**Bumped to the top. Newer posts appear below. Most recent updates will be displayed at the top of the post.**
Final Update – Weds. 9:06 AM: Looks like BO will pick up roughly 6 or 7 more delegates [1] than Hillary.
Update 4 – 9:32 PM: I’m still around, but nothing major has popped up to link to. So far it’s close, with BO being ahead by just under 4,000 votes with 18% reporting, but the nets are saying his victory will be “decisive.”
Update 3 – 8:19 PM: Race was a significant factor in this primary – for both black Dems and white Dems. See page 5 of this exit poll [2].
Update 2 – 8:00 PM: Fox already calls MS [3] for BO. What we’ll be waiting on for the rest of the evening is to find out how many delegates each candidate will win. Stay tuned for vote counts [1] to start rolling in.
Update 1 – 7:55 PM: Polls close in MS in five minutes. Allah’s got exit polling info [4] that was discussed on Fox News earlier. From what he’s got there, it looks like it will be a good night for BO.
———–
Today’s primary in Mississippi will be the last one before the big delegate prize in Pennsylvania [5] on April 22. In spite of all the hype about today’s primary, voter turnout is expected to be light [6], although it’s anticipated that there will be more people voting in this one than the 2004 primary. There are a total of 33 delegates in play in MS, and, if recent polling numbers [7] are to be believed, Barack Obama is the odds on favorite to win, thanks in part to the state’s “large black electorate [8].”
Hillary’s had to spend some time the last few days clarifying [9] remarks she made about MS in October [10] in which she suggested that she believed that MS was essentially a backwater state that was hostile to women candidates on a state level. We’ve also seen over the last several days the Clinton campaign playing the low expectations game [11], acknowledging that they don’t see her coming close to winning in MS.
Obama’s trying to ensure victory by accusing the Clinton campaign [12] of using “Republican tactics” against him, and cited the example of the picture [13] that was posted on Drudge of him wearing “traditional African garb [14]” which gave him the appearance of dressing like a Muslim. Drudge claimed that it came from a Clinton staffer. This is in contrast to Obama stating at the last Dem debate [15] that he believed Senator Clinton when she said at the debate that the picture was not something she condoned or sanctioned, nor knew about.
Polls close at 8 PM ET. You can watch the results as they come in here [1].