The 2008 presidential field at-a-glance

[GeekyPenguin]

I just got home from the caucus. My ward went for Obama 162-113. It was really interesting! I got elected to be a delegate at the next level.

[skylark]

Congrats Geeky Penguin!

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by GeekyPenguin

I just got home from the caucus. My ward went for Obama 162-113. It was really interesting! I got elected to be a delegate at the next level.

Does that mean you're going to the National Convention? Or is there another level between now and then?

[nittanyalum]

Watching all the talking heads discuss the results... I love all the ruckus around Huckabee and how desperate they want the GOP field to remain a "3-man-race". They keep trying to make the question "What do you make of Huckabee's results?" really poignant and mysterious. Uhhhh, evangelical right, anyone? The hard right has no one else to vote for. I think it's great that he's staying in the race, keep draining the votes from the other two and keeping the splits alive. And ugh, just caught a glimpse of Rick Santorum standing behind Mitt Romney at some speech. One more reason for me to dislike Romney. I DETEST Santorum.

I just came home from a Super Tuesday Happy Hour watching party (it's 9:30, ya'll ) and Maya Soetoro-Ng (Barack's sister) was on hand to thank everyone who showed up. I think we violated a bunch of fire codes in that restaurant.

It was like the SuperBowl all over again.

[LeslieAGD]

What happens to pledged delegates when a candidate drops from the race (ie - Edwards had 26 and Thompson had 5)?
Do they disappear, get reallocated, something else...?

[scbelle]

Originally Posted by LeslieAGD

What happens to pledged delegates when a candidate drops from the race (ie - Edwards had 26 and Thompson had 5)?
Do they disappear, get reallocated, something else...?

I know that Edwards suspended his campaign, so technically, he can still EARN delegates, should he meet the threshold 15% of the vote. That might have been entirely possible in CA... I know early in the return, my friend in CA was lamenting the fact that Edwards was carrying 10% of the vote and wasn't even really in the race. What will most likely happen with his delegates is he will endorse a candidate and ask them to vote for the person he endorses. His delegates won't be bound to his request, though. A portion of his delegates will be reapportioned between Clinton and Obama based on the vote from the earlier states (IA, NH and SC). When a candidate drops out, their pledged delegates are usually released from obligation to vote for that candidate, so they are free to vote for another candidate.

[honeychile]

Does anyone else really get a little crazy over trying to figure out how each state & each party decides their delegate distribution? It seems so unfair to me that California, with such a high population is "winner takes all" (at least for the Democrats). According to Yahoo!, Clinton took 52% and Obama took 42% of the vote, yet Clinton took all the delegates.

Can anyone recommend a really good map or list for each state, and the delegate distribution?

[jon1856]

Originally Posted by honeychile

Does anyone else really get a little crazy over trying to figure out how each state & each party decides their delegate distribution? It seems so unfair to me that California, with such a high population is "winner takes all" (at least for the Democrats). According to Yahoo!, Clinton took 52% and Obama took 42% of the vote, yet Clinton took all the delegates.

Can anyone recommend a really good map or list for each state, and the delegate distribution?

Just about any of the news sites have maps; this is the link to MSNBC's:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21660914

What I find odd is that it seems that some states have their party primaries on different days?!?!?!?!?

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by jon1856

Just about any of the news sites have maps; this is the link to MSNBC's:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21660914

What I find odd is that it seems that some states have their party primaries on different days?!?!?!?!?

Yes, but they rarely say State - Primary or Caucus - #Dem Delegates #Rep Delegates Winner take all/Congressional District/whatever.

I've explained how it's done in PA, and people are amazed.

[scbelle]

Originally Posted by honeychile

Does anyone else really get a little crazy over trying to figure out how each state & each party decides their delegate distribution? It seems so unfair to me that California, with such a high population is "winner takes all" (at least for the Democrats). According to Yahoo!, Clinton took 52% and Obama took 42% of the vote, yet Clinton took all the delegates.

Can anyone recommend a really good map or list for each state, and the delegate distribution?

California is not a winner-take-all for Democrats. No state is. The DNC divides the delegates in each state based on congressional district and population. I'm not sure about the Republican side, if CA is a WTA state or not.

And I happen to like www.mydd.com for delegate counts. It keeps a list of the states and how many delegates each candidate has received. It also has a list of all the "superdelegates" that have endorsed and those who haven't yet.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by scbelle

California is not a winner-take-all for Democrats. No state is. The DNC divides the delegates in each state based on congressional district and population. I'm not sure about the Republican side, if CA is a WTA state or not.

That's what I always thought. Yet, both CNN & FoxNews said last night that it was.

And I happen to like www.mydd.com for delegate counts. It keeps a list of the states and how many delegates each candidate has received. It also has a list of all the "superdelegates" that have endorsed and those who haven't yet.

Thanks - I'll have to take a look.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by honeychile

That's what I always thought. Yet, both CNN & FoxNews said last night that it was.

I watched a LOT of Fox last night, and I don't recall them saying anything like this - in fact, they continuously pointed out how anything less than a win by huge margins (such as 25%+) would make CA, effectively, a wash . . . which guys were you watching?

[nittanyalum]

^^^Perhaps they were projecting forward to the actual presidential race where in the electoral college (in at least 48 of the states) it is winner-take-all -- maybe they were discussing how each candidate was performing in the state in the primary and projecting how much of the other candidates' votes they'll need to pull in order to get all of the state's delegates in the general election.

[skylark]

From C-span: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/e...CTION=POLITICS

They report that in Calif., Hillary got 42 delegates and Obama got 23. This is consistent with all the news coverage I've heard that has reported that ALL the democratic caucuses give proportional delegates -- no democratic caucus is winner take all.