Tingog.com

Tingog.com will be liveblogging the Super Tuesday results. I’m here in the US Midwest, surrounded by some colleagues and friends, being some strong political junkies I thought I’d do some liveblogging and give everyone some analysis. A lot has happened so far actually.

The two biggest news for the democratic side is that Clinton has held both Massachusetts and New York. Massachusetts is very surprising considering the heavy endorsements for Obama coming from the Kennedy camp. But the Clintons have been very popular there for some time, so it’s not that surprising, but it is still a very important win for Clinton. New York is probably going to be a real disappointment to Obama considering he made a last ditch effort to win that state.

Here are the results so far. But let us remember, this is not a state count for the democratic side because they provide delegates proportionally, so at the end of the night, it will all be about the delegate count.

In the Republican side, Huckabee has indeed been a thorn in the side of Romney as Huckabee has managed to take many of the more conservative states. There’s word of course, that the McCain camp was actually ecstatic that Huckabee has shown such a strong showing in many of the states that McCain surely would have lost were it only have been a fight between Romney and McCain.

Super Tuesday Results

STATE	Democrats	Republicans
Alabama	OBAMA	HUCKABEE
Alaska	OBAMA	ROMNEY
Arizona	CLINTON	McCAIN
Arkansas	CLINTON	HUCKABEE
California	CLINTON	McCAIN
Colorado	OBAMA	ROMNEY
Connecticut	OBAMA	McCAIN
Delaware	OBAMA	McCAIN
Georgia	OBAMA	HUCKABEE
Idaho	OBAMA	May 27
Illinois	OBAMA	McCAIN
Kansas	OBAMA	Feb 9
Massachusetts	CLINTON	ROMNEY
Minnesota	OBAMA	ROMNEY
Missouri	Too Close	McCAIN
Montana	June 3	ROMNEY
New Jersey	CLINTON	McCAIN
New Mexico	Too Close	june 3
New York	CLINTON	McCAIN
North Dakota	OBAMA	ROMNEY
Oklahoma	CLINTON	McCAIN
Tennessee	CLINTON	HUCKABEE
Utah	OBAMA	ROMNEY
West Virginia	May 13	HUCKABEE

Update: (9:38 pm ET) It looks like that Hillary Clinton will be the projected winner for New Jersey on the Democratic side. Connecticut and Missouri is still too close to call. The overall scene so far is that Huckabee has won three southern states West Virginia, Alabama, and Arkansas. It’s been a tough night for Mitt Romney. John McCain is living it up because of the support he’s been getting from Rudy Giuliani both by endorsement and in the ground itself. Huckabee may actually be a good match for McCain’s VP if McCain indeed gets the nomination. Obama still may look good after the delegate are counted, again the Democratic race is still neck and neck.

Update: (9:48 pm ET) Obama is the projected winner of Kansas. Barack’s Mother is from Kansas, and the Governor of Kansas (Kathleen Sebelius) endorsed Obama. Kathleen Sebelius is an up and coming politician in the Democratic circle, she was also the one who gave the Democratic rebuttal to the most recent State of the Union.

Update: (9:56 pm ET) McCain is the projected winner in Oklahoma.

Update: (10:04 pm ET) Obama takes Utah.

Update: (10:05 pm ET) Obama takes North Dakota

Update: (10:26 pm ET) Obama takes Connecticut. This is the first North Eastern state that Obama has taken this Super Tuesday. Once again, this doesn’t mean that Obama will take all of the delegates for that state. Connecticut was a close race for both Obama and Clinton.

Again, it looks as if the early exit polls have shown that Clinton has kept the Latino vote from crossing over to the Obama camp.

Update: (10:43 pm ET) Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has just addressed his supporters. Even with the results showing him way behind McCain, he seems to still have hope and reiterates that his campaign is moving forward. Of course many states are still up for grabs, so we can’t project Super Tuesday for McCain just yet.

Update: (10:45 pm ET) Mike Huckabee takes Georgia.

Update: (11:03 pm ET) Hillary Clinton has just addressed her supporters with great excitement acknowledging her win in New York. California polls has just closed. And Romney takes North Dakota.

Update: (11:12 pm ET) Obama takes Colorado. The big question is still, who will take California? The big story for the Republican side seems to be.. McCAIN, McCAIN, McCAIN!

Update: (11:17 pm ET) Romney is the projected winner for Minnesota. Clinton takes Arizona. Arizona was a hotly contested state, but in the end Hillary walks away with Arizona, and Obama will surely be disappointed with this result.

Update: (11:23 pm ET) Obama is the projected winner for Idaho.

Update: (11:30 pm ET) Clinton takes Missouri, just narrowly. They will split the delegate count.

Update: (11:32 pm ET) McCain takes Arizona. It’s a winner takes all state. He takes all 53 delegates.

Update: (11:50 pm ET) McCain has just made his speech in front of his supporters. The main theme of McCain’s speech is that he is ready to finally be called the front-runner. He congratulated both Huckabee and Romney. I’m thinking to myself, that he better have had congratulated Huckabee. Obama is also addressing his supporters, and again, his speech is inspiring as usual.

Huckabee takes Tennessee.

California is still at stake. Too close to call on both Democrats and the Republican side.

strong>Update: (11:58 pm ET) John McCain takes Missouri. It’s another winner take all state. McCain takes all 58 Delegates.

strong>Update: (12:02 AM ET) Romney takes Montana. Romney takes all 25 Delegates. Romney is still way behind. Because Huckabee swept most of the Southern states, it looks like McCain will go on to be the Republican nominee. I’ll say it again, Huckabee the spoiler. He’s a good guy, a good candidate, he’s still a spoiler.

Just a Thought (12:21 am ET) What if Fred Thompson dropped out early before South Carolina? Huckabee would certainly have won that state, and maybe just maybe, McCain wouldn’t be enjoying this momentum he built in Florida. If it were a two man race: Huckabee vs. McCain OR Romney vs. McCain, McCain would surely be in a good fight just because he still hasn’t shown that he can get the conservative vote. Of course this is just a thought, and the fact is that McCain is the big winner on Super Tuesday.

Update: (12:28 AM ET) Hillary Wins California. This was the big state that we were waiting for, and indeed California has delivered for Hillary, and she can definitely thank the Latino community for this win. But again, my friends, it’s all about the delegates, and it will be the delegate count that matters. The Democratic race will still be open way after Super Tuesday. Again, Hillary Wins California.

Update: (5:51 AM ET) New Mexico is still up for grabs. I can’t believe it myself, but Obama is only leading by 0.4% with 85% of the precincts reporting. We’ll keep an eye on things, but this is going to be the closest result yet.

Super Tuesday Percentage of Votes (DEMOCRATS)

STATES	CLINTON	OBAMA	EDWARDS
Alabama	42	56 *	1
Alaska	25	74 *	0
Arizona	51 *	42	5
Arkansas	69 *	27	2
California	53 *	39	6
Colorado	32	67 *	0
Connecticut	47	51 *	1
Delaware	42	53 *	1
Georgia	31	66 *	2
Idaho	17	80 *	1
Illinois	33	64 *	2
Kansas	26	74 *	0
Massachusetts	56 *	41	2
Minnesota	32	67 *	0
Missouri	48	49 *	2
New Jersey	54 *	44	1
New Mexico	Too	Close
New York	57 *	40	1
North Dakota	37	61 *	1
Oklahoma	55 *	31	10
Tennessee	54 *	41	4
Utah	39	57 *	3

Super Tuesday Percentage of Votes (REPUBLICANS)

STATES	McCAIN	ROMNEY	HUCKABEE	PAUL
Alabama	37	18	41 *	3
Alaska	16	44 *	22	17
Arizona	47 *	34	9	4
Arkansas	20	13	60 *	5
California
Colorado	19	59 *	13	8
Connecticut	52 *	33	7	4
Delaware	45 *	33	15	4
Georgia	32	30	34 *	3
Illinois	47 *	29	17	5
Massachusetts	41	51 *	4	3
Minnesota
Missouri	33 *	29	32	4
Montana	22	38 *	15	25
New Jersey	55 *	28	8	5
New York	51 *	28	11	6
North Dakota	23	36 *	20	21
Oklahoma	37 *	25	33	3
Tennessee	31	24	34 *	6
Utah	5	90 *	1	3
West Virginia	1	47	52 *	0

Update: (1:03 AM ET) OK, we’ll take it back. Missouri is now too close too call. We earlier had Clinton taking Missouri just narrowly, but it seems that the count is too close.

Update: (1:30 AM ET) Obama takes Alaska. So far it’s Obama with the most states won, but it’s Clinton that has taken a very slight lead in the delegate count.

Update: (2:28 AM ET) With 75% of the precincts reporting, it looks like Romney is going to take Alaska. I guess this is consolation for Romney.

SUMMARY

The delegate counts for Super Tuesday are going to be hard to report as of the moment. Only because, even though the voter count is mostly through, some delegates cannot yet be awarded. Some delegates for example, such as the Iowa delegates have yet to be awarded, even though the Iowa caucuses was held over a month ago. And in the democratic side, there are individuals called “Super Delegates” which account for 20% of the delegates and many have yet to be awarded. Who do these Super Delegates think they are anyway right? But this is American Politics, you sorta have to have a PhD almost just to understand the way it goes.

Unlike The Philippines, it’s all about the delegates, not the popular vote (percentage of votes).

Summary (Democrats)

2,084 delegates were up for grabs on Super Tuesday, with 22 states participating including American Samoa, and overseas voters getting into the mix. A candidate needs a total of 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic Nomination.

	OBAMA	CLINTON
DELEGATES (Super Tue)
DELEGATES (Total)	793	872
STATES (Super Tue)	12	8
STATES (Total)	14	10

Summary (REPUBLICANS)

1,081 delegates were up for grabs in the Republican side on Super Tuesday, with 21 States participating. A Candidate needs a total of 1,191 delegates to win the Republican Nomination.

	McCain	Romney	Huckabee
DELEGATES (Super Tue)
DELEGATES (Total)	561	222	172
STATES (Super Tue)	9	6	5
STATES (Total)

FINAL THOUGHTS

Our coverage is ending, the results have established a clear front-runner for the Republican party where we saw John McCain widen his lead against his two top rivals Huckabee and Romney. Some analysts will say that it was Huckabee who played a spoiler for Romney, and I am one of those individuals. But we went into Super Tuesday knowing that Huckabee would win the southern states.

But in the Democratic side, the race has tightened up. Some conclusions can be gleaned from the results, and that is even though Obama received huge endorsements from the Kennedy camp and even the Governor of Massachusetts, in the end Hillary Clinton’s large lead held in Massachusetts. The two big states that Hillary was supposed to win handily, New York and California, went to Hillary in the end. But it did give the Clinton camp some moments of heavy sweating a clear testament of the momentum that is with Barack Obama.

The popular vote and thus the delegates went to Clinton, but only slightly. Obama edged Clinton by winning more states, and it seems that the Democratic race may end up running a while longer with no clear front-runner.

The questions that will be posed in the coming days and weeks is if McCain can finally gain the conservative votes, and if Obama can keep his momentum and take some of the latino votes away from Hillary. Super Tuesday was supposed to make things more clear, because this year has not been anything like we have seen before, the massive voter turnout clearly gives us a sense that American voters are more engaged than ever before. No doubt, not a good sign for the on-the-way-out President Bush

Super Tuesday was indeed Super, but I’m ready for the General Election to start. By then, I may just announce the candidate that I will be supporting. Thank God it’s not a Bush.

tags: 2008 elections, barack obama, hillary clinton, john mccain, mitt romney, super tuesday