Well, it's Tuesday. You know what that means — more primaries! Today, voters in Washington state, Wisconsin, and Hawaii will cast their votes for a presidential nominee. Today, Hillary Clinton needs to break Barack Obama's winning streak, and John McCain must solidify his support and avoid an embarrassing loss to Mike Huckabee.
Democrats will vote in Hawaii, the birth state of Obama. He is expected to win the majority of Hawaiian delegates. Clinton has a chance to add Wisconsin to her win column, and will most likely find strong support around Milwaukee, and in the industrial regions of the state. Madison, Wisconsin's progressive capital, will be Obama country, most likely. Washington state Democrats are voting in their primary, but the delegate count was already determined during the Feb. 9 caucuses.
As for the Republicans, McCain is looking for strong wins in Wisconsin and Washington, followed by a Huckabee exit. In Washington, the primary will decide one-half of the delegates, as the other half was allocated during a previous caucus where McCain won 26 percent, Huckabee 24 percent, and Ron Paul 22 percent.
Will Hillary be able to stay alive? Will Huckabee make a resurgence or finally bow out? Stay tuned! And check out pictures from the campaign trail.
- Last week Obama attended a rally at the University of Wisconsin. Trying to get out the youth vote!
- This weekend Mike Huckabee bowled in a game against the media — a creative campaign event in Wisconsin.
- Go Johnny Go! McCain held a campaign rally on election day in Milwaukee.
- The day before the primaries, Hillary Clinton fielded questions from a cheese head.
- Wisconsin voters will face subzero temperatures today! With the wind chill factor, it will feel as cold as 30 below zero. Yikes!
True Religion
Lee
Steve Madden
I think it's odd that Wisconsin, Washington and Hawaii vote on the same day.
Anyway, I hope everyone in these states vote!!! Wisconsin needs to bring in some serious Democratic votes.
1Why does Washington even have a primary when they already had caucuses and the delegates are pledged?
2Hey, good question hvnly34. Check out this article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/344213_waselectxx.html
Washington's Democratic Party chairman explains: "A primary is the test of the ability to raise money for television advertising. Caucuses are a test of your ability to organize a grass-roots campaign."
Washington caucuses selected 78 of their 97 national delegates. 17 superdelegates and two unpledged delegates are still up in the air. Maybe the primary results will influence the uncommitted delegates.
3I am sure if Hillary loses both of these states she will write them off as not being "significant" states...just as she insulted the other 23 states that Obama has won.
4"Why does Washington even have a primary when they already had caucuses and the delegates are pledged?"
It is a very screwy system. Even their absentee ballots didn't count towards delegates. Absentee ballots in Washington counted towards the non-effective primary for the democrats.
5Liberty, are the Washington delegates that are still "up in the air" for Republicans? Or are they for Democrats too?
6According to the first article, Washington state Democrats are allocated 19 unpledged delegates. Liken it to California which has 370 pledged delegates, chosen during the primary, and 71 unpledged delegates left over.
Here is an article from the New York Times about the (lack of?) relevance of the Washington Dem primary. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/us/politics/18washington.html?_r=1&ref...
7Our election process is so confusing. Why can't we all have primaries on the same day to decide the candidates and then have a popular vote to decide who wins? I'm so over the whole delegates, superdelegates, electoral college hullabaloo. Who thought this system was a good idea? I get that way back in the day the electoral college made sense, but now we all have access to polling places and I believe most voters are literate (whether or not they choose to educate themselves before voting). So why are we still subjecting ourselves to this process when it clearly does not empower the individual voter?
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