Obama Wins Hotly Contested Wisconsin and Birth State Hawaii

Posted by Chris Bowers, Open Left at 6:11 PM on February 19, 2008.

UPDATE CNN reports, with 100% of the vote in, Obama wins Hawaii caucuses in another landslide. 76% to 24%.

96% Reporting, 74 Pledged Delegates at Stake
Obama: 58%, 41 delegates so far

Clinton: 41%, 28 delegates so far


Update 8: I'm taking a break: OK, the results don't seem to be changing much anymore, so I am going to take a break until the Hawaii caucus starts tonight at 12:30 a.m., eastern. I'm actually feeling kind of sick, and wish that a state like Hawaii was pretty much any other night than tonight, but we shall soldier on here at Open Left anyway. A Wisconsin aftermath / Hawaii prelude thread has been created above this one.

Update 7: More complete exit poll at CBS. Obama narrowly won Dems (51%-48%), but landed crushing blows among Independents, Republicans, and Others. Also, there is once again basically no ideological gap, which I think partially expresses the frustration that some of us movement progressives have with the campaign so far.

Update 6: Closest Democratic Nomination in at least 48 years: Just to keep things in perspective even during an Obama victory, Clinton will actually pass a milestone tonight that will make this the closest Democratic nomination campaign since at least 1960. Today, even without Michigan and Florida, she hit 1219 delegates when one counts supers, moving her 1 delegate ahead of Jesse Jackson's 1988 total of 1218. Jackson's 1988 performance was the highest number of delegates ever won by a Democrat who did not win the nomination.

Update 5: Clinton asks for money during her speech? Although I didn't see it, several commenters have reported that Clinton asked for money during her speech. That can't be a good sign for her campaign.

Update 4: Democratic turnout once again more than doubles Republican turnout. Obviously, it helps that our nomination campaign is the much more competitive one, but it is still indicative of a higher level of excitement. Hopefully, that will continue all the way through November.

Update 3: CNN, MSNBC both call Wisconsin for Obama: No word on delegate totals yet, which will continue to trickle in through the night. Stay tuned...

Also, in case you missed it, McCain won Wisconsin tonight, too.

Update 2: New Exit Poll Figures: The exit poll has been updated. Clinton now leads women 51%-48%, while Obama has expanded his advantage among men, 66%-32%. Quick math on the new numbers indicates Obama 55.7%--42.8% Clinton, or very little change.

Update: Obama Dominates Early Exit Poll: As Matt said below, the exit poll looks very good for Obama. He leads women by 2%, and men by 26%. Quick math from the first data indicated Obama 55.3%--42.4% Clinton. Of course, early exit polls always change when the final data is added in later.
0% Reporting
Clinton: 43%

Obama: 56%


UPDATE FROM MATT: Jim Geraghty of NRO says the early data indicates a 60-40 blowout for Obama. As always, bet your life savings on these results.

Tagged as: clinton, obama, wisconsin

Chris Bowers was a full-time editor at MyDD from May 2004 until June 2007. Some of his projects have included the creation of the Liberal Blog Advertising Network, the first scientifically random poll of progressive netroots activists, the Use It Or Lose It campaign, the nation's most accurate forecast of Democratic house pickups in 2006, and the 2006 Googlebomb the Elections campaign.