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CNN Live Event/Special
Coverage of Super Tuesday Continues; Results Analyzed After Polls Close
Aired February 05, 2008 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Primary for the Democrats and the Republicans. So let's pause and get ready.
And look at this. We can now project that on the Republican side, John McCain, John McCain will carry Connecticut and its 27 delegates. John McCain, winner take all. We project he will win in Connecticut. Massachusetts, the home state of Mitt Romney, we project that Mitt Romney will carry his home state of Massachusetts. Illinois. Let's take a look at Illinois right now. We can project that John McCain will carry Illinois, an important win for him. Illinois.
On these other states, though, right now on the Republican side, we can not make any projections whether in Tennessee, New Jersey, Oklahoma, some of these other states. We cannot project a winner but Illinois an important win for John McCain. Let's walk back and take a look on the Democratic side right now. We can project a winner in his home state of Illinois, Barack Obama. This is not a great surprise. He represents Illinois in the United States Senate.
We project he will carry Illinois and we also are projecting that Hillary Clinton will carry Oklahoma. This is a state she has devoted some energy to. She will win in Oklahoma, we can project based on the extensive exit polling that we've been doing. But in the other states, the other seven states this hour. We cannot yet make any projections whether in New Jersey or Massachusetts, Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama or Delaware or Connecticut for that matter.
We do project, if you see a checkmark next to Barack Obama in Illinois and the check mark next to Hillary Clinton in Oklahoma so this process moving forward right now, important projections at the top of this hour. But as we get more votes we'll be able to make some more projections based on the actual voting results that are coming in precinct by precinct in these states.
Let's take a look at what we know so far on this Super Tuesday. These wins - the dark blue is Barack Obama. The light blue is for Hillary Clinton. We projected so far based on our early estimates Barack Obama so far is going to get 14 delegates and Hillary Clinton will get four, but remember, it takes a lot longer to determine how many delegates in each state, especially on the Democratic side, will accrue for these two presidential candidates because all of the delegates in every one of these states on the Democratic side are proportionally distributed based on their congressional districts.
And you can see even as I've been speaking. We've now moved up our estimates to 30 delegates for Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton, four, but remember, needed to be nominated on the Democratic side, 2,025 delegates and you can see the yellow states are the states in play today and so far we have projected that Barack Obama will win in Georgia. We projected he will win in Illinois as well.
That is his home state. Hillary Clinton, we've projected will carry Oklahoma. This is all relatively early in the process. Let's take a look at the Republican side right now. John McCain is the dark red. The lighter red is Mike Huckabee. The sort of brownish is Mitt Romney and we've projected that John McCain will carry Connecticut and Illinois and Mitt Romney will carry his home state as you can see right now.
In terms of the delegates which is all important obviously as we go towards the Republican convention in St. Paul later in the summer, 27 delegates we've projected so far. Early estimate, these numbers are going to change very rapidly as the night goes on. Eighteen for Huckabee so far. Zero for Mitt Romney even though we project that Massachusetts will go for him. That is a state where they're going to have to divide up those delegates based on some complicated formula involving proportionality.
Lou is going to be back in a little while later tonight. Let's go to Anderson Cooper. He has got the best political team on television watching all of this.
So another win for Obama in his home state of Illinois. A win for Hillary Clinton in Oklahoma. Two wins for McCain in Connecticut and Illinois. One win for Romney in Massachusetts. That's where we've been able to project so far and remember, Barack Obama has already been projected the winner in Georgia. We can't tell on the Republican side, yet, in Georgia who will be the winner. That's a close race shaping up right now.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's just talk to the best political team. Any surprises so far?
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think one of the questions, I wouldn't call it a surprise. Has been why was John McCain spending so much time in Massachusetts? Mitt Romney has won the state and as we move on throughout the night, McCain campaign was confident all week. The question is whether they went overboard in their confidence and spent too much time in Massachusetts and New York. It might have been better spent in Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma.
COOPER: If Mitt Romney had not won Massachusetts, though, that would have been a slap in the face.
KING: If Mitt Romney had not won Massachusetts, you would be anticipating that John McCain would be running the board tonight. Now, this is so far as it's supposed to go. You have some expectations going in. Romney is supposed to get Massachusetts, McCain was supposed to get Connecticut so right now we're as expected.
But that very contested race in Georgia, the Republican Party in Georgia is not unlike the Republican Party in Missouri so as we watch Georgia and Missouri, two big winner take all Republican states that are going to say a lot about whether McCain comes out of this night with momentum, whether Romney comes back or whether Romney and Huckabee are sort of fighting, if you will, to be the alternative.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Connecticut is a good win for John McCain. Rudy Giuliani was with him the whole way there. These are voters who valued McCain's experience, they also said he says what he believes and so it's kind of the theme of the evening, as the McCain voters continue along this path of voting for him because of who he is, not necessarily because of what he believes on the issues.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN ANALYST: We had nine states close at 8:00. We only had a handful of projections. All of these races are really close on both sides. This was supposed to be the day that the nominations were sealed in both parties. I think the fact that so many races are so close suggests that this race at least on the Democratic side and probably on the Republican side, too, it's just going to go on well past Super Tuesday.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Let me echo that. Because there are a bloc of states on the East Coast where two weeks ago we would have assumed would have been called at 8:00 like that for Hillary. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, they all seemed safely, certainly the first three seemed safely in her camp by double digits.
And now the fact that we can't call it suggests there's been a huge tightening of this race and it does suggest that maybe the rest of the night - we'll have to wait and see what comes in. But it does suggest this is much tighter than anyone would have anticipated two weeks ago.
COOPER: Let's go over to Bill Schneider and Soledad O'Brien crunching some numbers on why John McCain did so well in the State of Connecticut. Soledad?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, of course you look to the exit polls to try to figure that out. One interesting thing that we've seen again and again, we saw it a moment ago. We were talking about it in the State of Georgia. Negative opinion of President Bush made a big difference in this race.
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Among Republicans that is. Here in Connecticut, Republicans were 50-50 on President Bush. Half of them don't like him and look at how they voted. If you didn't like President Bush, the majority of them voted for John McCain. John McCain does well in state after state among Republicans who are voting for change.
O'BRIEN: How did he do among conservatives? Because this could be a problem.
SCHNEIDER: This could be a problem. Among conservatives, remember he carried Connecticut, a majority of the voters there are conservatives and McCain and Romney split the conservative vote. McCain narrowly edging out Romney 42-41 with Huckabee only 10 percent, but it shows McCain does not dominate that conservative vote at this point. He is splitting it with Mitt Romney.
O'BRIEN: It kinds of raises an interesting question. Where would that 10 percent that went to Huckabee, where would that have gone?
All right. Let's take a look at moderates, which of course have so far that we've seen been supporting McCain. Where did they go in Connecticut?
SCHNEIDER: And they did support McCain in Connecticut. This is why John McCain won Connecticut. Forty-four percent of the voters in the Republican primary described themselves as moderate. McCain overwhelmingly dominated the moderate vote in Connecticut. That is what gave him his victory in Connecticut and you know what? I'm not sure he's thrilled by that. To have won Connecticut because he won the moderate vote. That's not such a terrific thing for a lot of Republicans.
O'BRIEN: Yeah. Rush Limbaugh is certainly going to be looking at that. Congratulations, maybe, for him.
SCHNEIDER: Right. Exactly.
O'BRIEN: In a nutshell why he won, Anderson. Back to you.
COOPER: Soledad, thanks very much.
It is remarkable, Barack Obama in the State of Georgia. The - I know you guys have talked about this before in the last hour. But the growth among white male voters for Barack Obama. They have to be very happy about that.
TOOBIN: They're already sending e-mails to all of us. They've noticed too.
BORGER: Oh, they're thrilled because they think that they've improved on the results in South Carolina. And this was very important for Barack Obama if he is going to be a national candidate and appeal beyond the South and beyond that states he can really do a lot of retail politics in. He is running a national race.
KING: Could be at least a snapshot of where the Edwards vote was going. Now, in a rural southern state that's one of the questions we'll want to watch. See if that carries out in other states.
COOPER: We got another projection for that. Let's go to Wolf. Wolf?
BLITZER: Anderson, thanks very much. We're now ready to project that New Jersey on the Republican side will got to John McCain. John McCain will carry New Jersey. An important state for him. Fifty two delegates at stake. He had a lot of support from most of the Republican establishment in New Jersey as well as in neighboring New York State including the former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, 52 delegates at stake. This is one of those states on the Republican side where the winner takes all so this is a nice win for John McCain in New Jersey right now. Fifty two delegates going for him.
As we take a look at what's happening on this front so far during this hour, we have projected that John McCain will carry Connecticut, John McCain will carry Illinois, John McCain will carry New Jersey and Mitt Romney will carry his home state of Massachusetts.
Right now let's take a look at the map as we see it right now and take a look at the delegates. We're estimating this number will fluctuate dramatically. Remember, 1,191 delegates are needed to nominate the Republican presidential candidate at their convention in St. Paul. So far we've projected that McCain gets on this Super Tuesday, 79 to 52 in New Jersey. A huge addition for him. Huckabee with 18. And five for Mitt Romney.
But there are still some significant contests, a lot of significant contests out there right now. So we're going to watch all of this very closely. But an important win. He was expected to win in New Jersey. John McCain, there are a lot of moderate Republicans in this northeastern state right alongside New York. So it's an important win for him nevertheless.
But take a look at Georgia. Now six percent of the precincts have now reported and Mike Huckabee is ahead, he is maintaining that slight advantage over John McCain, 37 percent for Mike Huckabee, 34 percent for John McCain, Romney with 25 percent, Ron Paul, three percent. If you look at the actual numbers that have come in, remember, these are small percentages, only six percent of the precincts coming in but if we take a look at the numbers in Georgia coming in right now, 16,500 for Huckabee to 14,893 for McCain, 11,187 for Romney and Ron Paul with 1,146.
And these are the first numbers that are coming in. New Jersey right now as well on the Democratic side, let me show you what we have, less than one percent of the precincts so far reporting in New Jersey. Hillary Clinton with 63 percent to Barack Obama's 22 percent. But if we zoom in and take a look at the actual numbers that have come in from New Jersey so far you can see it's a tiny, tiny number, 1,300 or so for Hillary Clinton, 472 for Barack Obama. New Jersey an important race.
By the way, in the delegate estimates you can take a look and see right now, we've allocated 10 of the delegates to Hillary Clinton's zero for Barack Obama because all 10 of those are what are called superdelegates. These are delegates who are not distributed based on the voting that's happening today in New Jersey.
These are elected officials, whether the senators, representatives from New Jersey or the governor. Other high ranking officials in the Democratic Party so as a result of that we've estimated that 10 of those super-delegates will go to Hillary Clinton and we'll see what's going on on that front but the headline right now is that New Jersey we're projecting will go for Romney.
COOPER: And John King, you were pointing out of course in New Jersey. We're seeing it in the State of Connecticut but the real test is as we move further west.
KING: And very important for John McCain. I'm not trying to take anything away from him. He needs to win the big winner take all states up in the Northeast. We're still waiting on New York, getting New Jersey, getting Connecticut, Delaware was also on his map. We're waiting on Delaware.
But the question for John McCain is can he sustain as it as the count moves out of the more moderate, some would say even liberal Republican Northeast to the South and then into the Midwest and out into California.
So this is what John McCain needs but Romney has strength out in the Mountain West. We're going to have a big fight over Georgia and Missouri. So he is off to a good start but a long way to go.
COOPER: I want to bring in Bill Bennett in the back room here. Bill, the battle for John McCain moving forward, if he does very well tonight, I mean there were some very personal attacks against him today. James Dobson on the Laura Ingraham radio show. "I am convinced Senator McCain is not a conservative and in fact has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are, he has at times sounded like a member of the other party. I cannot and I will not vote for Senator John McCain as a matter of conscience.
How does he make inroads among those conservatives?
BILL BENNETT, CLAREMONT INSTITUTE: Well, he is going to C-PAC, the Conservative Political Action Committee this week Thursday. He is going to address, it's a big meeting, it will get a lot of attention and he needs to reach out, he needs to say the right thing but he also needs to tell people to look at his record.
Frankly, I think these folks and a lot of these are my best friends need to move forward on their own. There is a kind of Trotskyism going on here. Purification of the party. Here is an interesting thing. Connecticut just came in for McCain, 42, 41 conservatives for McCain. I didn't know there were conservatives in Connecticut. I am thrilled. And I'd love to meet them on some occasion.
But did it have something to do with Joe Lieberman's endorsement of McCain in Connecticut? And here's the thing I want people to think about if they're conservatives particularly. Everybody loves Joe Lieberman on the conservative side. The talk show hosts can't get enough of Joe Lieberman. Hey, Joe, will you join the Republican Party? If he did he would be to the left of John McCain.
So what exactly is this objection to John McCain other than that he sometimes takes pleasure in going against the orthodoxy? But I think reality - if he gets the nomination, reality sets in. The Dobson thing was very unfortunate.
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN ANALYST: It's sort of like you have a conservative check list. If you really have a conservative check list, I think you probably have, I think you have six, eight points, you probably have four you like John McCain and so this whole notion that somehow he is a liberal, it's crazy.
On the issue of life, I hear James Dobson talk about this guy is not a conservative. You have to ask yourself the most important question. If you had Senator John McCain running against Hillary Clinton, who do you want appointing justices to the Supreme Court. That is - and I think Dobson, I think at some point he's going to say I think I want John McCain making those choices rather than Hillary Clinton. They are desperately trying to revive, resuscitate Ronald Reagan.
No offense to the former president, he's not Lazarus, he's not coming back. At some point as a party, they are facing what the Democrats faced in '92, a lot of liberals didn't like Bill Clinton in '92. Southern governor. They thought he was tied to the DLC. But they had to move on from Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale and at some point your party does have to grow.
BENNETT: Just to make a quick comment. Ronald Reagan wasn't Ronald Reagan either before he became Ronald Reagan that we ...
MARTIN: Blasphemous Bill?
BENNETT: ... we now revere did some things which really violated the orthodoxy. I don't want to listen because I won't be able to answer all the mail.
MARTIN: (INAUDIBLE)
BENNETT: But he did a lot of things that you wouldn't have on the check off list if you were a conservative.
COOPER: We're going to take a short break but before we do let's go to Wolf Blitzer to look at the latest numbers -- Wolf?
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Anderson. I want to show our viewers what's going on right now in some of these states where the polls closed at 8:00 p.m. just a little while ago.
First of all on the Democratic side, remember the Democrats are blue, the Republicans are red. Tennessee. Let's take a look at Tennessee right now. We have not been able to project a winner. Look at this. Less than one percent of the precincts are actually in. Hillary Clinton so far with 47 percent to Barack Obama's 44 percent. Tennessee an important state right now.
Connecticut. Let's take a look on the Democratic side to Connecticut right now. Three percent of the precincts are actually in. Hillary Clinton with 47 percent to Barack Obama's 50 percent so a very close race shaping up potentially at least right now with three percent of the precincts in.
Let's take a look and walk over to the Republican side, Georgia. First of all let's take a closer look and see what's going on there in Georgia. The Georgia close at 7:00 p.m. Eastern and we see a three man race unfolding in Georgia right now. But we'll show you that shortly. Mike Huckabee still having a slight advantage. Oklahoma. Let's take a look at Oklahoma right now with 41 delegates at state. One percent of the precincts reporting. McCain with 42 percent. Huckabee's 30 percent. Romney's 22 percent. Ron Paul four percent.
Tennessee. Let's take a look at Tennessee as well. Tennessee close at 8:00 p.m. Eastern because less than one percent of the vote is in. McCain with 35 percent to Mitt Romney's 25 percent. Mike Huckabee's 22 percent. Ron Paul six percent.
Remember if you take a look at the colors, the dark red is McCain, the light red, almost pink is Huckabee, sort of a dark brown if you will, Mitt Romney and sort of burgundy, if you will, Ron Paul.
You can always go to CNNpolitics.com and you're going to get the precise numbers updated second by second. If you're watching us a good place - something good to have on your lap would be your laptop. CNN.politics.com. Walk you through all of these states, coming in in real time.
We'll take another quick break. We're standing by for more polls. Polls close at the bottom of the hour, the top of the hour. Much more of our coverage coming up from the CNN Election Center. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: About seven minutes to go -- seven minutes and thirty seconds until the polls close in Arkansas. -- this is an important state for two of the various presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton was the First Lady of Arkansas while her husband, Bill Clinton, was the governor for many terms. Mike Huckabee spent 10-and-a-half years as the governor of Arkansas.
We'll see how they're doing. In seven minutes and fifteen seconds, Arkansas will be closing, and then at the top of the hour, another one, two, three, four, five, six states will be closing, including New York State. We're watching all of this very closely.
Let's throw it over to Campbell Brown, as we continue our coverage.
Welcome, Campbell.
CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Wolf.
We want to check in now with our correspondents, who are stationed around the country at the campaign headquarters, also at some of the polling stations. And let's start with Candy Crowley, who is here in new York with Hillary Clinton's campaign.
And Candy, called now for Obama, Georgia and Illinois, Oklahoma for Hillary Clinton. What's been the reaction, in particular to Georgia, there at the Clinton headquarters?
CANDY CROWLEY, SR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the reaction has been, Listen, we never really made a great play for Georgia. He had more people in there, he spent more money on ads -- half a million dollars. We just had some radio ads, we never went up on TV. He was in there earlier with more people. It did leave out that both Bill and Hillary Clinton were in Georgia last week.
Nonetheless, you know, they're sort of painting this as, We expected it, and so we move on. Oklahoma, they say, Wow, listen, you know, Barack Obama has been saying all along that he's the only one that can play in Republican states -- well, here's a red state and she's done very well. Obviously, she's done very well among Democrats in Oklahoma, but nonetheless, that's the sort of spin that you get on nights like this, Campbell.
BROWN: And Suzanne, who is at Obama headquarters in Illinois, same sort of expectations game, coming from the Obama campaign, downplaying expectations to the extent possible.
But give us a reality check: what are they really anticipating?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what they're hoping for is, they come at least within a hundred delegates of Clinton and win some states. That will be a successful evening for them.
But I have to say, when it comes to Georgia here, one thing that you have to realize here is that Barack Obama did work hard for that state, that you can't take for granted the African-American vote. That was a state where you saw Barack Obama, as well as Senator Clinton, participating in these large Martin Luther King, commemorating holidays, but also the two of them had a silver-like (ph) icon, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, backing Clinton. You have also had a former mayor of Atlanta, Andy Young, backing Clinton.
So this really is an indication, like we saw in South Carolina, of the majority of African-Americans really rejecting the black establishment, the civil rights establishment, in going for the candidate of their choosing.
BROWN: All right, Suzanne, and a very rowdy Obama headquarters in Illinois. And let's go now to Republicans and Dana Bash, who is at McCain headquarters in Phoenix.
And Dana, talk us through a couple of things: first of all, Illinois going to McCain, a toss-up state, and then Connecticut, where McCain was drawing moderates. What's been the reaction tonight?
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I just got an e-mail from somebody in the McCain campaign, who said, Perfect so far. They think that this is, at least so far, going according to plan, which has been to lock up some of the early states that are going to call in the Northeast, like New Jersey, like Connecticut. We are still waiting to hear about New York, but like you said, through some of those states, where there are some maybe more natural McCain voters, those voters who tend to be more moderate.
Now, what McCain has been trying to do -- it's been interesting -- with these states, he's been trying to say, You know what, I'm not just going to come here as the Republican candidate for the nomination, I'm going to be here as the Republican nominee for the general election.
So the case he's been trying to make, Campbell, is that, as a Republican party, he should be the guy that they want because he can perhaps broaden the party and make some of these states that have really been pretty blue in recent years more competitive for Republicans in the general election. Unclear if he can really do that, but he said, if anybody can in the Republican party at this point, it's him.
BROWN: All right. Dana Bash, who is out in Phoenix for us, at McCain headquarters. And let's go now to Mary Snow. Mary's at Romney headquarters.
And Mary, we've been looking at the numbers in Georgia -- Huckabee running extremely strong there. We also saw what happened in West Virginia today. How frustrated is the Romney head -- Romney campaign, rather, that Huckabee has stayed in the race, frankly?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Campbell, everyone is very guarded at this point. West Virginia was certainly a disappointment. And Mitt Romney felt that he was picking up momentum in Georgia. He went there yesterday to campaign.
So there's a lot of caution watching those states, because he has been making the case that he i s the conservative candidate of the Republican party. Very subdued crowd here, tonight -- there were some signs of life finally after Massachusetts results came in. It was not a surprise that Mitt Romney would win there, but if he didn't that would have been a big blow because John McCain has been campaigning there in the past couple of days.
All eyes right now are on California. People here are pinning their hopes on California, hoping that he will do well there. And the only projection that they're making tonight is that it's going to be a very long night -- Campbell?
BROWN: All right. Mary Snow at Romney campaign headquarters.
And let's go now to Dan Lothian, finally, who is at the Huckabee headquarters.
And Dan, we've been watching the numbers, as I mentioned before -- Georgia, running very strong, also West Virginia earlier today. But you know the charge that Huckabee has been a spoiler in this race, has not allowed this to be a two-man race. What are they saying there tonight?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, and you know, that is what has been really heating up over the past couple of days, as Romney has really been talking so much about really turning this into a two-person race. Mr. Huckabee, though, saying that's really arrogant for anyone to think that this really should become a two-person race. He says he's still strong, he believes he can pick up some good delegates, specifically in the Southern states, where he has been spending so much time, certainly here in Arkansas and Tennessee, and Georgia.
And so he says, this is not a time to start talking about a two- person race. He still has a long way to go in this campaign. They're very confident, they feel that they're doing well, and they are also very happy about the support that they've been getting from the folks, voters here in Arkansas and across the South.
So they're hoping that all of that can certainly translate into some votes tonight -- Campbell?
BROWN: All right. Dan Lothian for us at Huckabee headquarters in Little Rock. And let's go back to Wolf, now, for more on the numbers.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Campbell, for that.
It's interesting -- Arkansas is one of those states that closes its polls on the half hour. That's coming up at 8:30 p.m. Eastern, less than a minute from now. Arkansas, the home state for Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was the First Lady from Arkansas for a long time. Arguably, her home state is really Illinois, where she was born and raised, but she spent a lot of time in Arkansas, when her husband, Bill Clinton, was the governor.
Mike Huckabee spent ten-and-a-half years as the governor of Arkansas, so he's obviously very, very well known in that state on the Republican side. Hillary Clinton very well known on the Democratic side. Barack Obama had made a little bit of a inroad in Arkansas, tried a little bit to score some points there, but Hillary Clinton is still very, very popular in Arkansas right now. And as a result, a lot of people are assuming that she was going to be doing very, very well.
And right now, we're ready to make the projection. And no great surprise, here, Hillary Clinton will carry the Democratic presidential nomination in Arkansas where she was the first lady for a long time. Forty-seven delegates are at stake, but they will be divided up proportionately depending on how Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama do in the various congressional districts there.
Also, no surprise on the Republican side. Mike Huckabee, the long-time former governor of Arkansas, he will be the winner in Arkansas. Thirty-four delegates are at stake in Arkansas. Three super delegates, 31 delegates are chosen today, and they're not necessarily winner-take-all in Arkansas. They're divided up in a very complicated formula involving some of those congressional districts. But still, an important victory for Mike Huckabee in Arkansas.
Had he not won in Arkansas, had Hillary Clinton not won in Arkansas, it would have been very, very embarrassing for these two presidential candidates. As a result, they do what was widely expected. Important wins for them because it allows their momentum to continue. And Mike Huckabee, after winning in West Virginia earlier in the day, winner-take-all, 18 delegates there, he is doing rather well in Georgia right now. A three-man race under way on the Republican side in Georgia. We have not been able to project a winner in Georgia, but in Arkansas, you can see that sort of light pink there, that's Mike Huckabee winning in Arkansas. The yellow states are the states that are in play right now on this Super Tuesday. The dark red, the states that we projected that John McCain will win, including Illinois and New Jersey and Connecticut. Sort of the light red or pink are states that Mitt Romney we projected will -- excuse me, the dark brown is Mitt Romney. The light pink is Mike Huckabee. That's on the Republican side right now.
Let me back up and take a look at the Democratic side right now. You can see the dark blues, states that Hillary Clinton has won, and the lighter blue, Barack Obama.
Tennessee. Let's take a close look at Tennessee right now. Three percent of the precincts have reported. Eighty-five delegates are at stake in this state. We have not been able to project a winner yet, but with only three percent of the precincts in -- now, we did project it. Now, we just projected -- even as I'm speaking right now, we can project the winner in Tennessee, Hillary Clinton, based on the exit polls that we had, as well as the hard numbers, three percent of the precincts coming in, and we've looked closely at those precincts. We projected that Hillary Clinton will carry Tennessee on the Democratic side. Even as I was speaking right now, Barack Obama only 34 percent with three percent of the precincts.
Take a look at these actual votes that have come in. Hillary Clinton with 26,701, Barack Obama 17,075. Barack Obama was hoping to do well in Tennessee, but Hillary Clinton, we have now projected, literally within the past few seconds, that she will carry Tennessee. It's a very, very interesting development because Barack Obama had been doing very well in some of those other southern states, including South Carolina, we saw earlier, and as well as Georgia.
On the Republican side in Georgia, 18 percent of the precincts have now reported. Mike Huckabee maintaining a slight advantage over John McCain, 34 percent, McCain 31 percent and Romney also at 31 percent, Ron Paul three percent. Let's take a look. Let's drill into the numbers and see what they actually are with 18 percent of the precincts reporting.
Huckabee ahead with 60,827, McCain 56,135, Romney 54,525 and Ron Paul 4,700 or so. So Georgia, still very much in play right now, a three-man race under way. Thirty-four to 31 percent for Romney and McCain. That's obviously a very, very close race. And, by the way, CNNpolitics.com, you can keep track of all of these races state by state on the Republican side, the Democratic side, and you'll see the numbers coming in in real time as they come in. We're going to be updating that Web site, CNNpolitics.com. Let's go back to Anderson. He's got some analysis.
COOPER: Let's talk about Tennessee for Hillary Clinton with 54 percent. David Gergen, were you surprised by that?
GERGEN: You know, something very interesting going on here tonight because there are a block of four states in which Arkansas becomes very pivotal. It's that southern state and to its east is Tennessee, to its west is Oklahoma and to its north is Missouri, and she's doing very well in all four of those states. I think it has a lot to do with the Clinton influence, the Clinton name in that region of the country. It's having an overlap effect, it seems to me, in Tennessee. We've seen it in Oklahoma, and we may now see it in Missouri, which is a very, very critical state. So I just find that quite fascinating how that's going to play out tonight.
BORGER: I think Tennessee is a very good win for her. She spent a lot of advertising dollars in the state of Tennessee. And there are fewer African-American voters in Tennessee than there are in other southern states, and so they felt that that was also a target of opportunity for them as opposed to Georgia or Alabama.
COOPER: We got to take a short break. We have a lot more numbers coming up, a lot more projections to make in the hours ahead. Stay tuned. Our coverage continues right after this break.
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BLITZER: We're 21 minutes or so away from the top of the hour, when polls will be closing in these states -- Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York and North Dakota. The biggest prize in that block, New York State. We're watching it very closely. You see a D after some of those states. Those are Democratic contests only, Democratic contests in Kansas. That's a Democratic caucus. In New Mexico, that's a Democratic primary. And in North Dakota, that's a Democratic caucus right there. It's closing in about 20 minutes or so from now. We'll watch to see what's happening there. We'll see if we can make any projections in those states.
Right now, seven states -- the biggest prize New York State for the Democrats and the Republicans. Let's take a look at some actual votes that are coming in on the Democratic and Republican side. We'll start off on the Democratic side in Tennessee. Let's take a look and see what's happening in Tennessee right now.
We've projected that Hillary Clinton is the winner in Tennessee, 54 percent with three percent of the precincts reporting to 34 percent for Barack Obama. Eighty-five total delegates in Tennessee, including the super delegates in Connecticut. We have not been able to make a projection on the Democratic side yet. Right now with 16 percent of the precincts reporting, Obama with 50 percent to Clinton 48 percent. Sixty delegates at stake right there in Connecticut.
Massachusetts -- let's take a look at Massachusetts right now. Do we have Massachusetts in this list over here? I don't see it, but Massachusetts --
Well, let's take a look at Alabama instead of Massachusetts. Right now, 60 delegates are at stake. We have not projected a winner in Alabama, but Barack Obama is doing very, very well with 71 percent to 28 percent for Hillary Clinton. But remember, this is only six percent of the precincts are in. If you look at the real numbers, 23,000 or so for Obama, 8,900 for Hillary Clinton. Six percent of the precincts, though, only six percent. So, we're taking a closer look at Alabama.
New Jersey -- let's look at New Jersey because this is an important state coming up for the Democrats. Only one percent of the precincts have reported. Hillary Clinton with 58 percent to Barack Obama 37 percent. She really needs this state, 8,600 votes so far for her to 5,400 for Obama, right next door to New York State. She had a lot of the party establishment working for her there.
Let's take a look at some of the Republican states right now. We'll start off with Tennessee. Three percent of the precincts have reported. McCain with 35 percent, Huckabee 25 percent, Romney 22 percent. Only three percent, though, of the precincts have reported. Thirteen thousand three hundred for McCain, 9,500 for Huckabee, 8,300 for Romney, Ron Paul with 2,046 in Tennessee.
Let's take a look at Oklahoma. Do we have Oklahoma? Yes, we do. John McCain winning so far, 39 percent to Huckabee's 31 percent, Romney's 23 percent, but this, only four percent of the precincts are in, in Oklahoma. Alabama, six percent of the precincts are in. Very close race so far. McCain 39 percent, Huckabee 38 percent, Romney 18 percent. You're seeing Alabama with six percent of the precincts in. McCain has 8,300 votes to Huckabee's 8,100 and Romney 3,700 or so votes.
In Missouri, a really important state out there, winner-take-all in Missouri. McCain right now with one percent of the precincts in 34 percent to Romney's 26 percent, Mike Huckabee's 24 percent. And if you take a look at the real numbers, this is very, very early and clearly will change as this night goes on, Missouri being a critical state, though.
In Georgia, for the Republican side, we haven't been able to project a winner. We see a three-man race under way with 22 percent of the precincts now reporting. Huckabee maintaining a slight advantage, 34 percent to McCain's 32 percent to Romney's 30 percent. Seventy-one thousand seven hundred for Huckabee to 65,759 for McCain, Romney 61,781, Ron Paul with 5,600. Right now, Georgia is shaping up as a really, really close contest for these Republicans.
Let's go over to John King. He's going to have a closer look at Georgia for us right now. Show us what's happening based on the precincts that have reported. What about the quarter of the precincts are now in, John.
KING: That's right. Well, talk about 23 percent of the vote counted, you see a very, very, very close contest. Thirty-four percent for Governor Huckabee, 32 percent for Senator McCain, 30 percent for Governor Romney. This is something we have not seen in a while, not since out in Iowa. The peach is Mike Huckabee. He's doing very well. As you see these counties come in, he's doing very well up there. The brighter red is McCain. He's doing very well, too. You would look at this map and you would say, wow, Governor Romney's in trouble. He's only winning in a few places. But you win by winning where the votes are.
And, Wolf, this, 25 percent of the population of Georgia lives right here, and that is where Governor Romney is picking up counties. Now, the question is, if he continues this trend in the area around Atlanta, let's look at DeKalb County, eight percent of the state's population. Governor Romney is carrying the county right now, but only five percent in. And look, a very narrow margin, just a little bit here over Senator McCain.
So let's go next door, another county that Governor Romney is winning, and he needs Georgia. His comeback strategy counts on Georgia. Seventy-two percent of the population here in Gwinnett County. Again, he's winning it. Narrow margins over Huckabee and McCain in third place in that county.
Let's come over here a little bit to the west of Atlanta, Cobb County, a little over seven percent of the state population. Romney with a bigger lead here, almost 10 points over eight points over McCain, 10 points over Huckabee. If you look at this map, you would say, wow, it's a Huckabee state or McCain state, but Governor Romney can win it if he wins here, where the population is, again, 25 percent of the state population is right there, but he needs bigger margins in those counties probably than what he's getting right now. So if you're the Romney camp, you're waiting for Fulton County to come in, these other counties right around Atlanta.
But this shows you, Wolf, what we're looking at tonight. I'm going to clear this out so you can look at it again. In a close three-way race all up and down Georgia, and we will look for the same thing when we get to Missouri, you have these candidates fighting it out. Culturally conservative areas here, and here McCain doing well here. You have some military installations down along the coast, much like we saw up in South Carolina. McCain and Romney splitting so far here. The key of the state is going to be these counties right here where you find the suburban Republicans.
Again, Governor Romney, even though throughout the state it is Huckabee and McCain racking up the counties, Romney so far is holding his own and actually winning narrowly in the counties where most of the people are. So if he can continue that trend, it could come down to a question of, are his margins over Huckabee and McCain in these populous counties enough to offset clearly McCain and Huckabee advantages just about everywhere else in the state, Wolf.
BLITZER: John King, thanks very much.
We can project another win for John McCain right now in Delaware. Eighteen delegates at stake. It's a winner-take-all. It's a winner- take-all contest in the state of Delaware, and CNN is projecting that John McCain will carry Delaware. There was a fight under way in that state. McCain was expected to do well with a large number of moderate Republicans in Delaware, but there was a serious fight there. John McCain, though, we can now project will win. And as I said, this is a winner take all state in Delaware, so John McCain picks up another win in Delaware right now.
We're standing by. Many more polls are closing at the top of the hour, less than 15 minutes from now, about 14 minutes or so, 13 and a half minutes, to be exact. Polls closing in those states, you see them right there. Seven of them -- let's see if we can make some projections at the top of the hour. Stay with us. Stay with CNNpolitics.com for incoming information. We'll be right back.
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BLITZER: Welcome back. Under 10 minutes now until the top of the hour. Polls will be closing in those seven states -- Arizona, Colorado, a Democratic caucus in Kansas; Minnesota, a Democratic primary in New Mexico; in New York, and North Dakota. At the top of the hour, we'll be watching to see if we can project any winners in those states.
Let's take a look at some of the wins so far on this day that we have projected right now. And we can take a look at the Hillary Clinton wins, first of all. So far, we've projected that Hillary Clinton will win in Oklahoma, in Tennessee, and in her home state, arguably, at least some people would argue, of Arkansas. Even though she was born and raised in Illinois, she spent a lot of time as the first lady of Arkansas. She now represents New York State in the United States Senate. Those are the three wins for Hillary Clinton we've projected so far tonight.
On the Obama wins on this Super Tuesday, so far we've projected that he will carry Georgia as well as his home state of Illinois. That's what's happened so far today. We're watching all of this very, very closely.
Now, let's take a look at the Republicans so far on this day. Who's won what so far? We'll start off with Mitt Romney over here. So far, we've projected that Mitt Romney will carry his home state of Massachusetts, and that's the sole projected win so far for Romney today. John McCain has a few more wins. We've projected he will carry Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, as well as Illinois, four states -- excuse me, Connecticut, I'm sorry.
Let me repeat. Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Illinois projected wins for John McCain. Now, Mike Huckabee earlier in the day at the Republican Convention in West Virginia, we projected his win there. He actually did win. That's no longer a projection, and we project he will carry his home state of Arkansas. He was governor there for more than 10 years. So those are the wins so far on this Super Tuesday.
Let's see what's happening online right now. Abbi Tatton is standing by. She's watching this situation unfold, and the online activity, Abbi, is enormous.
ABBI TATTON, INTERNET REPORTER: Well, this is at CNNpolitics.com, where as we're getting the information, it's being updated here as well. I'm going to scroll down to the main page here that's showing you race by race what state by state what is coming in right now, the states that have already been projected by CNN and the ones about to close in just a few minutes. You're going to see these pages update when we go to them, and you're also going to look at these pages here for the delegate count that's being updated all the time as the results come in. But, of course, we've got a couple of hours for some of the polls out there. CNN.com/live has cameras around the country. Take a look at this picture here. This is a polling station in Los Angeles. We still got a couple of hours to go there -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Abbi, thanks very much. Six minutes and 50 seconds to go until the polls close in these seven states. We're going to be watching New York State very closely, because that's the bonanza, a potential bonanza of delegates. But we'll watch all of these states. Their polls close in six and a half minutes or so. We're standing by here at the CNN election Center. Much more of our coverage right after this.
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COOPER: We have about three minutes to go before the top of the hour. Just a quick reset. We are here in Election Center. Campbell Brown, our newest member of the best political team on television, new anchor of our 8:00 show is monitoring developments from the field tonight. Bill Schneider and Soledad O'Brien are watching the exit polls, crunching the numbers for us. Wolf Blitzer, of course, is covering all the action and we're here with the best political team -- David Gergen, Jeffrey Toobin, Gloria Borger and the back bench and deep back bench, Bill Bennett --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, that hurts.
COOPER: No, no. No second thoughts in the back bench. Roland martin, Jamal Simmons and Paul Begala. Paul Begala, you are a Hillary Clinton supporter.
PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes.
COOPER: What gives you hope for Hillary Clinton and what makes you worried about her tonight?
BEGALA: Well, earlier this evening, I said that there was just no good news out of Georgia for Hillary because there's not. A lot of good news in Tennessee. She won the John Edwards vote in Tennessee. In fact, if I was a Barack Obama supporter, I'd be very concerned. Barack did 24 percent of the white vote in South Carolina, 24 percent in Tennessee, no growth. Hillary --
COOPER: That's huge growth in Georgia for Barack Obama.
BEGALA: Yes, he campaigned hard there, didn't campaigned hard enough apparently in Tennessee. Now, he spent about $300,000. He had a presence there. He had some ads on and pulled them down, but he's got to be concerned. Now, Hillary moved 27 points among white voters in Tennessee. I think it's because she focused on the economy. She had a town hall meeting focused on the economy, instead of all the issues in the world, 3,500 people showed up in Nashville.
COOPER: Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, you're an Obama supporter. Your thoughts? JAMAL SIMMONS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I give you one county out on Tennessee. What happened in Memphis today there were tornadoes in Memphis today. So, what you saw was only 18 percent of the vote came out of the Memphis area. Barack Obama was winning there about 67-25. So, the Memphis vote didn't actually show up and there are a big chunk of Democrats there in Shelby County. So I don't think Obama would have won it because he didn't campaign very hard, but that number might have been a little bit closer.
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Anderson, women -- women made up 59 percent of all voters in Tennessee. White women made up 40 percent of that electorate and so, she won 72 percent. She did very well among -- no other group dominated in that category. But also among young voters, she won four out of six age categories in Tennessee. She hasn't done that in many other states. I think that also was key. But again, white women, they put her over the top in Tennessee, as simple as that.
COOPER: About one minute to projections. Bill Bennett, just some thoughts?
BENNETT: I know nothing about Democrats in Tennessee.
COOPER: Well, talk about John McCain, Romney --
For John McCain and for Mitt Romney, the good news, the bad news.
BENNETT: Yes. He's, I think McCain's on course, but still two crucial states before California, at least I think crucial, Georgia and Missouri. And so, as John King was talking about the Atlanta suburbs, they come in strongly for Romney. That's a big deal. And Missouri we're waiting to see. Next stop.
COOPER: John King earlier used -- actually, John King is at the big board. Let's now go back to Wolf with some -- we'll have some projections in.
BLITZER: All right. Coming up right at the top of the hour, Anderson, we're taking a look at some polls that are closing in seven states -- Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota. You see the D behind Kansas, New Mexico and North Dakota. Those are Democratic contests only in those three states. The other states, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota and New York, have both Democratic and Republican caucuses. We're ready to get to the top of the hour.
CNN projects that Hillary Clinton will carry her home state of New York.
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