Here will be any live postings Remotely Interested will do. Think things like election coverage, award shows, sporting events, etc. We will alert readers of any such postings on the home page.
Election 2008:
March 4th Primaries in Texas, Ohio, Vermont, Rhode Island
Texas Two-Step
12:49a– Well, g’night folks. Hillary Clinton is declared the winner of the Texas primary by MSNBC with roughly 75% of the votes in. But again, Obama may very well emerge as the delegate winner in Texas, especially after the caucus results are counted. Don’t forget Texas held both a primary and a caucus, where Obama always outperforms Hillary. Those results may not be available for several days.
Anyway, this was fun! Let’s do it again sometimes. I will be updating these results on the home page, at remotelyinterested.wordpress.com. Thanks for dropping by!
What Color is Texas?
12: 27a– That is the question being posed by NBC News political director Chuck Todd. The reason for the inquiry is that Hillary may win the popular vote, but Barack Obama could (and probably will) win more delegates.
So what color does Texas get shaded by news networks? Clinton’s light blue, or Obama’s navy?
Some more notes on delegate count after tonight:
Rhode Island and Vermont effectively cancel each other out for either candidate. In Ohio, Clinton is likely to pick up between 5 and 9 delegates. And in Texas, Obama may very well erase the Ohio delegate gains that Clinton won thanks to strong showings in delegate-rich city centers like Dallas and Houston. The areas where Clinton won, along the border and the northern rural areas, are virtually devoid of delegates, perhaps taking a 2-1 or 3-2 delegate victory.
Lone Star Update
12:20a– Texas results are still out, but more and more county results are coming in. Here’s the latest:
Hillary Clinton has taken the lead in the popular vote by a small margin (right now just above 50,000 votes out of over 2 million), but Harris County, home to Houston, still has just a small number of the votes counted. And that county is expected to go heavily for Obama. Right now in Harris county Obama has a 60%-40% lead, and if that holds, he will more than make up the overall difference right there.
Word Games
11:59p– Every time we have one of these election coverages or debate coverages, it seems a new phrase is born. Tonights? “Mano-a-Womano,” first uttered by MSNBC’s Tim Russert, then repeated on CNN by Lou Dobbs. Boy did I NOT see that coming. I’m sure the large Latino population in Texas appreciates that, guys.
“¡Si Se Puede!”
11:46p– Barack Obama has taken the stage in San Antonio, a city that went to Clinton unsurprisingly. He congratulated Clinton on her victories in Rhode Island and Ohio, but stated that his delegate lead will be nearly identical tomorrow morning as it was this morning, which is true even if Clinton does win Texas.
Obama is taking some shots not at Hillary but at McCain, acting like the nominee that he may very well be. This is a fundamental difference from Clinton, who attacked Obama as frequently if not more than McCain in her speech.
Fear Games
11:30p– I will try and keep this blog as bipartisan as I can, but you will find that I will slip up every now and again. This is one such instance.
When a candidate, any candidate, uses scare tactics for political gain, I get angry. Clinton just referenced her “Red Phone” nonsense that was made famous in an ad that ran in Ohio. If you forget what the ad was, check it out in the video bar on the left once it is up and running again.
So forgive me when I say, Hillary is no better than Karl Rove. Oh yeah, I’m that harsh.
Well, she’s done now and exits to a confetti shower with daughter Chelsea.
“This nation is coming back, and so is this campaign”
11:24p– Hillary has taken the stage, and thanked Ohio for her victory over Barack Obama. The crowd is loving her right now, with HILL-A-RY chants echoing throughout the hall.
She promised the crowd that her campaign would go “all the way,” and cites the importance of Ohio in the general election as a sign that she has what it takes to win the election.
In a bit of a surprise, she named Florida and Michigan in the list of states she has won. Sure it may be true, but the validity of those results remains up in the air, and remains a heated debate amongst Democratic leadership.
And in a flash of originality, cheers of “Yes She Will!” rang out. Yeesh, her fans can’t even come up with their own rallying cry.
Graphics Wars
11:14p– While we wait for Texas results, I thought I’d look at the graphics war being waged between MSNBC, CNN and Fox.
CNN’s lower third of their screen is full and informative. Each state cycles through with the percentages and popular vote number, as well as graphs that outline total delegate count.
And of course there is the John King TV, the now famous touch-screen device that allows him to manipulate maps and numbers as results come in. I must say it is quite a show, but sometimes King gets a bit carried away with his shiny toy.
Over on MSNBC, the bottom third is a little more tidy, but doesn’t have as much information on it. States cycle through one party at a time, with the percentages displayed next to each candidate’s name. Every now and again raw numbers are displayed in a sidebar, but you’ve gotta wait for a while to catch it.
Chuck Todd, NBC News’ political director, has his own TV thing-a-ma-bob which was unveiled in full force tonight.
And Fox News has their own little graphic too, one that resembles CNN’s in content. But Fox’s is a less organized; CNN stacks their info vertically, while Fox lays it out horizontally. And the biggest problem with Fox’s graphics is that they are slowww. Results routinely lag behind those of the other two networks and Fox is always the last network to call a race.
So the final results are in: CNN is our projected graphics winner with 100% of the precincts reporting.
Ohio
10:55p– MSNBC and CNN are projecting Hillary Clinton will in fact take Ohio based on current figures and exit polls. And then there was one.
The Long Haul
10:32p– Hooboy, its close. Obama leads Clinton by just under 8,000 votes in Texas with a fifth of the votes counted. Clinton is racking up the number of counties won, but Obama is taking the city centers of Houston and Dallas and Austin. Nobody is calling the race one way or another, and it is very likely this will go long into the night.
In Ohio, Hillary has a large lead BUT…Cuyahoga County, home to Cleveland, has zero votes counted so far. That is expected to go heavily for Obama, as is the area by Cincinnati, which also has zero votes counted. So those numbers could start swinging quickly.
Victory!
10:00p– McCain is now giving his speech, with celebratory rhetoric being outpaced only by shots at the Democrats. We are hearing his standard stump speech again, “my friends” included. Perhaps the biggest news is that Obama called McCain to congratulate him on the nomination, saying “I’m looking forward to running against you in the fall.” As are we.
The crowd seems to be behind McCain, but it remains unclear if that is due to genuine support of McCain or genuine dislike of the Democrats.
And here’s a word we’ve heard quite a bit: Hope. McCain seems to be borrowing it quite a bit from the commander of hope Barack Obama.
“Ohio is not enough”
9:42p– Some people close to Hillary uttered those words, according to MSNBC’s Howard Fineman. They speak of course about Texas, the motherload of today’s primaries. Obama is holding on to a lead there, while her numbers in Ohio, while still comfortable, is shrinking.
A Welcome Endorsement?
9:29p– McCain hasn’t been the nominee for but an hour, and yet his campaign staffers have announced that he would be traveling to Washington D.C tomorrow to receive the endorsement of President Bush in person. Democratic strategists rejoice.
Huckabee Exits the Race
9:25p– Well, Mike Huckabee is in the middle of giving his farewell speech to a room full of supporters. Or at least he was until MSNBC jumped away to announce Hillary Clinton won the Rhode Island primary. Huckabee likened himself to a Brewers baseball player who once told reporters that his ideal last at-bat in the majors would be a weak tap to second, and being thrown out by a hair. Granted, Huckabee lost by a whole mess of hair (he had about a fifth the number of delegates as McCain), but still the metaphor was nice.
And There are A Billion Americans…
9:05p– No, there are not 100 million people in Texas. Graphics on the news channels showed that just 1% of the vote was counted in Texas and yet Obama and Clinton had a combined popular vote of almost a million people. That’s because those figures include tons of early voters, while the percentage reflects only those votes that have been cast tonight.
And We Have A Nominee
March 4– Texas has decided…and the name is McCain. The banner that was placed in McCain’s party central will be unfurled, announcing victory not only in the primary, but in the nomination race. With Texas, he will have enough delegates needed. Oh, and he is also projected to win Rhode Island by CNN…and now MSNBC.
McCain Takes Ohio
March 4– Ohio and some Texas polls have closed, but there have been no calls for either of the Democratic candidates. McCain has secured the Ohio victory, meaning that he could, and probably will, officially wrap up the nomination after tonight. Stay tuned for more.
Hello, and Vermont!
March 4– Howdy everyone! So I will be updating this throughout the evening as results come in, starting now with…Vermont! Barack Obama and John McCain won those primaries, no surprise to anyone who’s been following this election.
NBC (or more accurately MSNBC) was the first to call it for both candidates immediately after polls closed at 7pm.
MSNBC’s political director Chuck Todd was all over the numbers, as usual. According to Todd’s calculations, which are usually accurate, Obama would need 64% of the vote to win the delegate count 10-5 instead of 9-6. That would give him some wiggle room should he lose either Texas or more likely Ohio.
Also, MSNBC has pulled out their technological gizmos. Apparently Todd and the rest of MSNBC’s political team was feeling jealous of John King’s interactive TV over at CNN.
[...] Channel Live [...]