A busy night for politics tonight. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards (Dennis Kucinich was barred) debate in Las Vegas and, simultaneously, the Michigan primary results are in.
Michigan is an odd state in this election. It moved its primary ahead in the year to compete with Iowa and New Hampshire's early-state influence. While this led the Democrats to strip it of all convention delegates and the Republicans to slash the number by half (in theory lessening its influence) the result has become seen as crucial to the fortunes of Michigan-born Mitt Romney's campaign and John McCain's drive to project himself as a national frontrunner.
On the Democratic side it is somewhat less gripping. Clinton is the only one of the three main contenders with her name on the ballot. Polls suggest a two-way battle with "uncommitted", which could see a number of delegates unpledged to any particular candidate sent to the Democratic convention. If Michigan was sending any delegates to the convention ...
How can you keep up? US cable viewers can channel surf, or watch the TV on one and read the liveblog on the other. Or follow it all here. You'll work it out.
7.30pm ET (all times ET): Early exit polls are in. Voters are saying the most important issues are the economy (55%), Iraq (18%), illegal immigration (14%) and terrorism (10%). Turnout is 68% Republican, 25% independent with the remainder registered Democrats. Independents made up 35% of the vote in 2000.
Polls close at 9pm ET/2am GMT so bear in mind these figures could change. At present, the decline in independents from would not bode well for McCain ... unless Republicans are now feeling better disposed to him. Only the results will tell.
7.50pm: MSNBC's Chris Matthews - derided last week by John Stewart as "insane" for his Lawrence of Arabia/New Hampshire routine - is running through all his Las Vegas boxing and gambling references in one go ahead of tonight's debate. What will he do later? And does Michigan have anything equivalent?
8.30pm: Polling is just about over. Results are now coming in from the first precincts to close and there is a lead for Romney in the early returns. To put in its proper context this is the first 1% of polling stations (Romney's actual votes are 3,393 and McCain's 2,751 - 39% to 31%).
8.50pm: 5% of precincts reporting: Romney 36% and McCain 31%. In the Democratic "race" Clinton is on 62% and "Uncommitted" on 33%. It's still early, but I'd say Clinton has it here.
Source: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk
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