McCain's wrapped up the GOP nomination...

[CrONoS]

What's the difference between:
Democratic primary and caucuses?

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#TX

[CrONoS]

Is the caucuses: Each circumscription won by a candidates?

[asleepathewheel]

Like I just said in the other thread, I caucused a bit ago here in Houston. Was an interesting experience. Pretty disconcerting that Clinton will win the pop vote here by a fairly decent margin but lose delegates due to the greater ability of obama fans to stay up late and caucus.Those hillary fans just aren't equipped to make it past 8:30.

[Ben Kenobi]

Still no results from Jefferson county which is running 70 percent for Obama.

Hillary can still lose this.

She has a 100k lead with these counties remaining.

TRAVIS---10 percent still (20k Obama)
TARRANT--15 percent still (12k Obama)
HARRIS--27 percent still ( 60k Obama)
DALLAS--28 percent still ( 50k Obama) (132k) vs 85k

El Paso--45 percent still ( 50k Hillary)
Cameron--60 percent still ( 25k Hillary)
Bexar----10 percent still ( 10k Hillary)

Looks like Hillary will hold on.

[Makahlua]

To add some context for those who don't know Texas by counties :

Harris = Houston (big big urban population)
Travis = Austin (very politically active, being the state capitol & b/c of UT Austin - all those college-age voters)
Tarrant = Ft. Worth
Bexar = San Antonio (large urban Hispanic population)

...And I think you can figure out what's in Dallas county

[Wiglaf]

This is a major victory for Republican strategic voters who have sabotaged the race By voting for Hillary, they have prolonged the democratic race. By the convention there will be nothing left of themselves, they will have torn each other to pieces like little rabid dogs, without any food in a confined area.

[Dinner]

This is from politico which is a decidedly right wing Republican site:

Disgruntled in Texas

It's hard to know how seriously to take things like Rush Limbaugh's call on his listeners to vote for Hillary as the only hope for GOP victory in the fall; there's not much evidence that people ever cast tactical votes like that in meaningful numbers.

Still, an interesting report from a reader in Dallas:

On the local conservative radio stations, many Republicans are calling and complaining about feeling “disenfranchised”.

Apparently, they didn’t realize that by implementing Rush Limbaugh’s strategy of voting for Hillary in the Primaries to prolong the Democrats fist-fight, they would not be allowed to vote for any of the Republicans on the rest of the ballot.

Disenfranchised??!?? The stupid! It BURNS! It BURNS!!

[Ben Kenobi]

After today, a brokered Dem convention is inevitable.

1293-- OBAMA
1165-- HILLARY

There are only 611 delegates remaining. With 2025 needed to claim victory, even if Obama got all 611 remaining, he would only have 1904 delegates.

That means it will come down to the superdelegates, and a brokered convention.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
After today, a brokered Dem convention is inevitable.

1293-- OBAMA
1165-- HILLARY

There are only 611 delegates remaining. With 2025 needed to claim victory, even if Obama got all 611 remaining, he would only have 1904 delegates.

That means it will come down to the superdelegates, and a brokered convention.

Honestly, Ben, the way you pretend to understand American politics is just so cute.

It was always going to come down to the superdelegates, regardless of today's outcome; even before today, neither candidate had a realistic prayer of taking the nomination with commited delegates alone. The hope in the Obama camp was, if they won, they could either get Hillary out of the race or force a stampede of superdelegates to their side. But it was always going to come down to the superdelegates.

[Robert]

So, Obama is talking about the last best hope for the 3rd time?

Is it really the last best hope now, or will there be another last best hope? Which best hope will be the very last?

[Dinner]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1204709601137420.xml&coll=2

Republicans switching over to vote Hillary was also a wide spread phenomenon in Ohio too. Just about all the usual suspects on talk radio told their listeners the Republican nomination was locked up so they should vote for Hillary to muddy the waters. It appears to have given Hillary the edge after losing 12 straight primaries in a row.

"I voted for Hillary," said Republican Eric Klieber, 56, of Cleveland Heights. "John McCain has a better chance of beating her than Barack Obama. . . . If the Democratic race was decided, I'm sure a lot of them would vote for the candidate less likely to win."

[MarkG]

Republicans switching over to vote Hillary

i guess there cant be some rule that you cant sign up to vote for the dems if you're a registered republican or something like that?
or that in order to vote you have to be registered for at least 2-3 months?

[Dinner]

Party primaries are for party members in most states though a few do have open primaries. Ohio and Texas are open primary states which is sometimes a good thing but if one party has a locked in candidate and the other doesn't then you get a lot of cross over guys just trying to muck up the vote in order to muddy the waters.

[Wezil]

"party members"

Question. Do you become a Democrat if that is what you register as? Is there a cost to register?

I ask b/c here only actual party members can determine the leadership of the party (Cons can't vote for Liberal leadership). Party membership has a cost. This idea of non-party members voting to pick a leader of another party is just plain weird.

[Imran Siddiqui]

There is no cost to register as a member of a party. In some states you have to be registered one party or the other to vote in that party's primary (so similar to a European model, but there is no cost to being a R or a D).