memeorandum: Democratic divisions will be hard to bridge (Financial Times)

3:45 AM ET, May 7, 2008

Top Items:

First Glance At The Exits: Democratic Party Cracking Up? — Here's what jumps out at me from the first wave of exit polls that have been released to the Edison-Mitsofky consortium: — Forget the horse race numbers for a moment: if the surveys are accurate, the polarization within the Democratic Party has reached critical levels.

Discussion: Raleigh News & Observer, Firedoglake, Fox News, Democracy in America, Weekly Standard Blog, Washington Post, PrestoPundit, BackyardConservative, Comments from Left Field, American Street, Salon, The New Republic, The Strata-Sphere, Wake up America, Pajamas Media, Stop The ACLU, TPM Election Central and Northman's Fury

CBS News:

Clinton, Obama In Battle For Indiana, N.C. — Heavy Turnout In Crucial Primaries That Could Bring Clarity To Democratic Presidential Race — (CBS/AP) Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama battled in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on Tuesday, the last big-delegate prizes left …

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

Options Dwindling for Clinton — In this case, a split was not a draw. — Despite narrowly winning Indiana, while losing North Carolina, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did not fundamentally improve her chances of securing the Democratic presidential nomination.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Politico, Fox News, Shadow of the Hegemon, The Page, marbury, The Daily Dish, Washington Post, American Power, Connecting.the.Dots and AMERICAblog

Jennifer Parker / ABCNEWS:

Obama Solidly Routs Clinton in N.C. — Democratic Senators Battle for Potentially Decisive Victory in Indiana — As expected, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has solidly won the North Carolina primary, ABC News projects, while he and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, remain locked in a tight race in Indiana.

Discussion: The Swamp, Political Radar, The Field, Washington Times, Liberal Values, AMERICAblog, The Moderate Voice, TPM Election Central and The Carpetbagger Report

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Exit Polls: Limbaugh Effect Seems To Rear Its Head — Did Rush Limbaugh actually impact the Democratic primary? — The loud-mouthed radio talk show host has been encouraging Republicans to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton to continue the “chaos” in the Democratic race.

Discussion: Political Punch, SFGate, Lynn Sweet, The Radio Equalizer, The Trail and Political Machine

The New Republic:

Measuring the Limbaugh Effect — Some reporters have speculated about the impact of the “Limbaugh effect” — partisan Republicans crossing over to vote fr Hillary Clinton solely to help weaken the Democrats against John McCain. The sieze of the effect is hard to measure.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, LiberalOasis, The Jed Report, Salon, The Opinionator and American Spectator

Dylan Loewe / The Huffington Post:
Obama's Coming. Clear the Way.

Discussion: Hot Air, Boston Globe and Associated Press

Gary Langer / ABCNEWS:
EXIT POLL: Wright Controversy Casts Shadow on Ind., N.C. Races

Discussion: The Page, Associated Press, CNN, Political Insider, MSNBC, Pollster.com, TalkLeft, Political Radar, michellemalkin.com, TownHall Blog, Gateway Pundit and The Daily Dish

Indianapolis Star:
‘Hardcore’ Republicans voting Democrat

Discussion: Boston Globe, Reason Magazine, Winston-Salem Journal, American Street, The Raw Story, Comments from Left Field, The Moderate Voice, The Other McCain, Spin Cycle and The Primary Source

Ari Melber / The Huffington Post:
Key Voting Blocs Boost Obama in Indiana

Discussion: Salon, The Nation and TalkLeft

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
Clinton Takes Indiana by Slim Margin; Obama Wins North Carolina Decisively

Discussion: Gawker, Obsidian Wings, PoliGazette, AMERICAblog and The Democratic Daily

Hillary Clinton / CNN:
Exit polls: Half of Clinton's supporters won't back Obama

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Democrats.com, Firedoglake, Talking Points Memo and TPM Election Central

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs: Limbaugh Democrats? — I've been pretty skeptical of the existence …

CNN:
Voters turn out for potentially critical primaries

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, the talking dog, Truthdig, American Street, American Power and Comments from Left Field

Jeralyn / TalkLeft: Brazile vs. Begala on CNN: Brazile's Blowout

Holly In Cincinnati / The Moderate Voice:
Barack, It's About What's Best For America

Discussion: NPR and Comments from Left Field

Alec MacGillis / The Trail:

Gary Mayor Predicts Possible Indiana Shocker — As the fate of a nailbiter Indiana primary — and possibly the course of the Democratic race — hung on his city, Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said just now that it might take a while yet to finish counting the vote in Lake County, which includes Gary …

Discussion: The Page, TalkLeft, The Moderate Voice, Ben Smith's Blogs, The Primary Source, The Corner, AMERICAblog, CCPSBlog, Corrente, Wizbang, Commentary, Daily Kos and Spin Cycle

Live Indiana Primary election blog:

Could Gary flip it? — With Hillary Clinton's statewide lead under 40,000, the pending results from Lake County loom large. — While Clinton reportedly led voting in cities like Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago, Gary Mayor Rudy Clay is indicating a huge margin in favor of Obama in his city.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Daily Dish

nwi.com: Lake County results may be hours away

Will Bunch / Philly.com:

Team Hillary warns of Obama “October surprise” — The early results are suggesting a healthy win for Barack Obama in North Carolina and a much narrower win, maybe 52-48 or so, for Hillary Clinton in Indiana. That won't end her campaign — nuclear obliteration wouldn't do that at this point but it makes Clinton's mission even harder.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Mike Allen / The Politico:

Clinton pushes new math — The campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has begun urging party officials and news organizations to include the disputed Florida and Michigan delegations when figuring the number of delegates needed to win the nomination. — That unorthodox approach could put …

Discussion: Political Punch

Krooney / The Page:
Ickes Throws Down the Gauntlet on What Constitutes a Majority of the Delegates

Discussion: Hotline On Call and TPM Election Central

Michael Crowley / The New Republic:

Does Hillary Know It's Over? — Hillary began her (somewhat premature) Indiana “victory” speech on an up note, throwing an old Obama quote about how Indiana would be a PA/NC/IN tiebreaker back in his face. But since then she's sounded a little dispirited to me.

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

Hillary, muted — I've been out on the road with Clinton for the past few days, during which she was perhaps the sharpest she's been in her political career. Forceful, clear, connecting intensely with her crowds, utterly at ease with her message. — Tonight, that energy has really, strikingly vanished.

David Neiwert / Firedoglake:

Primary Late Night: Did We Hear Hillary Concede Tonight? — Indiana (88% reporting): — North Carolina (97% reporting): — I know, I know. Hillary's victory speech in Indiana tonight was not a concession speech. She vowed to keep fighting on. Florida and Michigan and all that.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Needlenose

Sam Graham-Felsen / my.barackobama.com:

Obama's Remarks in Raleigh, North Carolina — Barack Obama delivered the following remarks (as prepared) in Raleigh, North Carolina, tonight... You know, some were saying that North Carolina would be a game-changer in this election. But today, what North Carolina decided is that the only game …

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Open Left and American Street

Washington Wire:
Obama's North Carolina Victory Speech

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and Flopping Aces

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

HMMM — NBC just reported that Hillary Clinton is holding no public events tomorrow. We'd earlier reported that she'd cancelled her morning show appearances. But that's not that surprising. There's not a lot good to talk about. But canceling all public appearances, if that's what they're saying, is a different story.

Discussion: Blog of the Moderate Left

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs: Russert: Clinton cancels morning show appearances

Deborah Hastings / Associated Press:

Indiana nuns lacking ID denied at poll by fellow sister — About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph. — Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away …

Discussion: Swampland, Crooks and Liars, JammieWearingFool and NewsBusters.org

Dday / Hullabaloo:
Nuns — The primary results from Indiana and North Carolina …

Discussion: pfaw.org, The Sideshow, Right Wing Watch and Seeing the Forest

Mary Katharine Ham / TownHall Blog:

The Obama Rally, from Two Angles — Reynolds Coliseum on N.C. State's campus seats 12,400 people. It did not seat that many tonight. Behold, the power of political staging: — The Obama rally, as seen on TV: — The Obama rally as seen from the other end of Reynolds:

Discussion: Redstate and Daily Pundit

David Neiwert / Firedoglake:

Primary Late Night II: Indiana By A Sliver — Indiana (99% reporting): — North Carolina (99% reporting): — So Hillary wins Indiana, at the almost-complete count, by 22,439 votes. The flip didn't quite occur, but I'll bet they were sweating at CBS, which called the state for Hillary waaaay too early.

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, The Page, AMERICAblog and Shakesville