Saturday, February 7, 2004

Michigan Caucuses
Kerry - 84,214 - 51.7 percent [91 delegates]
Dean - 26,994 - 16.6 percent [24]
Edwards - 21,919 - 13.5 percent [6]
Sharpton - 11,270 - 6.9 percent [7]
Clark - 10,986 - 6.7 percent
Kucinich - 5,183 - 3.2 percent
Gephardt - 944 - 0.6 percent
Lieberman - 682 - 0.4 percent
Uncommitted - 476 - 0.3 percent
Carol Moseley Braun - 163 - 0.1 percent
Other/write-ins - 98 - 0.1 percent

Over 148,000 turned out according to the state's Lt. Gov. Over 123,000 applied for Internet ballots. Over 110,00 qualified for ballots. Over 46,000 ballots filed over the Internet, with 24,000 ballots via mail.

Washington Caucuses
Kerry - 10,578- 48.6 percent [46 delegates]
Dean - 6,583 - 30.2 percent [29]
Kucinich - 1,695 - 7.8 percent [1]
Edwards - 1,386 - 6.6 percent
Clark - 692 - 3.3 percent
Uncommitted - 598 - 2.9 percent
Sharpton - 12 - 0.1 percent

[Six weeks ago, Dean had a 31-point lead in the polls.]

Preview of Maine
Here's a very good preview of the Maine Caucus by Lance Tapley in the Portland Phoenix: ["Symbolic leaders
The Democratic campaign: Drama, melodrama, or tragedy?"]
. I have never read this guy before but he nails a lot on the head. Check this section out:

Personally, I couldn't understand the controversy when I saw the tape of that moment, which was available the next day on the Internet. Dean was just cheerleading his troops. Why the big deal? Craig Brown, founder of commondreams.org, the popular, Portland-based progressive-politics Web site, explained it to me. Brown, a legendary Maine political operative, was manager of Tom Andrews's winning congressional (and his losing US Senate) campaigns, as well as of several referendum contests.
"You had to have seen it live on TV," he maintains. "The context was that Dean had been declared the third-placer loser. In the protocol of election night, the losers speak first. The networks were setting it up as a concession speech. You’d expect a classy speech to the country and a graceful concession. The networks all went live. He was speaking to a national, prime-time audience. What he did wasn’t expected at all. It was so out of context for what the moment was supposed to be. It’s a ritualized business. It backfired. The press overplayed it, but he gave it to them."
In other words, Dean and his people didn’t have the experience to know that he was not really performing for the 3500 emotionally charged young people in that Iowa
auditorium. His real audience was the tens of millions watching on TV.
Howard Dean, the Washington outsider, the former governor of a small, quirky state, was — extremely literally — not ready for prime time. For a presidential candidate in our society, what, indeed, could be more tragic?
Delegate Count
John Kerry 399
Howard Dean 172
John Edwards 112
Wesley Clark 82
Joe Lieberman 19
Al Sharpton 13
Dick Gephardt 5
Dennis Kucinich 2
Other 1
Uncommitted 0

Needed to nominate 2,162
Total Delegate Votes 4,322