Barack Obama Wins the Maine Caucuses

Here are the results:

√ Obama: 1,817 state delegates (59 percent)
Clinton: 1,263 state delegates (41 percent)

79 percent of precincts reporting

No call yet, but will let you know if and when there is one...

Update [2008-2-10 18:50:3 by Jonathan Singer]: NBC News, CNN, Fox News and the AP have just called the Maine caucuses for Barack Obama, which seems like a reasonable call at this point given his lead and the percentage of precincts in.

Update [2008-2-10 19:19:17 by Jonathan Singer]: CNN is now projecting that Obama will win 15 pledged delegates out of Maine compared with the 9 delegates going to Clinton, meaning that he would walt out with a net gain of 6 delegates.

There's more...

Hillary Clinton Going To Take Maine?

Maine is widely considered Hillary Clinton's best bet among all this weekend's contests (they caucus tomorrow.) Noam Scheiber at The New Republic has an interesting post on why Hillary is favored despite the automatic assumption that Obama performs better in caucuses.

On the other hand, there are a lot of white working-class people in Maine--and, judging from the results of New Hampshire and Massachusetts (look at "high school graduates" and voters making under $50,000), Obama seems to have problems with the New England version of this demographic. (Even in Connecticut, which Obama won, Hillary killed him among "high school graduates"--55-41--though he returned the favor among college graduates.)

Scheiber adds some statistics that back this up:

In the 2004 general election, about 60 percent of Maine voters made less than $50,000 per year. By comparison, only about one-third of New Hampshire voters made less than $50,000.

What may be even more interesting though is that this article is featured on the front page of BarackObama.com.

An exercise in expectations management? Not quite, it's a call to action, linking to an opportunity for supporters to call Maine Democrats to urge them to caucus for Obama. Very smart. Nothing like that on HillaryClinton.com.

There's more...

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