Michigan results condensed

Romney wins in Republican contest, giving him two wins so far (Michigan, and the low-profile Wyoming contest) to second-placed McCain’s one (New Hampshire) and third-placed Huckabee’s one (Iowa), who finished third. Net result? Republican contest is still wide open. Next up – South Carolina primary and Nevada caucus on Saturday. South Carolina is being seen as much the more important of the two and is where McCain’s 2000 presidential bid got derailed. This time it is probably Huckabee who faces the bigger risk because, after his initial dramatic win in Iowa, he hasn’t got close to winning again.

On the Democrat side, Clinton got 55% of the vote, with Edwards and Obama not on the ballot paper and their supporters voting for “uncommitted” instead. However, the result may be seen as a blow to her because exit polls show she did very poorly amongst young voters and also black voters. On the other hand, it means she did well amongst older voters. As older voters are more likely to vote, that’s a surer base of support than Obama’s, which relies on him being able to motivate young people to vote in unprecedented numbers. He managed that in Iowa – but it’ll be a tough act to pull off repeatedly. So again – race still wide open. Next up – Nevada caucus (only) on Saturday.

5 Comments to “Michigan results condensed”

1. Jonathan Says:
   16th January 2008 at 5:19 pm

   Can we have a American election poll please?

2. MatGB Says:
   17th January 2008 at 12:19 am

   You have to congratulate Hillary there, 45% of the people that turned out to vote voted for no one instead of her.

   I can’t find the polling numbers exactly, I’d like to see what the turnout was, etc, but wading thorugh US sites is mind numbing. Ah well. Plus, I’d like to see if Kucinich was on the ballot and if so how well he did.

3. Terry Gilbert Says:
   17th January 2008 at 12:35 am

   According to Wikipedia (you can guarantee some nerd will have updated it, though not necessarily correctly) Kuchnich got 3%. Given he was the only one campaigning, apart from Mike Gravel (who???) that doesn’t say much for his chances overall…
   Personally, I think that a Democratic Presidency under Hillary may have the experience to really change the world along fairer lines – imagine the US healthcare system as a beacon of fairness for the world – so I support her. But if Obama got the nod in July, fair enough.

4. Terry Gilbert Says:
   17th January 2008 at 12:42 am

   PS – Yes a poll would be nice, Jonathan. I suspect Lib Dem Voicers may be pretty evenly split between Hillary and Obama on the Dem side, but overwhelmingly for McCain on the Republican. (Unless of course we wanted to saddle them with an unelectable candidate….)
   Bring on the LDV Primary!

5. MatGB Says:
   17th January 2008 at 12:52 am

   Why didn’t I think of Wiki? Thanks. Dennis got 4% despite campaigning, mostly-dead-Mike got 1% below Dodd who’s withdrawn.

   Ouch. So that’ll be me supporting Edwards to make sure he’s got enough delegates to play kingmaker then. 40% turned up to vote against Hillary. That’s impressive.