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Race for President
 Tonight, voters will head to the polls for the first time in weeks. What can we expect tonight out of Pennsylvania?First of all, this won't be the final chapter of this race unless Obama can shock the world and pull out a win. An Obama victory would be so unexpected and so crushing to Hillary that enough institutional pressure would finally come to bear on Clinton to get out of a race there's no way she can win. But, this is most likely moot as it looks like Obama has little chance of pulling out a win in a state so full of...ahem..."bitter" voters hung up on "God and guns". On the flip side, for Clinton to seriously effect the eventual outcome of the Democrat primary she needs to win big. Real big. Super Bowl 20, Bears over Patriots kind of big. But, this is also moot as it's unlikely that Clinton can win big enough to both offset her impending loss in the May 6th North Carolina primary. This race is just too close to expect either candidate to be able to pull out a solid, double-digit victory in Pennsylvania. What we'll most likely see tonight is a Hillary Clinton victory, probably somewhere in the realm of 5-8 percentage points. Exit polling will probably show that Obama was greatly harmed by his careless and elitist comments about "bitter voters". He'll perform poorly with middle class, middle income voters, women and hispanics. And all of this - the Hillary victory itself, the margin of defeat for Obama in a major swing state, Obama's failings with several constituencies with which Hillary will perform well - will eventually become bullet points in Hillary's argument to the superdelegates. The real question to emerge post-Pennsylvania will be whether the Democrat leadership has the gravitas to coerce the superdelegates to making their choice ahead of the August convention. But is anyone really capable of that? Al Gore? Jimmy Carter? Howard Dean? Who has enough power and commands enough respect to actually make this happen? The answer seems to be a resounding "none of the above". So, tomorrow morning, we'll be in roughly the same place we are right now. Obama can't close and Hillary can't win big enough to shift the paradigm. T-minus 150 days until the Democrat Convention - the only sure date of any resolution to this marathon Democrat contest. For tonight... Here are the mainstream media previews of tonight: Pa. voters weigh in on hard-edged Democratic contest - Associated Press Five things to watch in Pennsylvania - Politico 8 Questions About The Pennsylvania Primary - Washington Post Keystone Countdown: Delegate Hunt is Clinton's Pa. Challenge - ABC Democrats Make Final Pennsylvania Push - CBS Pa. officials brace for record turnout - Politico Candidates playing expectations game - Washington Times Clinton needs big margin in industrial Pa. - Politico Obama prepares to spin loss as victory - Politico On Eve of Primary, Clinton Ad Invokes bin Laden - New York Times Pennsylvania voters get say in key primary - CNN Tonight's results will be here: Pennsylvania Updates today/tonight as developments warrant... UPDATE: 4:50pm It's time to play the exit poll guessing game. This is breaking on Drudge: EXIT POLL DRAMA 5 PM ET: CLINTON 52, OBAMA 48 UPDATE: 5:05pm Fox News Channel's exit poll data fell in line with most expectations. Clinton is doing well with her core constituencies, as is Obama. Both gun-owing Democrats and church-going Democrats favored Clinton big. ABC has more exit polling here. UPDATE: 5:10pm News of the weird: Yesterday, Barack Obama offered up a great line that will go down in the annal of political history: "Why can't I just eat my waffle?" Today, Fox News is reporting that a Clinton supporter's attempt to turn a profit on this story violated eBay's rules:
UPDATE: 7:55pm Hillary Clinton has won the Pennsylvania primary Now we wait to find out by how much. Here's how it currently stands with 3% reporting: Clinton - 34,724 - 55% Obama - 28,310 - 45% UPDATE: 8:15pm You can tell Obama didn't plan on doing that well in PA tonight. He's set up camp for a "celebration" in Evansville, IN. UPDATE: 8:45pm There's still a ways to go, but if this margin maintains this could be a very, very good night for Clinton. 31% reporting: Clinton - 351,704 - 55% - 31 delegates Obama - 291,305 - 45% - 24 delegates UPDATE: 8:55pm 45% reporting: Clinton - 497,428 - 54% - 31 delegates Obama - 417,974 - 46% - 24 delegates  UPDATE: 9:16pmOff topic for a moment... With today being Earth Day, the Chicago skyline is illuminated with green lights emanating from the top of the Sears Tower. The symbolism is obvious. But, if environmentalism and conservation are at the heart of Earth Day, wouldn't it just be better to turn the lights off? Just a thought. UPDATE: 9:20pm Holding pretty steady. 61% reporting: Clinton - 699,573 - 54% - 31 delegates Obama - 586,963 - 46% - 24 delegates UPDATE: 9:37pm 75% reporting: Clinton - 882,247 - 54% - 31 delegates Obama - 742,208 - 46% - 24 delegates UPDATE: 9:40pm There's a new poll question up (right side of the page). What do you think? Did Clinton's win change anything in this race? UPDATE: 10:00pm 80% reporting: Clinton - 966,757 - 55% - 71 delegates Obama - 791,190 - 45% - 56 delegates UPDATE: 10:02pm And now Hillary's over 1 million votes. 83% reporting: Clinton - 1,014,228 - 55% - 71 delegates Obama - 825,222 - 45% - 56 delegates UPDATE: 11:40pm Looks liked Hillary will finish the night with a 10 point margin of victory and roughly 210,000 more votes than Obama. This will certainly buoy her argument to the superdelegates. Filed Under: Race for President E-mail this article to a friend | Printer friendly format |
Barack Obama's half-eaten waffle breakfast, which appeared Monday on eBay with a bid price of $10,100, has been pulled from the site.
Countdown to Election Day
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