i just want to say, after listening to hillary's stupid dumb speech tonite in texas, where she is desperate for a win there in the march 4th primary, i noticed how she is trying hard to sound more and more like barak obama hahaha. i also find it hilarious that her deputy campaign chairman 'resigned' today, try more like fired, just like her campaign manager hahaha thats when you know she is in trouble.
and in all the exit polls shown tonite in maryland, women bolted for barak obama 59%! 59% of all women voters in maryland's primary voted for obama.
OBAMA SWEEPS DEMOCRATIC 'POTOMIC PRIMARY', OBAMA NIGHT!
Obama, McCain ride momentum of Virginia, Maryland, D.C. wins
Quote:
Story Highlights
- NEW: Obama, McCain win Maryland and Virginia, CNN projects
- NEW: Maryland polls stayed open longer because of poor weather
- High turnout reported in Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia
- 238 Democratic delegates, 113 total GOP delegates at stake
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama will claim victory in Maryland and Virginia, CNN projects.
Sen. John McCain narrowly edged out Mike Huckabee in Virginia, according to CNN projections.
Obama had a substantial lead over Hillary Clinton in Virginia, and McCain was ahead of Mike Huckabee by about 7 points, according to CNN projections.
Polls in Maryland were supposed to close at 8 p.m. ET, but a judge extended voting for an extra 90 minutes due to icy roads and heavy turnout.
Polls in the District of Columbia closed at 8 p.m., but no results were available yet.
Obama's wins give him more delegates than Clinton for the first time since the Iowa caucuses. According to CNN calculations, Obama has 1,181 delegates to Clinton's 1,173.
To clinch the Democratic nomination, a candidate must get 2,025 delegates.
Obama had led in pledged delegates, but Clinton had held the lead when superdelegates were factored in.
Superdelegates, a group of almost 800 Democratic Party officials and leaders, are not required to make their votes public and are free to change their minds.
McCain is leading Huckabee 796 to 217 in total delegates, according to CNN estimates. A GOP candidate needs 1,191 delegates to secure the nomination.
In Virginia, Obama led Clinton 63-36 percent, with about 80 percent of the precincts reporting.
McCain had 49 percent to Huckabee's 42 percent.
Obama also finished ahead of Clinton in all five of the Democratic contests last weekend.
Voters are participating in the so-called "Potomac primaries" -- named for the river that separates Virginia and Maryland and flows past the nation's capital.
Conservative voter turnout was high in Virginia, helping Huckabee there, exit polls showed.
Evangelical voters made up more than 40 percent of the electorate and were breaking for Huckabee nearly 3 to 1 over McCain, exit polls showed.
In 2000, 55 percent of Virginia GOP voters identified themselves as conservative. This year, those voters made up 68 percent of the electorate, and they were breaking for Huckabee over McCain by 16 percentage points.
In Maryland, turnout was anticipated to be about 40 percent, which is above normal according to Ross Goldstein, deputy administrator for the state's Board of Elections.
However, Goldstein said some anticipated inclement weather later in the day could lower turnout numbers.
Virginia election officials also predicted a higher than normal turnout of 30 to 40 percent for the state's primaries.
High turnout was reported in the northern part of the state and in Richmond and Charlottesville, according to Virginia Board of Elections spokeswoman Susan Pollard.
There were reports of 45-minute lines in counties around Richmond, she said.
Mark Coakley, the general register for Henrico County said the turnout in his Richmond-area county was record breaking.
"It's our first ever-dual primary so regardless it would be record breaking," he said.
At an Alexandria, Virginia, polling station, election officials said they were seeing a steady turnout.
"We're getting good, consistent turnout. We started out with over 20 people at the gate when we opened up the doors at 6 a.m.," election official Chris Tatem said. "We're averaging maybe a hundred an hour of people that push through here, which is good."
At around 1 p.m. Tuesday, the polling station's precinct chief Tom Fina said, "We're almost at the same level as we were last year for the Virginia elections."
"Today with almost 700 votes before the day is much more than half over, we are running considerably ahead of the past experience that we've had," he said.
High winds swept through the state on Sunday and Monday knocking out power in some areas and forcing some polling stations to relocate. The storms knocked out power to 50 stations, election officials said, but power had been restored to all but eight of them. Generators were used to restore power at some locations.
District election officials did not give an estimate of overall turnout, but two precincts in Washington ran out of ballots, according to Bill O'Field, a spokesman for the District Board of Elections.
Several other precincts had to have more ballots delivered due to higher-than-expected turnout.
The demographics in Tuesday's primaries suggest Obama could pull off a political hat trick over Clinton. However, the senator from New York said Obama's recent success doesn't faze her because future primaries will swing her way.
The devil is in the demographics for Democrats. Maryland, Virginia and especially the District of Columbia have large numbers of African-American and affluent white voters. Obama has fared well in the past with both groups.
Previous exit polls indicate Obama also has done well with independents voting in Democratic contests, and Virginia's open primary permits independents to cast ballots for either party.
In the Republican race, the question is whether McCain can start to unify the Republican party behind his all-but-certain nomination.
Huckabee is coming off a big win Saturday in Kansas, where he won by double digits, and another narrower win in Louisiana.
McCain edged out the former Arkansas governor in the Washington caucuses, but Huckabee is questioning the result.
Huckabee has done well with Christian conservatives and rural voters, and McCain's performance last weekend suggests the GOP, particularly conservative voters, are not quite ready to unite behind him.
McCain, however, scoffed at the notion that the former Arkansas governor could close the over 500-delegate gap that separates the two GOP contenders.
"We are doing fine. We have 700 and some -- close to 800 delegates, and the last time I checked Gov. Huckabee has very few," McCain said.
"So I think I am pretty happy with the situation that we are in." He said Tuesday he was "guardedly optimistic" about the Potomac primaries.
Re: Official Election 2008 thread
