History in the Making

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When it seemed that this day would never come, today was the day of the last two primaries (in Montana and South Dakota). Sixteen months after announcing his bid for candidacy, Obama crossed the delegate mark to clinch the nomination and become the first African American nominee for president.

On a smaller note, Clinton won South Dakota and Obama won Montana.

North Carolina and Indiana Primary Results

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With the Indiana and North Carolina primaries happening today, nothing unexpected happened. Clinton won Indiana narrowly and Obama won North Carolina.

With a close race in Indiana (it being "too close to call" all night), and a tremendous lead in North Carolina...Obama definitely has the benefit of a decent net gain to help him. Obama's net gain in North Carolina definitely cancels out Clinton's win in Pennsylvania, delegates wise. For the primary in Indiana, they didn't "project" the race until past 1 A.M as it continued to be "too close to call" until about 95 percent of the votes were in. In the end, there was a difference of around 21,000 votes.

It was interesting that Clinton began her speech tonight with,

"Not too long ago, my opponent made a prediction," she said. "I would win Pennsylvania, he would win North Carolina and Indiana would be the tie-breaker. Well, tonight we've come from behind, we've broken the tie, and thanks to you it's full speed on to the White House."

It seems to me she didn't receive the memo the race in Indiana was still "too close to call". Until pretty much the end, the race could have gone either way.

Pennsylvania Primary Results

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School has definitely taken over my life this semester...I don't recommend taking six classes to anyone...unless at least a few are extremely easy or 100 level classes. It's just way to exhausting and near impossible to keep up with. Fortunately classes end in just under two weeks..and then finals.

On to the Pennsylvania primary results: A few minutes after eight and with the polls in Pennsylvania just having closed, the race was too close to call! :) The optimist in me definitely made me think for a second that Barack Obama has a chance for the race to be very close. Even though I am by no means expecting Obama to win the primary tonight, how close it is will definitely be a factor in the long run.

Around 8:35 P.M., MSNBC announced a change in terminology. According to the MSNBC network, it is now "too early to call", meaning Clinton is in the lead... but it is too early to call it a victory for Hillary Clinton.

Around 8:55 P.M., MSNBC did in fact announce that Clinton had won Pennsylvania. That was expected...now the wait is for by how much? That is the important factor. We'll see how long it takes for all the results to come in.

On to their speeches tonight. Can Clinton get any worse or cornier? "Yes we will"? Are you kidding me? At least come up with something on your own and not copy off of Obama after bashing him continuously. It was definitely an attempt at mocking Obama, but please.

Wyoming Caucus and Mississippi Primary Results

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With the Wyoming's caucus and Mississippi's primary wins under Obama's belt earlier this week, it is definitely time to focus his attention onto Pennsylvania (which is a mere five weeks away). It seems as if it is not an "easy Clinton win" as had been thought all along. It could end up being decently close in the end.

Another Win For Obama

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The final results for the February 19th primaries and caucus were:

Democrats:
Hawaii: Obama (with 79%)
Wisconsin: Obama (with 58%)

Republicans:
Washington: McCain (with 49%)
Wisconsin: McCain (with 55%)

With the Hawaii win, Obama is now up to a 10 state winning streak.

Three Caucuses and a Primary...

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I haven't had any free time since Super Tuesday, but how exciting was that? :) I stayed up until about four in the morning (before I fell asleep) waiting for the last of New Mexico's votes to be counted and tallied, but it is STILL not totally accounted for since it is such a tight race. Anyhow, it was definitely an exciting day, and Obama did extremely well and surprised a lot of people.

Mitt Romney dropped out on Thursday after very disappointing results on Tuesday.

Obama overwhelmingly won both of the Washington and Nebraska caucuses Saturday with a very large margin along with Louisiana's primary which was also a pretty decisive win from the start. :) Obama won the Virgin Islands race as well, even though no information was given about that except for the fact that he won.

Huckabee did extremely well too..he won both Kansas and Louisiana with a decent lead, and even though Washington remained pretty close, he did end up coming a close second at the end.

And how about Ron Paul? He got like 21% of the votes in Washington State.

I've heard several times this week that the young, the rich, and the educated are all large supporters of Obama. Its also been in the news that Obama has won a vast majority of the caucuses...I think like ten of the twelved caucus, including last night's and tonight's, Obama has won. Continually, in the latest national poll, Obama has a higher chance to beat McCain (and unless Huckabee miraculously wins all the rest of the primaries and caucuses, we know McCain is the republican nominee) than Hillary Clinton does.

Tonight was the democratic caucus in Maine and Obama won(as of now with 70 percent of the votes counted, Obama had 57 percent to Clinton's 42 percent). Tuesday's primaries in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia should be very interesting.

Besides that, today Hillary Clinton replaced her presidential campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle (who resigned) with Maggie Williams, who has been a long time adviser. Other than that, I also saw on CNN Political Ticker earlier that John Edwards met with Hillary Clinton on Thursday and is meeting with Obama tomorrow dealing with a possible endorsements...so we should be hearing about that soon.

To leave off with, a recent quote from Obama: "We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." (February 7th, 2008)

A Reason to Believe Again....

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Classes started again so I have absolutely no free time again. This semester is just going to be insane..i have six classes this semester which end up being from 8 or 9 AM to 6:30 PM everyday and by the time it's done, I am completely exhausted. With classes and work, I have found no time to even catch up on my readings and assignments for class..and it's only been a week!

On a much brighter note, Barack Obama received 55% of the votes from about half a million democratic votes in South Carolina! Now, that's amazing! On CNN and MSNBC, the news anchors kept re-emphasizing the fact that Obama attracted more than 290,000 votes in this primary, and nearly matching the total turnout of the 2004 democratic primary.

According to CNN Political Ticker, even though registered republicans outnumber Democrats in South Carolina, in the state’s Democratic primary Saturday, Barack Obama has 294,799 votes, with 99 percent of precincts reporting — more than the top two finishers in last week’s GOP primary combined. Last Saturday, winner John McCain pulled in 147,283 votes. Runner-up Mike Huckabee captured 132,440.

So far, Obama has won a state with a majority being a White population (Iowa) and a state with its majority being Black (South Carolina). With both of these wins, it will definitely boost Obama's chances nationally.

Also, Caroline Kennedy (JFK's daughter) announced her decision to endorse Obama in an op-ed in Sunday's New York Times published on the paper's Web site Saturday night, called "A President Like My Father", citing:

It isn't that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960….

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

Obama's victory speech ended on a high note again last night...he is such an inspirational speaker and blows everyone away. Here are some highlights from his speech last night:

This election is our chance to give the American people a reason to believe again

...

Don't tell me we can't change.

Yes, we can. Yes, we can change. Yes, we can.

Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can seize our future. And as we leave this great state with a new wind at our backs and we take this journey across this great country, a country we love, with the message we carry from the plains of Iowa to the hills of New Hampshire, from the Nevada desert to the South Carolina coast, the same message we had when we were up and when we were down, that out of many, we are one; that while we breath, we will hope.

And where we are met with cynicism and doubt and fear and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of the American people in three simple words -- yes, we can.

February 5th, Super Tuesday, is just nine days away!

Midnight Voting

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There's a town in New Hampshire, called Dixville Notch, that apparently always casts its votes at midnight, so they are always the first ones to vote and their votes are quickly tallied up and announced. The town is known for being one of the first places to declare its results for elections. This year, there were only seventeen people eligible to vote in that town
(population of town: 75). The poll was even closed by 12:02 A.M., just two minutes into the primary. This year in the town Dixville Notch, McCain won the republican and Obama won the democrat.

The total votes were:

Republicans:
1. McCain - 4
2. Ronmney - 2
3. Guiliani - 1

Democrats:
1. Obama - 7
2. Edwards - 2
3. Richardson - 1

The key point here is obviously that Hillary got no votes here, and neither did Huckabee. Of course, we have to keep in mind that there were only seventeen people voting in this town. I believe McCain for the republicans and Obama for the democrats are the top contenders in New Hampshire, but who knows... we may be surprised.

There is another town nearby Dixville Notch called Hart (population being 42) that also votes at midnight in New Hampshire, and McCain and Obama also won there.