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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC Political Researcher



The delegate watch

Posted: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 11:15 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: ,

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
The official delegate numbers will be trickling in during the day today. Keep an eye on First Read for updates as we know.

As of 3:15 am, the delegate totals were...

      GOP TOTALS (As of 3:15AM 02-05)                 

                  2/5   Overall

      McCain      423     516  

      Romney      130     207  

      Huckabee    102     142  

      Paul          5       9    

      Others        0       7

 

      DEM TOTALS (As of 3:15AM 02-05)                 

                  2/5   Overall

      Clinton     534     582  

      Edwards     0        26   

      Obama       422     485   
      
Other        0        0

But keep in mind that several hundred are still being diced up.

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Comments

Why is MSNBC posting delegate totals that are 8 hours old?  There are much newer numbers, and Obama is winning.

Could you be any more pro-Clinton?!
Go, Hllary GO !!!!!!!!!!!!
I am enthused, excited, energized, and heartened by Hillary's performance on Super Tuesday.
By defeating all of Obama's major endorsements in places like Massachusetts (Kennedy and Kerry), Arizona (Governor Napolitano), and California (Maria Shriver, Robert DeNiro, and the rest of Oprah's Hollywood "posse") she proved her electability and her worthiness as a Presidential competitor.
It is so refreshing to see a woman on the national stage, competing with, and winning against the big boys.
We need her spirit, and her energy in the White House.
She will be a great President!
GO HILLARY!!!!!
Lizz:

Put a lid on it.....we don't want Bill and Hillary back in the White House!
I haven't seen anything this morning showing Obama ahead in the delegate count?  

So your comment is interesting Ron, seeing as CNN and Real Clear Politics (where I stopped before coming over here) all show Clinton in the lead.  My local news is also showing Clinton in the first place spot with more delegates than Obama and the numbers are newer and more updated than what is shown here.  I haven't seen one showing Obama with higher numbers yet, although they are still apportioning delegates.  

 If hilllary had won the smalll states like Obama and Obama had won Hillaries states the media and chris matthews would be proclaiming a great upset by obama!!!!!!!!!!!!
To:Ron, TX (Sent Wednesday, February 06, 2008 11:30 AM)

Keep hope alive.
Laura of Dayton, Ohio- YOU ARE SO RIGHT! Dems better wake up and stop the bickering back and forth. For me it is a no brainer who ever is the nominee gets my vote PERIOD! If those of you who are adamant Obama and/or Hillary supporters and prefer to sit out or vote for McCain will do nothing but give over to those lying, self-absorded, religious fanatics, deficit spending and civil right destroyers the election. You will have no one to blame but yourselves.  
Your pro-Hillary bias is showing. Why not show the REAL numbers? Chuck Todd just gave them on MSNBC. You need to clarify this post quickly if you want to be taken seriously as a "FAIR" blog.
Hey, J. Merle Stanley, Westchester, NY:

Hillary is arguably the most divisive figure we've seen in Washington in the last quarter century.  You're way off if you think she'll be a great President.  She will be completely ineffective and if she's elected she'll be one and done and the Republicans will win back the house, Senate and the white house in 12.  Now that I think about it, you're right...
GO HILLARY.
I'll have to agree with Go, Hillary Go or Go, Obama Go if the Republican nomination is McCain. I'll have to become a Utah Democrat!
what are the latest delegate totals for obama vs. Clinton? Why no updates here on MSNBC today?
I started reading this and wondered that too, Ron
I got the @_@ Twilight Zone feeling

On a personal note: I think Obama does less pandering to what people want to hear and is the more articulate and straight forward candidate for the Dems.

All I know is that it is time for real change instead of a bunch of empty rhetoric and flag waving ...
Sorry to break the news to you Hillary lovers, but this is old, very old, and Obama is now winning the delegate count. Which means he won more states and more delegates. He's in the lead even with the super-delegates thrown in.

Obama '08
Ron, Tx...you're out of your mind!
MSNBC does nothing but rag on Hillary all day long, while giving a pass to all of the Obama camp's racist, sexist, divisive, polarizing rhetoric,...AS WELL AS providing a place for angry, mean spirited, acrimonious ObaMA-NIACS like yourself, to post your hateful spew.
If you bothered to read an earlier thread, Hillary is leading when all the delegates and super-delegates are counted.
If you stopped depending on the Obama-Biased media to do everythging for you, and did a little research on your own, you would have known that.

HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT 2008!
"Change is the residue of design, and design is the by-product of experience."
this is great..i am for Hillary and i am very excited about her winning and i get sick of Joe SCARBOROUGH slamming her..and i already emailed him twice..but i love Mika and the show...Chuck Todd your the best and very fair and unbiased and PROFESSIONAL
Ron in Tx .. Obama might have won more states but Hillary won more votes thus more delegates. Clearly not enough to make her the front runner but enough to Keep Obama behind ...
What suprises me about the results is the continuing bias towards Obama at the expense of Clinton, even when she wins pundits (mainly from John King CNN and Chris MSNBC) skew the results to pretend that Obama did not really lose but just lost in the areas outside the cities, also when Hillary wins they say well she still lost the overall vote with women,blacks etc.
Wake up media and get over your love affair with Obama, the man is nothing more than a good speaker with very little else and no real experience.
This is how Obama does to bring CHANGES,  missing 37.9% of votes in the senate and voting "present" when he  comes to vote
The real question for the DNC after Super Tuesday is this:  Will Hillary will be able to extend her appeal to Barrack's supporters if she wins the nomination?  If you don't believe that Barrack's supporters will line-up behind Hillary in the general election - then Super Tuesday was a failure for the Clinton campaign.  California, NY, NJ and Massachusets will NEVER vote Republican - so wins for Clinton in those states prove nothing.  But take a closer look at Obama's wins - his appeal is vastly more inclusive than Clinton.  Obama wins states that Clinton will never win in the general - while Clinton is winning states that Obama will also easily win in the general.  If the Democratic party doesn't wise-up quickly, they will miss a golden opportunity to nominate an candidate that could define the party for a generation to come.  That candidate is Barrack Obama.
Obama will win the delegate race from 2/5 AND the popular vote (94% reporting):

Obama: 7,831,327 (48.12%)
Clinton: 7,719,028 (47.43%)
Edwards: 626,116 (3.85%)
Hillary Clinton 2008

Way to go HRC, you did some real damage to the Obama camp, not to mention you literally kicked Oprah and the Kennedy's butt !

Their entire Campaign was all about BLACK POWER, You proved to show them that a real Campaign is about Real issues and Real Change not just empty words.
Good Job Hillary, But she must be very scared to continue, because OBAMA has the money, and the more people get to know him and her him they are running away from Hillary. She won yesterday because of early voting. Its over for her.
Don't walk into defeat America!  Learn from our past mistakes!  We can't win with democrats alone!  

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080206/NATION/476091143/1001
"The senator from Arizona beats the senator from New York in 14 of 17 head-to-head polls taken since Dec. 6, but he wins just five of 17 against the senator from Illinois over the same period. Analysts say Mrs. Clinton is so divisive that she would drive moderates and some independents to Mr. McCain. Mr. Obama, conversely, could draw from the pool of supporters who have delivered wins to Mr. McCain in a host of presidential primaries.
"

It's about more than change.  It's about being able to deliver on that change in November, not from ANOTHER democratic defeat, but from a monumentous win!

Obama - Ready to deliver the win on Day Zero!!
Hey, Chuck Todd - could you please break this down in PLEDGED delegates v. SUPER delegates?  It hardly behooves any of us to look at data involving Superdelegates, since they clearly can switch and should not really be in either candidate's "column" (putting them up seperately would allow us to do the math, though)
Hahaha. So entertaining to read J.Merle and Obamarama spinning the predicted Obama Waterloo into a victory for Billary still.

She won on early voting, and the Feb 5 votes went against her in every big state she won.  Winning CA by only 10 points with as much of 1/3 of the votes cast weeks ago?  Mass and AZ have been voting even longer, yet Obama came back to surge from as much as 25 points behind a few short weeks ago.

This is the most under-reported story of the day, but it WILL come out.  Early voting saved Hillary, and these votes won't save her from here on.  Her lack of money has her desperately begging for more debates so she can get some free press and lob up some more well-crafted lies.

The Clinton campaign is very afraid.  Those of us in the business know how to spot the signs, and they are pretty obvious.
I really expected Clinton to do much better then she did.  I'm sooooo disappointed.  I guess its true. Whenever Obama steps into a state, he takes a hammer and chisel to the Billary campaign machine and quickly chips away at her lead.  I'm very impressed!
Could you please get over the fact that "Hillary" is a woman and start looking at the issues.  Voting for a candidate based on their sex? Talk about sexest.  If McCain is the eventual nominee, there are factions of the republican party who would rather eat their own foot than vote for him.  Give them an alternative! They will not vote for Clinton.  They would, however, consider voting for Obama.  He beats McCain in the national polls, Clinton does not.  And Obama draws the independents.  Do you want another Republican president?
MSNBC is extremely pro Obama... So that's a dumb statement. Hillary is clearly the front runner but they are going to call it a draw for some unknown reason.
Alex,
The reason they're calling it a draw is that it was.  Stop whining.  You sound like your candidate and all the rest of her supporters.  She's winning the "pander to me and tell me that you'll give me handouts and solve all my problems" vote.  Great.  Heck of a constituency.
People need to wake up!!! This country is in the HORRIBLE shape it is in due to the last 16 years under a Clinton Bush dictatorship. Why in God's name would people want another crooked Clinton in the Whitehouse for another 4 - 8 years of descent in hell for the middle class?? Obama, McCain, Ron Paul, anyone that is a fresh perspective.

The narrow mindedness of Americans is amazing!
Patricia Creech,
Please go back to your clan rally in the back woods.  Or, if you prefer, you can look at the numbers.  Obama CRUSHED her across the country in lilly white states.  In fact, the only place race was decisive was not in the way you'd like us to believe.  It was in Arizona and California where Asians and Latinos walked lockstep to the polls to vote against Obama.
sorry, Patricia, Obama's campaign is about us, no matter what color we may be, but Hillary's is about Hillary.  Obama NEVER plays the race card, but Billary play both the race card & the 'historical feminist achievement card' all the time, just as Hillary did in her speech last night about dear ol' mom being born before women had the vote.  
Marie Burns, a Florida feminist for Obama
There were people dead because of the tornado. Hillary is not "tearing up".  

I sincerely believe that some of NH voters who voted for her did a great disservice for the nation.
Those who ended up voting for her just because she teared up and felt sympathy for her, be informed that she "teared up" again the day before Feb. 5.

There were many truly sad moments for the normal people. Hillary is all smile this morning. Not even once did she cry for the unfortunate. Only when she, herself is in trouble, she tears up.


Right now there is no front runner in the democratic election. There are 168 delegates in the Washington DC elections if Obama wins that one he is leading again. Quit voting for Hilary because of her husband everybody.  This is not a game but who is the best leader to bridge the gap between Democrats and GOP's.  
I absolutely love you J. Merle Stanley- You are so very wise. You are great,  and Kathy from Idaho about the experience thing.  You say you met JFK when you were 12 - well hoop de doo -  JFK had been in the Senate for 14 years as well as served in the armed Services so he was not inexperienced like Obama - BUT
he was not a good president -  What about the Bay of Pigs and I can give you other examples of inexperience from him? Also he was killed after about 2 years so really except for speeches, (just like OBama) what did JFK really do except screw Marilyn
Monroe and mess around with countless women on his wife. Hillary is ahead in delegates overall - SHE WON
OBAMA SUPPORTERS - GET OVER IT - SHE WILL WIN THE NOMINATION!
OBAMA HAS JUST PROJECTED THE DELAGATE WIN!  THEY WON MOST STATES AND DELAGATES!!!  YEAH!!!   9:09 PST  YOU NEWS ORGS BETTER WAKE UP AND REPORT THE FACTS.

GO BARACK!!! WE WILL KEEP UP THE HARD WORK!!!
Presidential voting in this country is the biggest anti-democratic thing that we do. How come we only let the voice of the elite be heard? The elite in this country are the delegates who vote in primaries and the electorates in the real presidential election. My voice does not count and so do millions and millions of regular citizens of this country. Why are we letting this happen? We should change the voting format to a popularity vote. Until we do, I am not going to vote because it means nothing.
Obama can bring people together in ways Clinton can't even dream of. He is willing and able to compromise. She desperately scrambles to be right/the winner all the time. As a lawyer maybe that would serve her well, but as president it would not. She would not be able to get anything done as president because Republicans and independents would not work with her. This is what Obama's change is about: Obama LISTENS.
Sara:"Put a lid on it.....we don't want Bill and Hillary back in the White House!"

You don't speak for me when you say *we*-I fully support Senator Clinton
Clinton is the best choice of the finalists and will be an awesome President
At this point it looks like Obama has 14 state wins against Hillary's 8 states, and Obama has 603 pledged delegates vs Hillary's 590.  Only in the "Superdelegate" arena, is Hillary actually appearing to be put in the lead.  Do voter's voices, through statistics like these have an impact of future Superdelegate pledges?
I've never paid this much attention to a primary election. Just grateful for the fact that we actually have choices, and very different ones. I too am a republican considering voting for a democrat if McCain is the republican nominee--I don't care who he chooses for a vp.
Hilary fought for the people for medical care during the Clinton presidency.  Nobody in Congress or Senate supported her.  Now that medical coverage is a major issue, they are singing the tune.  I will vote for Hilary, she will change America to be a better and respected country.
Hillary is "divisive" because that's what the media pundits have been telling us for over a decade.

Males control the media, Congress, Corporate America - it's time for a WOMAN president!
MSNBC is extremely pro Obama... So that's a dumb statement. Hillary is clearly the front runner but they are going to call it a draw for some unknown reason.

Alex Hernandez, Valparaiso, IN (Sent Wednesday, February 06, 2008 12:00 PM)

Maybe because, uh, it is a draw. When the two candidates for the nomination are separated by 100 or less delegates this far into the process, that is a draw.
Obama collected an average of 80 percent of the African-American vote in the Super Tuesday states, according to exit polls, winning Georgia last night with 88 percent of the African-American vote and Alabama with 82 percent of the African-American vote.

Do the results from the Primaries & Caucuses reflect racism within the African American Community towards Whites?

http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=1707

.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle reporting from 1 hour ago:

"Clinton has only secured 803 delegates; 2,025 are needed to get the nomination.
Obama, meanwhile, is close behind with 742, according to the AP" (this includes Super Delegates).

So, subtracting the lead that Hillary has in Super Delegates, Barack won more delegates last night.  Ron from Texas is absolutely correct.

This is not the twilight zone, this is reality.
Obama '08

The media is just not letting the
american people get the real facts.Hillary is winning.  Give us the facts and not the hype.  I sometimes feel we are in a third world communist country with our coverage of the news. Hillary proposed a national heealth care plan when she was the 1st Lady.  Go Hillary
With the free ride the corporate media has given Obama - he SHOULD have won ALL the primaries yesterday.

Obama is the media's boy!
Some can't people cannot handle the truth...Hillary is going to win Texas and Ohio, probably Virginia AND Pennsylvania in April. Do you think the Clinton machine didn't know this? They are the most powerful to go against the repubs. Obama is just another "nice" dem candidate just like John Kerry. Nice and ineffectual and unable to win.
One interesting thing seems to have escaped the notice of the punditocracy: the number of voters in Democratic primaries in southern states exceeded the number of Republican voters by substantial numbers in every state except Alabama. This could mean the Democrats have a real chance at winning southern states in November no matter who the Democratic candidate is. Of course that's assuming that Clinton and Obama don't destroy each other with mud-slinging, don't let themselves get swift-boated again, and don't let the Pubs keep blacks from voting again like they did in 2004. And that's also assuming that Hillary can keep Bill on a short leash for the rest of the primary campaign -- he's hurt her more than he's hurt Obama.


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