7:00 p.m. At the top of the hour, Georgia is instantly called for Obama, and projections along with first incoming votes indicate a lopsided margin. Obama wins 88 percent of African-American voters and 44 percent or more of white voters. On the Republican side, it is a three-way split, designated by talkers as a "muddle" and projected to spread beyond Georgia.

Actually, it is less a muddle than the very clear divide among the "three legs" of what is euphemized as the Republican coalition: the militaristic pro-war shoot 'em wing (or nuke 'em wing), represented by John McCain; the uber-commercial ...   more »

6:53 p.m. Not to predict, but going back to my earlier post--if the divide separating older voters, women and Latinos somewhat for Clinton is indeed the (comparative lack of) Internet use, I wd think that dynamic favors Obama over the long term. Logically it would be easier for the Obama campaign to bring people to the Internet, or to expand access to information to people in these groups, than for the Clinton campaign to keep people from Net info.

Chris Matthews keeps steadfastly ignoring that dichotomy between hand-counted votes in New Hampshire, and op-scan counted votes. With results from Georgia ...   more »

5:20 p.m. MSNBC, and wine versus beer again, the same thin stereotype reduced to its absurd on Matthews' show, w/ Obama supporters linked with Chablis and Clinton supporters linked with Schlitz. Meanwhile, CNN briefly showed the Clintons voting at their 'home' in NY. A local poll worker--and believe me, that is hard work--showed Mrs. Clinton into the voting booth (those gizmos shd be more widely used) and jokingly asked her, "Are you a Democrat?" She gamely said yes, true blue. The man then asked Bill Clinton the same thing, mild election-day humor you know, and Bill Clinton rudely snubbed him ...   more »

4:35 p.m. Norah O'Donnell interviews Sen. John Kerry, who supports Obama. Asks him why Hillary Clinton is stronger with women, Latinos and seniors. He says, "you could turn that question around," ask why she's doing worse with everyone else. You cd point out that the divide here, statistically, is between people more likely to be informed via the Internet, and less. Women, Latinos and seniors are statistically less likely to augment their information with the Net, more likely to rely on the MSM. Anybody who gets almost his/her information from television news will not even know about the questions concerning ...   more »

3:40 p.m. More on California, incl a couple of bites from news persons actually there, in CA: a huge turnout is expected, maybe 9 million people is the estimate. Traffic may be a factor, since a local points out that some people have to drive an hour, maybe two hours, just to get to the polls. Pretty sad, that one.

A lot of people voted early, of course, a fact generally held by commentators to favor Clinton. That leap I do not understand. The polls are downplayed when they contain anything unexpected or untoward: we are not hearing much about ...   more »

3:20 p.m. MSNBC: and things are hotting up re West Virginia. As Dan Abrams notes, the Romney campaign has issued a release accusing John McCain of a "backroom deal" that apparently won Mike Huckabee the WV caucuses:

"Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain's inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney's campaign of conservative change.

"Governor Romney had enough respect for the Republican voters of West Virginia to make an appeal to them about the future of the party based on issues. This is why he led ...   more »

2:45 p.m.: MSNBC: The first contest of the day to be decided, and result gets the BRIEFEST possible mention on MSNBC, David Gregory now presiding: Huckabee of Arkansas is the 'projected' winner of the West Virginia Republican caucuses.

This is mentioned with the utmost terseness, some follow-up by Dan Abrams at the top of the hour. The DOW is now down about 300. As someone mentions, again briefly, Romney was expected to win those caucuses.

It wd be interesting to know whether some Republicans actually expect that Huckabee will be paired with a winning nominee John McCain for VP. I ...   more »

Here it is, Super Tuesday--or Super Duper, or Tsumani Tuesday, etc--anything to draw attention to the bells and whistles of election results as conveyed in large media outlets, and to draw attention away from any problems counting the actual votes. Live blogging:

10:25 a.m.: MSNBC: 'Morning Joe' Scarborough and a sidekick are kicking around much-hashed-over queries and opinions with a white female representative from the Wall Street Journal and an African-American male rep from the Washington Post. The focus, per Scarborough, is on 'identity politics' which according to him the Dems have always had a tendency toward, and now ...   more »

78^th in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. The non-appearing Iraqi WMD continue to be an issue, interrupted to the gratitude of the White House by the Jessica Lynch media saga.
April 2-7, 2003:

 

Apr. 2, 2003 – Another Judith Miller article on those shrinking Iraqi WMD comes out:

“A military team charged with hunting for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction returned from its first foray into southern Iraq Monday night, having found thousands of rounds of ammunition and tons of weapons, but not the smoking gun it was seeking.  

       Mobile Exploitation ...   more »