All eyes on Michigan; Update: Romney, Clinton win; Update No Kos effect; Update: Evangelicals for Mitt; Update: Romney/McCain speech spat
Update 10:52pm Eastern. There’s some hoo-hah over the timing of Mitt’s victory speech and McCain’s concession speech. Make of it what you will. Yawn.
Update 10:35pm Eastern. Evangelicals vote for…Romney.
Update: 10:09pm Eastern: There was no Kos effect.
Update 9:51pm Eastern. Romney proclaims “a victory of optimism.”
Update 8:59pm Eastern. Networks preparing to call the race. Kind of anti-climactic. But stand by…okay…there we go…Romney wins…Clinton triumphs over “Uncommitted.”
I’m switching over to the Dem debate…
Update 8:54pm Eastern. The Detroit Free Press is filing blog reports from polling places here.
Update 8:48pm Eastern. Bill Kristol on Fox quotes Dean Barnett: “Bounces are so 2004.” Fred Barnes points out that whether Mitt wins in Michigan or not, he’s still probably going to come in third or fourth in South Carolina.
Update 8:22pm Eastern. Commenter Old Tanker in Michigan writes:
Well, I just walked in the door having gotten back from the polls. I would have loved to vote for Duncan or Fred but Mitt is the guy with the momentum here in Michigan and frankly, if he wins, I believe he would make a great President. Hell, they’re all head and shoulders above McCain. It wasn’t about holding my nose thankfully.
On a side note, voter turnout was terrible in my precinct. I voted at 7:30 tonight and was number 150….150!!!!
More on the Dem in-fighting here.
Update 8:13pm Eastern. Commenter Peejz in Michigan notes left-wing anger at Democrat Gov.–and Hillary Clinton endorser–Jennifer Granholm.
Update 8:05pm Eastern. Megyn Kelly on Fox News reports that exit polls show 69 percent of black voters casting ballots for “Uncommitted” over Hillary. More exit poll data at the Boston Globe.
Update 7:35pm Eastern. Questions for you:
If, as seems likely, Mitt comes through with a victory tonight, will he have the Kossacks to thank? Check out two dKos posts here and here anticipating a Mitt victory based on the election mischief called for by the Moonbat King.
Who will snag the women vote on the Dem side: “Uncommitted” or Clinton? The black vote?
Which poor election official will Ron Paul supporters target?
***
The polls in Michigan close at 8pm Eastern. I’m starting a new thread as we await the results. Jim Geraghty reports: “I’m surprised no one else has put this up yet. I’m hearing the first round of exit polls have Romney 35, McCain 29, Huckabee 15, Ron Paul 10, Giuliani 4. This doesn’t count absentee ballots. If this holds, the networks will be able to announce shortly after 9 p.m. eastern time…”
As noted earlier, turnout was light. The Detroit Free Press:
Around metro Detroit and across the state, turnout has been so low for the presidential primary that some clerks predict the majority of votes will come from absentee ballots.
Clerks say snowy weather and a non-race on the Democratic side have kept numbers down.
In Detroit, about 20,000 people had voted at polling places around the city by mid-afternoon. An additional 23,000 absentee ballots were cast by Election Day, said city Elections Director Daniel Baxter.
That represents less than 10% of the voters in the city, he said. “With the snow and in January, it’s still really dark out at 7 a.m., so maybe we’ll get 15 to 20%.”
Voters weren’t complaining about not being able to write in their favorite Democratic candidate because two of the front-runners — Barack Obama and John Edwards — withdrew their names from the ballot.But several were upset about having to ask for a political party-specific ballot, which would identify if they had voted Republican or Democratic. “Some voters thought that was unconstitutional,” Baxter said. “And they ended up voting under protest.”
It’s always something. The days of relatively whine-free elections are over.
Stay tuned.
***
Huge grain-of-salt warning: Early exit polls show Romney ahead.
See what others have said
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Trackbacks
- The Blog @ Spolitics » Clinton in Horserace with Undecided in Michigan
- Right Voices » Blog Archive » Updated:”I Voted” In The Michigan Primary…Plus A Look At The Weather
- Sierra Faith
- Michigan is in… did anyone notice? | BitsBlog
- Plumb Bob Blog » Romney Takes Michigan
- Michigan Primary: Mitt Wins! » Freedom Folks
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A defeat of Huckabee and McCain anywhere is a victory for Americans everywhere. Go Mitt!
The state expected a 20% turnout..which is just about what we are seeing…
Come on Stormin’ Mormon. We need to get McSlain out of this thing.
If the Republican party told me that my vote would not be counted and my elected delegates ignored at the national convention. Not only would I be pissed but would complain and vote for the other guy.
The democratic party is to blame for the low turn out and KOS for any and all possible voter fraud that may come to light.
I wonder if the people complaining about the party specific ballots were the Kossaks wanting to disrupt the Republican primary.
Michelle, since this looks like it’s going for Mitt early, does this mean you’ll cover the Dumbocrats Debate? With all that’s been going on between OvertheHillary and Obamination, I might just grab some tooth picks and place them in the eye lids to watch it.
Please, no democrap debate coverage! If it were a cage fight, fine, but to ask Michelle to listen to those fools for more than 30 seconds would not be polite and could be hazardous to her sanity.
My bad Zorro. Please disregard Michelle.
I STILL like Romney…..Great that he is winning….!!So Sad..So Bad…. that the rest of America can’t seem to undertand that he is really a pretty good guy with no pretensions and a desire to do well by our contry.
So I guess we can say that the really stupid constituency was well represented.
I wonder how many of those absentee ballots are legal, I’d guess 10% tops. imho of course.
AJ, I sent mine out today. There’s one vote for Mitt in California.
So far the states that have voted have been nothing but a craptastic craptacular of craperiffic events….
said in my best monster truck rally commercial voice.
I’m dropping mine in the box john, got it a couple days ago. dont trust where it will go in the mail… prolly end up in Mexico from here…
I was thinking the same thing AJ, wonder if the mailman will deliver it.
HA HA HA, Huckabee took a good shot at Mitt. I just saw it on Drudge that he was confronted by a crying baby and he said the baby must be a Romney fan. Well, the crying worked for Hillary and if the exit polls are correct, we may see a trend
Michelle, I think that Jim is using info from a poll released late yesterday that had Romney up by 6..I hope Romney does beat McCain..
That being said, we had a typical day here in Michigan..the weather was actually nice..The weather didn’t keep the masses away..Granholm had a big hand in it:
Here is a angry Obama supporter that makes sense:
GO MITT!!
To answer your questions Michelle, I think the media will give credit to Democrats crossing over but regular folk will know that Mitt campaigned hard and deserves the win if it holds. For the Dem side, MHO is that Barack will carry the women and the black vote but will lose the latino vote big time.
If the greater Detroit area sees a sharp rise in Republican turnout, you can somewhat say it was from crossover…Let’s watch that “uncommitted” though.
Yeah, I’ll tune in and switch back and forth. I’ll put up a separate Demo debate thread.
well, Iowa got Huckstered, New Hampshire got Cained what will Michigan bring us? By the sound of things they’d vote for Rosie if she were on the ballot.
Many people liked Fred but he spent virtually no time here. The same is true for Rudy.
So, if I understand this right, the Democrat candidates pulled out of Michigan because they couldn’t get delegates? And here I thought they were the party of “every vote counts!” Is this snort-worthy?
I heard on the radio earlier today that the Michigan Dem delegates were all taken away (for moving up their date), so the Dem primary is basically a mute point. No delegates to be had.
I’m a OSU fan so I’ll not share my opinions on Michigan.
Well, I just walked in the door having gotten back from the polls. I would have loved to vote for Duncan or Fred but Mitt is the guy with the momentum here in Michigan and frankly, if he wins, I believe he would make a great President. Hell, they’re all head and shoulders above McCain. It wasn’t about holding my nose thankfully.
On a side note, voter turnout was terrible in my precinct. I voted at 7:30 tonight and was number 150….150!!!!
Ouch!!!, don’t diss us THAT hard
I hear there was low Independent turnout.
Not good for McCan’t.
That’s music to my ears! I like Michigan State!
Sorry tanker…. I just saw the college piece of voting un-committed… shouldnt have lumped all of you guy’s in there. The outcomes so far have me scratching my head and saying huh?
Always dissing Ron Paul supporters, never his message. Why is that? Are his supporters running for President? No. Attacking his supporters is all the MSM has and evidently all Michelle has (sans any unproven racial smears).
Fed Up
“Megyn Kelly on Fox News reports that exit polls show 69 percent of black voters casting ballots for “Uncommitted” over Hillary.”
Are they casting it for John Edwards? That two America speech must be taking hold
sarc/
No! Michigan decided to break party rules and move the primary up to january 15. They thought the DNC would allow it. The DNC said no. Michigan pushed it and the DNC sanctioned them the delegates..The delegates may be given back at the National Convention. In deference to the rules, Richardson, Obama and Edwards took their names off the ballot. They had until about 2-3 weeks ago to add them if the so wished, but they didn’t want to break the rules. Hillary was supposed to take her name off, but rules don’t enter into her realm of thinking.
People here were definitely NOT enthused about voting…….turnout was low….
Thanks Old Tanker for the report from the scene. I really hope McCain loses big time today!
If true Old Tanker, that would benefit those voters who have some passion in them: Paulites
“Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the…” no wait…that’s the postmen’s motto.
Should be some interesting numbers this evening.
Fed Up
Why is it that so many voters leave and say: “Well, I really like Fred.. but I decided to vote for Moron X because he’s got the momentum..”
Nevermind conservatism.. Let’s vote for the guy who could get elected..
How’s about vote for Fred, and then he’ll have that momentum that the other supposed front-runners have.
/smacks forehead
Just make it to Texas.. We’ll make it all right.
Turn out wasn’t that low…..
There’s that and of course Fred didn’t bother to pay us a visit, kinda hard to get my vote if you’re not willing to show up! Same for Rudy…..
Is this something like the “Earned Income Tax Credit?” How can you get something back you haven’t earned?
Oh, yeah, I believe that!
I still don’t understand how their called the Republican or Democrapic presidential primary when any voter can cross over vote…what’s that about? huh!
And if the independents can’t get a grip and decide who’d they’d like to vote for, no problem, they don’t get to vote.
Last from me today…gads i hope McAmnesty has to get out of the primaries after he loses tonite.
Well.. I don’t know.. if a guy (or gal) is on the ballet and I know that he is the conservative person who will take the country in the right direction, I would vote for that guy, whether I shook his hand or not.
Just my two pence.
whooops…loss tonite…too much excitement, Mitt declared the winner!
Good Lord, can we find something good to say about Romney now? The guy has been leading in the delegate count since he won Wyoming, which by the way, no one points out that Romney won more delegates as #1 in Wyoming, than McCain did by being #1 in NH. Go look at RCP.
The media is ridiculous, could Brit Hume (FOX) make it any plainer that he dislikes Romney?
Tonight I had to say goodbye to my MITT…my dog Mitzi…nicknamed Mitt was put to sleep as he was very sick….I wondered if it would be the end of Mitt Romney too…..So happy to see that Mitt remains alive because I think he remains our only hope to stop the Mexican invasion!!!!
Thanks for the updates Michelle. The more I listen to our alleged candidates, the more I’m inclined to stay at home! Maybe a few more years of this nickel and dime socialism is what this country needs to wake up and move forward with conservatism once again.
Zippy, there is only one conservative with an outside chance to win the GOP ticket, Fred, and the odds are stacking up against him fast.
The Huckster acts like he won???…what a boob!!! Can’t stand this guy!!!
I live in MA and Romney fought for ENGLISH immersion…that is a VERY good sign!!!
hmm.. thinking…..
He required health care coverage under decree of law for all citizens of Massachusetts! Let’s take that national!
Looks like McCan’t couldn’t.
Go Mitt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I could say more but I won’t.
Mitt wins and conservatives rejoice!
Yes.
.
On January 14th, 2008 at 11:25 pm, Thomas said:
#2 i’m not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but it seems that what they want is - if Romney does do well, they can claim that they tipped the scales, and Romney’s win in ‘his own state’ wasn’t legitimate.
Sorry for your loss maisy…i do understand.
Thanks rightisright….very sad…..I will miss my Mitt…was thinking of getting Mark Levins’ book Rescuing Sprite where he had to do the same thing………
I really think Mitt winning is good for the country….better than McNasty!!!
Congradulations to Mitt.
On the other side, it does my heart good to know that Hillary is strong enough to win against….. no one (but boy it was close!)
Mitt has the best chance of beating the Dem, whoever it is, in November. I can’t see any of the Dems laying a hand on Mitt in a debate.
Watch the 5 largest counties in Michigan to get an idea of how the Hillary/uncommitted vote turned out…
1 Wayne County(Detroit) 53/42
2 Oakland County 53/41
3 Macomb County 64/31
4 Kent County 53/43
5 Genesee County 60/37
I don’t think I’m rejoicing, just kind of mildly pleased at the moment that McCain didn’t do that well and knowing full well that next week, the whole business will be radically upset again. Best not to get too excited over anything these days …
Which reminds me, I think Fred is going to have to drop out, following a kind of a campaign three strikes rule. Fred, if you’re reading this site and I’m sure you are: You’re okay, and I forgive you for voting for McCain-Feingold, but it’s not going to happen. Seriously, man. Time to move on, if you forgive the expression.
Go Mitt. So excited. I think with the way the economy is going, he will be the guy to beat the dems, he knows what he is doing and talking about. I am a Thompson gal, but I can see myself going and getting a Mitt bumper sticker. P.S. Why do they call McCain a maverick? What has he done that is good? Other than betray conservatives? and betray this country?
Oh, did you see Switchback suporting McCain?
The Dems are desperate to get McCain as our nominee, claiming he is the only one that can be elected in a general election. IN FACT, I BELIEVE THEIR STRATEGY IS TO REMOVE THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE FROM THE TABLE. I trully think immigration will be the “it’s immiration, stupid” issue in 2008. Most Americans are pissed, even Dems, about all the illegals living very openly out of the shadows and using our tax money for their support (many many do, I lived in los angeles most of my life and witnessed it 1st hand). If we have a strong anti-illegal stand and tie it into the economics of it (insourcing jobs that Americans wish they still had), we can win BIG You take away that issue, as the Dems are hoping and praying, and the Dems win, for sure.
#61
Dead on!
That’s exactly what the Dems want, Two open borders candidates.
McCain is such a whiner. He (and his campaign) need to get over themselves. Whining about negative/contrast ads, whining about concession speeches. I want to see some REAL ads run informing people about McCain/Kennedy and e.g. the serial rapist in Arizona that would get amnesty under that bill.
And one last hit on Hume from FOX, he said the Michigan race was close, 39 to 30 is not close.
Not just the dems want open borders…so does the media!!!!!
Hume is part of the media that is pushing for McCain…as are the beltway boys…(Yawn) does anyone listen to those old fools anymore????
Not to mention Dick Morris…I flip the channel when his face enters the screen area….YUCK for HUCK Dickie!
Fed…”they can’t handle the truth”
Serves slick McCain right for playing the ‘Illegal in the military’ card! The nerve of this sell-out!
Once again, Kos didn’t deliver. He’s batting a thousand fer sure. Punk!
If McCain wants to whine about something, then blame the Huckster for cramping his parade. Huck kept his base waiting nearly an hour before making his 3rd place concession speech. What was he waiting for? A last-minute miracle from God? Even McCain had to step to the stage before Huck finished.
Glad to see Romney do well tonight. Disappointed Fred came in behind Ron Paul again.
At any rate, if the Packers beat the Giants and get into the Super Bowl, I’ll be voting for Brett Favre.
Heard on the radio that uncommitted beat Shillary 3 to 1 in Detroit. Wonder if she’ll get the message?
Peejz, Fred and Rudy came in behind Ron Paul. I don’t know that we could say Fred is liked that much. We probably can say he is liked more than Rudy there.
I should have been more clear (blush)..people in Michigan liked him, but didn’t vote for him because they didn’t get to hear his message..which may or may not all be his doing….He is not one that has been getting all the microphone time, so the only real time many people got to see him was in a debate..Somehow, he needs to make the people hear him. He has a great message and I support him, but if he isn’t going to fight to have his message heard, he isn’t going to do well..Many people say of Thompson, “I liked him before he ran, at least he made speechs”..
I knew Paul would do well! And 54,434 or 6% of the vote is doing well..His supporters have been writing letters, his brother is a pastor in Ottawa County, and his signs have been all over the place for quite awhile..
Why? Because he agrees with them so much?
Mitt’s not conservative on:
Judicial appointments.
Abortion.
The 2nd Amendment.
Taxes.
Gorebull Warming.
Sanctity of Marriage.
Face it; there’s zero chance an actual conservative would ever be elected Gov. of ultraliberal MA.
I don’t want our party choices to be Democrat party A and Democrat party B.