for McCain is that Huckabee won’t get any delegates from Louisiana since he won’t be getting 50%+1 of the vote there. LA’s delegates will be uncommitted at the Convention.

Also, WA has a primary later this month in which more delegates will be awarded. I have a feeling McCain will do better then.
2 TWL Says:
February 10th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Huckabee is to McCain’s left on, like, everything. I can understand theocons voting for him, but why would anti-McCain voters in general give him their support? Is there any sense in which this isn’t a temper tantrum?

“I didn’t major in math, I majored in miracles” . . . what a tool.
3 Sean P Says:
February 10th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
#1: And, if I’m not mistaken, the delegates — while officially uncommitted — are unofficially committed to McCain. Jeez, this is giving me a headache.

#2: I don’t think that’s what’s going on. McCain’s supporters are more “silent majority” types, and caucuses disproportionately attract the more rabid supporters (Advangage: Huck). Now that he’s the nominee and bringing in contributions by the boatload (I hope) he should be able to build an organization to help him make up for that lack of passion among his supporters, but he isn’t there yet.
4 Ryan Says:
February 10th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
“I majored in miracles”? How is that not blasphemy?