I'm at the Candado Plaza Hotel in San Juan where Hillary is going to speak to supporters. Waiting in line outside the press room are a lot of enthusiastic Hillary fans chanting "Hillary! Hillary!" The flyers being handed out on the street read "Celebra los Resultados con Hillary!" It was scheduled for 3:30, not sure when she's going to go on.

Update [2008-6-1 18:1:5 by Todd Beeton]:"We have won the popular vote. It is clear, I am the people's choice." That's clearly the central message the Clinton campaign wants to get out of Puerto Rico today. "I will have the popular vote. Senator Obama will have a slight lead in the pledged delegate count...Which candidate best represents the will of the people who voted in this historic election." The crowd is happy to answer: "Hillary! Hillary!"

Update [2008-6-1 17:57:52 by Todd Beeton]:Hillary Clinton is now speaking to the crowd. It is a freakin party in there. Gone are the John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen songs, instead we have Ricky Martin. People were literally dancing in the bleachers. The man who spoke ahead of Clinton made the case for Hillary as the choice of Hispanics on the mainland, the "swing voters" in the swing states. I think that's the real message Clinton is trying to communicate during the Puerto Rico campaign. It's no accident that he said the word "superdelgato" several times. He also urged them all to write letters, emails and make calls to urge the Puerto Ricans on the mainland (where there are more Puerto Ricans than there are in Puerto Rico) to vote for Hillary Clinton. There's no sense in that room that this is even close to over.

Update [2008-6-1 17:9:21 by Todd Beeton]:Still no sign of Hillary although campaign aides have put up some very large signs behind supporters now. And the folks set up in the bleachers are being led in chants such as "Senora!" on one end of the room, "Presidenta!" on the other.

Update [2008-6-1 16:29:36 by Todd Beeton]:Photos!:

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Here's that video of Hillary's caravan last night.

Polls here close at 3pm Eastern, and I'm hopefully going to be liveblogging Clinton's victory speech. I have to run out now but use this as a prediction thread for today's results. Personally, I suspect it will be a blow out above the 13 points polling has showed her ahead by. The big questions for me: will it be as much as 20% and will turnout of 1 million or so net her another 200k votes out of today?

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Arrived here in humid San Juan, Puerto Rico this morning and in my own limited straw poll Hillary Clinton is up 2-0 (i.e. my cab driver who offered up the candidate whom he and his brother will be supporting tomorrow.)

Last night Clinton spoke at a night-time fiesta in Old San Juan and today she held a townhall in Caguas and then ventured out on an all day caravan around the San Juan area, beginning in Catano and ending tonight in San Juan. It was difficult to pin down when and where exactly each stop on the caravan would be so my attempt to meet up with the caravan in my rental car met with little success until, of course, I had given up and decided to head back to my hotel when all of the sudden I heard sirens and loud music coming down the street. There it was, the elusive Clinton caravan, a series of white vans and trucks, some with people standing and waving to bystanders, some equipped with huge speakers blaring festive music, all emblazoned with white Hillary signs. The caravan, which was escorted by local police as well as tell tale black SUV secret service mobiles, was about 15 or so vehicles long, pretty impressive. I got the location of the final stop tonight, so hopefully I'll actually get to see Clinton speak as opposed to speed by in a blur.

Driving around, I saw a ton of Clinton and Obama signs, and actually, I'd say overall I saw about an equal number of each candidate's, but there was far greater diversity among the Obama signage. I saw a bridge overpass Obama sign, I saw one hanging from someone's car, seemingly secured by the trunk, as well as a bunch of "Obama Presidente" signs along the road. I would say I probably saw Obama signs in more spots, but where the Clinton signs were they made more of an impression because they tended to be in clusters.

Polls close at 3pm Eastern tomorrow after which Clinton will give what presumably will be a victory speech, which I'll be attending. As always, there will be some exit polls earlier in the day but CNN will be the only network to have them.

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Hillary Clinton has a considerable lead just two days from the Puerto Rico Primary according to recent polling.

1)El Vocero/Univision/Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner from 8 May - 20 May showed Clinton leading Obama by 13% points - 51% to 38% among Puerto Rico democratic primary voters.

2)Vocero/Univision Puerto Rico Poll, conducted from 8 May - 20 May showed Clinton leading Obama by 19% points - 59% to 40% among Puerto Rico democratic primary voters.

Clinton is expected to lead in the national popular vote after the Puerto Rico Primary and DNC Rules and Bylaws decision is rendered. Hillary is on the verge of having gained more popular votes than any presidential candidate in American history. Some 18 million votes will have been cast for Clinton.

Puerto Rico Polls

MORE NEWS
Clinton has gained the endorsement of Washington State Superdelegate Eileen Macoll, the vice chairwoman of the state Democratic Party. Hillary's tenacity continues in amazement, with several key endorsements despite the media's ridiculous assertion (based solely on pledged delegates) that the primary race is over.
Washington State Superdelegate Endorses Clinton

UPDATE: GALLUP POLL SAYS MEDIA TOO TOUGH ON HILLARY

Gallup Poll

UPDATE: PASTOR CONTROVERSY GROWING

Precisely at the time when Obama's camp needs to be building bridges to supporters of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who's known Obama for about 20 years, took to the pulpit of Obama's church Sunday and ridiculed Clinton, using racially divisive language.

Obama Pastor Attacks Clinton

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Missed this earlier. A poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for Vocero/Univision from May 8-May 20 (prior to the candidates' Memorial Day weekend visits to Puerto Rico) shows Clinton leading Barack Obama in advance of Sunday's primary there. According to Pollster, her lead is 13% among adults, but that rises to 19% among the most likely voters:

n=800 adults
Clinton 51
Obama 38

n= ~300 likely voters
Clinton 59
Obama 40

An article I cited last weekend stated pretty emphatically that apathy had set in among the electorate due to the general sense that their vote actually wouldn't matter. This poll would seem to contradict that. From el cito's diary from earlier today:

50% of the electorate says it will not participate in the primary.

To the question of how important is the role of Puerto Rico in deciding the democratic presidential candidate, 46% very important, 26% somewhat important, 13% of little importance and 14% not important at all.

Out of 2.3 million voters in the territory, half would put turnout at up over 1 million voters, which was seen as the high end of estimates to begin with. And if 72% of Puerto Rico's voters really do see their role on Sunday as very or somewhat important, apathy doesn't seem to be a problem (a 13% win on Sunday with 1 million turnout would net Hillary a solid 130,000 votes.)

On a somewhat related note, Puerto Rico hometown hero Ricky Martin endorsed Hillary Clinton today.

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