2008 Presidential Race

[chromodynamics]

On the Democratic side:
Despite not winning any delegates, Hillary won Florida with 50% to Obama’s 33% and Edwards 14%. Hillary is already promoting the win, just as Obama is downplaying it. I think both camps are correct: while the win means little as far as the delegate race, it was a win in a significant state and will help Hillary with momentum going into Super Tuesday, or at the very least slow Obama’s SC momentum.

ETA:  NBC is reporting that Edwards will drop out of the race later today.

On the Republican side:
McCain won Florida yesterday, with 36% to Romney’s 31%, Rudy’s 15% and Huck’s 13%. Clearly this is a huge shot in the arm for McCain, gives him the delegate lead on the Republican side, and makes him the front-runner for the nomination. More importantly, Giuliani’s poor showing after pouring all his energy into the state seems to end his hopes, and he is expected to drop out and endorse McCain today. For Romney, his hope is that conservatives will rally around him and propel him to the lead now that he is the only viable alternative to McCain.

Comments

[misscake]

You know what I'd really love to see at some point? An analysis of how the media's coverage has affected this race. Well, they always do affect politics, but I'm thinking I'd like to see some sort of raw date re: how many stories were about each candidate. I can't help but think that the media made some purposeful choices and did not really give equal coverage to Edwards and Guiliani and kept them out of the limelight thereby affecting public opinion of them.

[chromodynamics.livejournal.com]

Yes, that would be interesting. There used to be a lot of Guiliani stories when he was seen as the front-runner, but ever since voting started that coverage certainly dropped, and so did his support. I'm not sure about the Edwards coverage, whether it was ever on par with Hillary and Obama. It certainly had dropped off in the last few weeks as he seemed less and less viable.

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

On CNN this morning, they talked about how Edwards had less money and less media coverage (I was like... so you guys admit you didn't do your jobs?), but they felt that he still influenced the race significantly; by staying on message about poverty, he sort of forced the other Dems to talk about it too.