Live Blogging on Wisconsin and Hawaii Results

Here in Maryland, the weather has turned cold again but not as cold or snowy as Wisconsin today where the voters headed to the polls. Then there is Hawaii...well, I can only dream about it! Anyway, as the results come in from the voting today, I will post here. Look for the Hawaii caucus results tomorrow morning for they start at midnight ET

Going into today's caucus in Hawaii and the Wisconsin primary, Senator Barack Obama held a 67 delegate lead over Senator Hillary Clinton. The totals including super delegates were 1302 for Obama and 1235 for Clinton. RealClearPolitics.com keeps a running total:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_delegate_count.html

Wisconsin has a total of 92 delegates of which 18 are super delegates. Hawaii has a total of 29 delegates of which 9 are super delegates. Click on the link above over the next several days to see the delegate split as a result of the vote today. Remember, because of the super delegates and the two-step proportional manner (total vote and vote by district) delegates are awarded, one candidate could perform well in the overall vote but the other candidate could stay close in the delegate count.

Obama is expected to win both states today but there was one poll released yesterday that showed Clinton with a slight lead in Wisconsin. I read where Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng lives in Hawaii and has been helping in the effort there while Chelsie Clinton has been campaigning there on behalf of her mom.

Howard Wolfson, the Clinton campaign communications director has been trying to make a big deal out of Obama using some language attributed to Gov. Deval Patrick from Mass. so we get to see if any of this stuck with any of the voters today:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8594.html

Clinton has also been asking for debates with Obama and the next one will be on Thursday in Austin, Texas
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/11/texas-showdown-dems-agree-to-cnn-univision-debate/

While Obama has been touting his pledged delegate lead:
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/obama-touts-delegate-lead-2008-02-19.html

The Wisconsin polls close at 9 PM ET but MSNBC has released some early exit polls on the number one issue concerning Dems - Economy - 43%, Iraq - 29%, Health Care - 25%

9:08 PM ET McCain wins Wisconsin Republican primary and claims he is now the nominee.

Early Dem exit polls do not look good for Clinton. 9:17 Pm ET NBC calls it for Obama. Early numbers are showing Obama - 53%, Clinton - 46% It brought back memories, listening to Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, a Obama supporter speak about how it was Wisconsin who gave Eugene McCarthy a win over incumbent President Lyndon Johnson that led to his dropping out of the race in 1968. So what kind of effect will this loss have on the Clinton campaign? They expected it and a loss later tonight in Hawaii. Now, it is keeping an eye on the final tally and the delegate count.

Here is a very good summary of the MSNBC exit polls from Wisconsin that clearly shows Obama has eroded the Clinton support base from every direction: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/19/exit-polls-obama-continu_n_87475.html

2-20-08 Wednesday Morning - 7:47 AM ET Wisconsin went big for Obama 58% - 41%. Hawaii, with 70% of the vote counted shows Obama with a huge lead 75% - 24%