If Huck can pull this out, McCain is going to have to retool his “cake walk” strategy.
And this might be the reason why McCain is having trouble today…
Several older folks cast their ballots for Mr. Obama, including retired couple Don and Peggy Fredericksen.
“We voted for Obama and we’re Republican!” Mr. Fredericksen said. “Obama is the [...]

SurveyUSA has the numbers…
Big movement in Virginia following Mike Huckabee’s strong showing over the weekend in Louisiana, Kansas and Washington state. On the eve of the Virginia Republican Primary, it’s John McCain 48%, Mike Huckabee 37%. Compared to an identical SurveyUSA tracking poll released 72 hours ago, McCain is down 9, Huckabee is up 12. [...]

And they have just cause it sounds like…
The Huckabee Presidential Campaign will be exploring all available legal options regarding the dubious final results for the state of Washington State Republican precinct caucuses, it was announced today. Campaign Chairman Ed Rollins issued the following statement:
“The Huckabee campaign is deeply disturbed by the obvious irregularities in the [...]

McCain may think it’s going to be a cakewalk to the nomination, but as TPM points out…
We already know about Kansas, which was a blowout for Huckabee. With 62% of precincts reporting Huckabee is up by 8 point over McCain in Louisiana. And Huckabee is ahead of McCain by 3 points in Washington state with [...]

Now this is interesting because what it signals is that GOP voters aren’t automatically going to fall in line with Super Tuesday results. And so Huckabee is sticking in there, gaining delegates and maybe ensuring that he gets the VP spot.
From TPM Election Central:
In what will likely be taken as a sign of Republican Party [...]

Again, this is really, really early. I wouldn’t necessarily trust this right now because it’s late and I think they want to call it early for these candidates so they can go to bed.
If I were Romney, I wouldn’t concede this quite yet.

Huckabee is trailing by 6,000 votes, so I doubt he’ll be able to catch up.
Great win for McCain if he can hold out.

On the Dem side, with 87% reporting, Hillary has 50% while Obama has 47%. You can bet the votes from the big cities are starting to come in, specifically St. Louis, which has a built in advantage for Obama since it’s so close to Illinois. Kansas City is expected to go for Hillary, but that [...]

Man, he’s really racking them up tonight. Pretty interesting. Evangelicals really do matter in the Republican party, and they’re making their voice heard loud and clear tonight.
Drudge is also saying that he’s going to take Missouri.
So far Huck has captured Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee.

Unless Romney pulls off some magic in California and states that close later, Huckabee is a big story tonight. He may have just turned it into a 2 candidate race, and he’s definitely spurned Romney’s accusations of being McCain whipping boy.
Check out Drudge’s projections:
AL: HUCKABEE
AR: HUCKABEE
CT: MCCAIN
DE: MCCAIN
GA: HUCKABEE
IL: MCCAIN
MA: ROMNEY
MO: HUCKABEE
ND: ROMNEY
NJ: MCCAIN
NY: MCCAIN
OK: [...]

ABC just projected…
Barack takes…
Illinois
Hillary takes…
Oklahoma
McCain takes…
New Jersey (winner take all)
Connecticut (winner take all)
Illinois (not winner take all)
Romney takes…
Massachusetts (winner take all)
Huckabee takes…
West Virginia (winner take all)

Remember, most of these are winner-take-all, so even if you get close it doesn’t mean anything. But these numbers are VERY early.
From National Review…

California: McCain 40, Romney 36, Huckabee 10.
Missouri: Romney 34, McCain 32, Huckabee 25.
Georgia: Huckabee 34, Romney 31, McCain 30.
New York: McCain 46, Romney 35, Huckabee 10.
New Jersey: McCain 48, Romney 35, Huckabee [...]

Because of their “unique” caucus rules, West Virginians had to vote twice. After the first vote, Romney had the top spot, Huckabee was second and McCain was third. But a candidate has to get over 50% in order to get the winner-take-all delegates, and Romney only had 40.9%.
Then McCain called his people and told [...]

[Re-published from 2008Central.net. This liveblog on Donklephant will be updated periodically. For the latest please visit the active liveblog at 2008Central.net]
Tonight is the CNN/Los Angeles/Politico Republican Debate at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. It will begin at 8pm est and will air on CNN and will stream live at [...]

With 39% reporting, McCain has a very slight edge.

John McCain: 34%
Mitt Romney: 32%
Rudy Giuliani: 16%
Mike Huckabee: 14%
Ron Paul: 3%

As I said earlier, Florida ain’t deciding squat. This race is going for the long haul, to Super Tuesday and beyond.

First, American Research Group has this poll showing Romney pulling ahead…
Gov. Romney is statistically tied for the lead with 34%. That’s virtually unchanged from 33% in the previous roll.
32% support McCain, unchanged from the last roll, while 12% support Huckabee, a decrease of 2 points from 14% over the same time period. 11% [...]

This podcast looks at (1) results of the South Carolina Democratic Primary; (2) a brief discussion about the media coverage of identity politics and (3) a look ahead to the Florida and February 5th primaries…
[Listen Online]
[Subscribe to 2008Central.net's Presidential Election Podcast]
Feel free to email us questions/suggestions for next week’s podcast (you can also email an [...]

Yes, that’s how big Obama’s win was tonight.
Here are Obama’s numbers compared to the top two Republicans in South Carolina:

Obama: 295,091
McCain: 147,283
Huckabee: 132,440

That’s 295,051 to 279,723. Stunning.
Could Obama actually be competitive in South Carolina come election time? Some seem to think it’s at least plausible…
Obama can now say that he’s got the best ability to [...]

The former Governor is ahead by 15%, but should he stick around until Super Tuesday or is one state just not enough to justify the effort?
Rasmussen has the numbers…
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Georgia finds Huckabee with 34% of the vote followed by McCain at 19%, Romney with 16%, Ron Paul with 12% [...]

[Re-published from 2008Central.net. This liveblog on Donklephant will be updated periodically. For the latest please visit the active liveblog at 2008Central.net]
7:30: Time Russert and Brian Williams (henceforth, Bri-Wi) are moderating this debate, and participating are John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, and Ron Paul. I’m looking for Huckabee and Giuliani to [...]