New Mexico Still Undecided

With turnout far exceeding expectations, Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were separated by roughly 100 votes early Wednesday in an excruciatingly close battle to win New Mexico's presidential caucus.

With 180 of 184 of precincts reporting, Clinton held the narrowest of leads -- 65,845 votes, or 43 percent, to Obama's 65,728 votes, or 42.9 percent, according to preliminary returns provided by Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon.

Read more here.

Comments

[liberalLA]

SOMEONE PLEASE TELL BILL RICHARDSON TO GET OFF HIS BIG FAT ASS AND FIGURE OUT THE RESULTS FROM THE NEW MEXICO CAUCUS.

[Dvmx]

Problematic New Mexico vote:

First the idea that the turnout was totally unexpected is ridiculous. The Dem party officials here were asleep at the wheel. Last friday Obama came to Santa Fe for a rally, and instead of 500 people, 10,000 tried to come; only 5600 could get in, the rest were turned away after all major roads to the location were stuck with bumper to bumper traffic not moving for 3-4 hours.
Someone might have noticed that.
Or simply asked around, we all knew turnout would be huge, like every other primary this year..

What's more, polling places were open only from 12 noon to 7pm, a major difficulty for working people, especially with kids.
Also, only a fraction of the voting places were open, forcing most people to try and figure out where they were supposed to vote. The Rio Rancho site, which didn't finish voting until well into the night, grouped together 39 precincts.
To cap it off, state employees, and the state is the largest employer in New Mexico- were not given any time off to vote.
Add in yet another blizzard (the National Guard has been called out in the north), and altogether voting yesterday was hardly routine.
What was our governor Richardson doing on the Sunday before the vote? Watching the Superbowl with Bill Clinton.
So it looks like the old democratic establishment here- led by the Governor, paid little attention to what was about to happen, and had no interest in facilitating a huge increase in voter participation. I lay that at Richardson's doorstep.

[magicmary]

Looks like the more populated areas went for Obama and the rural areas went for Clinton - at first glance of the county spread on the nmdem website.
If anyone is from the Obama campaign, please pass along to Sen Obama that I stood in line in Rio Rancho, NM for THREE HOURS, with at least 30 minutes in the wind and cold in order to help get his butt into the whitehouse. In return I want some of that 32 million to be spent helping out the NM Dem party so November isn't as insane. Yes New Mexico, Democrats are going to be voting in droves unseen in your state previously! Do you believe it now??? What made you think turn out would be low? Are you not paying attention!? Sheesh!

[mrJJ]

Super Tuesday...Delegate Count as of now

*not including Super Delegates*

Sen Obama 838

Sen Clinton 834

As usual subject to change.

Spin as you wish

[bjames]

The huffpost is wrong on the New Mexico numbers! In fact they have hillary leading which is not the case! heres a link to the NM democractic party if you would like the real results. their numbers have Obama up almost 400 votes! somebody needs a better research team! if these numbers hold up, Obama is up in the state count 14 to 8 althouth they have NM in the Clinton colunm! lol http://www.nmdemocrats.org/ht/display/ReleaseDetails/i/1129743

[gevan]

Call the Supreme Court to find out if there is any particular underclass the they have discovered a previously unknown civil right that has been violated. This right, of course, has never existed before, shall never exist again, and applies to no other state or group of people anywhere on the planet.

[Manni]

Way to go Libertarian candidate Hillary Clinton!

Woot! woot! Woot!

[dtd]

These actual numbers just don't add up. According to at least two separate exit polls, Obama should have at least a five point margin of victory. He overwhelmingly won the White vote which represents 60% of the population and she won among Latinos which represents 34% of the population, so how can this be so tight?

[gallo146]

did you notice bill clinton doing his annual trip to new mexico to watch the superbowl with his pal Richardson? it is a tradition now...(it was so funny) i think when Obama wins Richardson will be toasts...that was as good as an endorsemen­t...lettin­g the old dog into the house...I am glad Richardson is out...if he is afraid to saying "no" to The Creep Clinton...i cant imagine him as POTUS...ashame that he is a hispanic

[TheRealist1]

That link took me to a FOX channel. The info it provided was way out of date, by hours, even.

[Roose]

Hey Richardson looks hot with that beard.

[jamesinraro]

As a European observing this completely undemocratic winner take all exercise Americans call a free and fair election I, and most of my friends and colleagues, have no doubt that Americans will make bad choices and again elect the leaders they deserve, the worst of which from the Euro perspective would be another Republican; but Hillary would represent only a nominal improvement over Bush and will likely achieve the nomination as latent racism and ignorance will insure that Obama, the only enlightened candidate, is defeated. No one expects much from this election or from America any longer, and the notion that the American people are not to blame, just victims of their politicians, was rejected by Europeans, Asians, and the rest of the world after Bush was re elected. I wonder how many persons who post on this forum ever do anything other than whinge about the state of affairs. The conscience of America seemingly died with the end of the Viet Nam war. I see no risk taking protesters, civil disobedience, strikes or any other evidence of meaningful opposition to the Iraq war, your loss of civil liberties and freedoms, economic mismanagement on a colossal scale, or the violation of the fundamental constitutional limits on power by your leaders. You have lost the plot and are taking the rest of the world down the gurgler with you.

[kellygrrrl]

whoa! was shocked to see Bill Richardson with the beard and suntan. Why didn't he look like that at the debates? It's kinda' hawt!