Open thread: Puerto Rico; Update: Hillary wins; Update: Exit poll shows 70/30 landslide? Update: Turnout low?
posted at 2:38 pm on June 1, 2008 by Allahpundit
The polls close at 3 p.m. ET. The exits — which are already looking, shall we say, Chaotic — will be posted below as soon as they’re available. The only number anyone cares about is the popular vote, a point driven home by our gal’s latest (last?) ad. I heard somewhere this morning that two million people turned out for the last gubernatorial election; if that holds today, given that she’s probably going to lose Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday and trails in the overall popular vote by roughly 300,000 if you count Florida but not Michigan, she probably needs a margin of 20 points or so to really make things interesting. Fire away in the comments.
Update: The contest is called promptly at three. Now we wait.
Update: As promised, the exit poll. And suddenly, that 20-point win doesn’t look so far-fetched: CNN’s got it 70/30 for Her Majesty among both genders.
Update: A quick scan shows her winning virtually every demographic in every single category. 69/31 among college grads, an Obama staple. Another interesting one:
Note that 52% of voters were men. And the obligatory racial question. If memory serves of other exits, this is unusually high:
By comparison, Ohio — whose exit poll got lots of scrutiny for its racial data — showed only 20% admitting that race was an important factor.
Update: Looks like none of this might matter. NBC says total turnout may be just 400,000.
Update: The president of Puerto Rico’s senate is predicting turnout possibly of 500,000. If so, and the CNN projection holds, she’ll net 200,000 or so votes.
Blowback
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Yay! Open thread! My natural abilities of talking about random crap can be unleashed upon the masses! Mwa ha ha!
Weebork on June 1, 2008 at 2:55 PM
The MSM is all about how low the vote total is in PR. Trying to take as much as possible away from a victory for Hillary.
flyboy777 on June 1, 2008 at 2:58 PM
No offense to the “Puerto Riconators” but Puerto Rico’s election is irrelevant to me, it’s like saying “I love you” to your wife when you’re drunk.
Indy Conservative on June 1, 2008 at 2:59 PM
Puerto Rico was next on her list
To provide another big twist
The flags were a’flyin
As her hopes were a’dyin
The lady is gonna be missed
Limerick on June 1, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Posted: 2:38
Winner: 3:02
The suspense was killing me.
Limerick on June 1, 2008 at 3:04 PM
I wonder what Clinton hopes to gain by staying in the race for so long? Perhaps part of it was to seat FL and MI but this part of the equation doesn’t fit in to the current race as far as being able to use any political benefits. It’s been long understood that even if both all the delegates and the popular votes were tallied in to the current primary runoff Clinton still has no hope, er, chance of gaining over Obama. So maybe any benefit from getting those two states counted would be used in the next election?
Still, the Clintons have to know, deep down, they are not going to be the “it” this time around in the presidential election. Why is she staying in the race? What political benefits is she trying to acquire or hope to acquire? What does she get out of all of this that benefits her in the long run? Inquiring minds want to know.
Weebork on June 1, 2008 at 3:04 PM
Too bad we can’t vote in the general, unless we live in the Mainland.
(I’m not worried, though. I live in TX.)
You know what’s really funny, all of you? That the MSM finally pays attention to an election held in PR. In past years, our elections were zeros behind decimal points to them.
I just hope the MSM bought some good souvenirs…
Who wants some fried stuff? Yo invito! (I invite!)
newton on June 1, 2008 at 3:04 PM
newton,
Depends on what’s being fried. I don’t like fried bananas or plantains.
By the way, I live in CA and nobody really pays attention to our results either because everybody knows how its going to end: 50+ electoral votes going to whoever the Democrat is. Yay!
Weebork on June 1, 2008 at 3:08 PM
I’m hoping for 75/25. HOPE!
SouthernGent on June 1, 2008 at 3:10 PM
Is it true or not that Puerto Ricans get welfare benefits if they qualify? If so, why become a state when you can get the milk for free?
SouthernGent on June 1, 2008 at 3:13 PM
Over $4.2 billion annually in aid, mostly to “public welfare, including funding educational programs (such as Head Start), subsidized housing programs (such as (Section 8 and public housing projects), and a food stamp system called the Nutrition Assistance for Puerto Rico program.”. That’s via Wikipedia.
amerpundit on June 1, 2008 at 3:15 PM
In the mainland, yes. In the island, not really. The government there has its own welfare program – with federal funds, of course. WIC is also available there.
newton on June 1, 2008 at 3:17 PM
Nice photo. She looks like a fun broad.
Akzed on June 1, 2008 at 3:17 PM
Even the Puerto Ricans can see through Berrys crap. NO-BAMANO-BAMA NO-BAMA NO-BAMA
TroubledMonkey on June 1, 2008 at 3:17 PM
Which state or territory can boast of a 1/3 poverty rate? You guessed it. Sadly.
It is the dependence upon Federal funds which handicap any notion that the island can become an independent country. (There’s only a five percent support for that option, BTW.)
newton on June 1, 2008 at 3:19 PM
Come on Puerto Rico, what do you really think about Barry?
VolMagic on June 1, 2008 at 3:20 PM
Yeah, CNN was saying as low as 500,000. Crap.
amerpundit on June 1, 2008 at 3:22 PM
Why the heck are the pollsters asking any question regarding race over there? In the island of “Cablinasians”?
We’re talking about an absolutely multiracial society, for crying’ out loud! Even I am multiracial! This whole obsession with race here in the States is nonsensical to me.
newton on June 1, 2008 at 3:24 PM
From Hugh Hewitt:
“The move completes Obama’s slow walk away from a church that began receiving huge scrutiny late in the campaign’s primary season.”
From Politico.com’s write-up of Obama’s slick attempt to rewrite his personal history of the past 20 years.
The MSM will pretend it has worked. But it hasn’t and it won’t.
Ayers. Dohrn. Pfleger. Rezko. Wright.
These are the friends, sponsors, and mentors of Obama. They define him far more than his words of the past 18 months.
It doesn’t matter what I think of Obama’s radical friends and their radical politics.
It doesn’t matter what hard-core Obama supporters think of Obama’s radical friends and radical politics.
What matters it the impact of Obama’s radical friends and their radical politics on independents and moderate Democrats and the increasingly small number of Obamacans.
Some Obama supporters will assert that this too will pass and will not matter come November.
But I am willing to guarantee that the rants of Phleger, Ayers, Dohrn and Wright will be played throughout September, October and the first two days of November –over and over again, just as John Kerry’s “I was for the 87 million before I was against it” was played in the stretch run of 2004 and Al Gore’s long list of fairy tales played again and again in 2000.
And every time they are played, people will think “Obama was very, very close to these people. Does he have the judgment to be the Commander-in-Chief?”
Right on as usual Hugh. Very telling (scary) that such an empty suit radical leftist could get this close to the most powerful position in the world. Very telling also, that we have such racist hatred coming primarily from the left in this country. Very telling also that the MSM doesn’t even try to hide it’s complete “in the tank for Democrats” operational status anymore.
We’ve got some things to clean up here in America!
Keemo on June 1, 2008 at 3:26 PM
Is it not an undeniable fact that only stupid people would talk to an exit poller or believe what exit poll says?
Maxx on June 1, 2008 at 3:27 PM
what is it with hillary drinking in all these pix these days? im no tee-totaler but she seems like she’s hitting the bottle hard lately.
chasdal on June 1, 2008 at 3:32 PM
I think she likes the rum… ;-)
newton on June 1, 2008 at 3:35 PM
Attempting to look like an “Average Joe”.
amerpundit on June 1, 2008 at 3:36 PM
Representation without taxation is unfair.
logis on June 1, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Ha!
SouthernGent on June 1, 2008 at 4:03 PM
Welfare, no taxes, vote in the primaries, though not in the general. Why change? Still, whenever they’ve voted to become a state or not, it’s been fairly close.
It’s telling in what a predicament the lefties are if PR should decide the outcome, which it won’t. To their risk, they’ll go with Obama. His identity is much bigger.
Now that I wrote it I have to laugh. He doesn’t even know what his identity is. He’s a tragic figure in search of himself, meaning and political power. The latter overtook all other prematurely, and will destroy him.
Fify, Keemo
Entelechy on June 1, 2008 at 4:03 PM
The obsession with race is a lot stronger on the left, I believe.
It’s nonsense to me too, newton… especially when you think about the fact that, if you go back far enough, we’re ALL “multiracial!”
Rosmerta on June 1, 2008 at 4:05 PM
I love that picture. :)
ThePrez on June 1, 2008 at 4:05 PM
Hispanic breakdown, beyond Puerto Rico.
Entelechy on June 1, 2008 at 4:08 PM
Of course, now that the DNC has legitimized the MI delegation and awarded delegates therefrom to Obama, it’s a bit difficult to not include it in the popular vote count.
Karl on June 1, 2008 at 4:28 PM
If not for caucuses Obama would have NOTHING..
He has LOST MOST of the Democratic elections, that have had real primary elections..
He has mostly won caucuses(where people probably felt compelled to vote for him or be branded or called a racist)
Chakra Hammer on June 1, 2008 at 4:32 PM
So HildaBeast’s chances of winning the dem nom just went up from .00001 to .00002 ?
MB4 on June 1, 2008 at 4:55 PM
Ha2!
That Obama only won prizes while people didn’t know him should not be swept under a rug. Let him sweat the summer.
maverick muse on June 1, 2008 at 5:36 PM
Obama should have been vetted at the beginning of the year, but wasn’t. He’ll take the nomination and lose by a landslide.
Like I said a while back, the DP should consider creating super-super delegates so this won’t happen again.
Dusty on June 1, 2008 at 5:37 PM
Weebork,
It is simple, hun.
They know what Obama’s steamer trunks full of dirty laundry contain.
By the time the convention rolls around the only ones who will still be supporting Obama for anything will be what I call the Obamaniacs. They are the nutroots, the MSM, the America hating Marxists that have hijacked the Democratic party and their financial backers such as George Soros and Teresa Heinz-Kerry.
The party will not survive this election cycle. The manner in which the Obamaniacs have behaved towards any and all who refuse to go goosestepping along with them and their messiah has ensured that the party will be irrevocably split by September.
The Clinton’s will be there to lead those who are being essentially exiled out of the party and form a new party. One with the old Democratic rank and file but without the radical left, the nutroots and race warriors. The withered, hate filled remnant of the Democratic Party will soon find itself competing with the Green party for that all important “tin foil hat” constituency and will eventually fall apart due to it’s constant purging of the “ideological impure”.
Nancy and Harry will find that they will no longer be the majority leaders in the congress and the senate, too.
Nahanni on June 1, 2008 at 5:39 PM
Aside: What the hell are we doing in Puerto Rico? Let’s either teach them English and make them our 59th state (according to Obama) or cut them loose. Even if they want out of the protection of the US, it’s not as if they are going to be invaded. And if they want statehood, that’s fine too. PR is a wonderful place to visit. They just have to work a bit on our language.
Kevin M on June 1, 2008 at 5:42 PM
Unless the last few precincts have crazy high turnout in them, turnout probably won’t even be 400k. She won’t even get +150k from PR.
Typhonsentra on June 1, 2008 at 5:59 PM
68-32. I suppose the nutroots are going to say it’s another drubbing for their savior because of the white, gun-totin’ hillbilly vote.
Well, on second thought, I guess they will have to come up with another excuse this time.
Getting beat by 10 in PA and OH, and then getting ripped in WV, KY and PR is a huge problem for BO. A lot of people just aren’t going to vote for that guy. I don’t care what the national polls say right now, or how the pundits try to say it doesn’t matter. Obama is a deeply flawed candidate, and will require a near miracle to win the general election.
forest on June 1, 2008 at 6:02 PM
FYI: English is taught there from the first grade. If not, I wouldn’t be typing this right now.
Ahem. You ever heard of “July 25, 1898″? Google that. Then we’ll talk about “invasion”.
newton on June 1, 2008 at 6:24 PM
Check this out, GRINGO
ParisParamus on June 1, 2008 at 6:28 PM
terrific scenario. Let’s hope.
JiangxiDad on June 1, 2008 at 7:13 PM
Voted for an amnesty for illegal aliens in 2000
Sen. Boxer voted to include an amnesty for illegal aliens from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti in the Senate H-1B bill (S.2045). The move to include the amnesty with the H-1B legislation failed43-55 in a procedural vote on the Senate floor.
DfDeportation on June 1, 2008 at 7:29 PM
Why do I suspect that is the goal of the Dem super-delegates? That way they get their goals, and they get them in a “bipartisan” way as McCain goes along with them. If they were serious about winning they’d be backing Clinton.
flenser on June 1, 2008 at 8:08 PM
Good point. For those who believe McCain is already the Republican nominee (he’s not yet), it sure looks like amnesty will go through no matter who wins in November. I would agree with you that many Democrat super delegates would prefer for amnesty to happen in a “bipartisan” way rather than a “Democrats did it” way. That gets them what they want (20 Million new voters with socialist tendencies) and limits the blame on them.
Red Pill on June 1, 2008 at 9:46 PM
flenser on June 1, 2008 at 8:08 PM
I’m impressed, flenser.
I’d add this footnote:
And if things don’t work out so well, they and the MSM blame it on the Republican and all his “conservative” cronies for a second chance in 2012.
Brilliant.
Saltysam on June 1, 2008 at 9:48 PM
Red Pill on June 1, 2008 at 9:46 PM
Wow. Another good point.
It almost seems too obvious, after a guy gets to thinking ’bout it!
Saltysam on June 1, 2008 at 9:53 PM
And HilRod is still in it to win it!
canopfor on June 1, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Don’t forget the Paulbots…
funky chicken on June 1, 2008 at 11:27 PM
yes
funky chicken on June 1, 2008 at 11:28 PM
When do our other US Territories vote?
Navassa Island
Seranilla Banks
Bajo Nuevo
Johnston Atoll
Palmyra Island
Wake Island
(And those 5 islands off the Coast of Alaska that Clinton gave away to the Russians in 1993 over the protestations of the Alaska Legislature.)
ericdondero on June 1, 2008 at 11:32 PM
I didn’t know that! I Yahooed it (I don’t trust Evil Google) and found this info:
on this site.
What the Hell was up with that?
I tell you, the Clintons are every bit as Marxist as Obama, they just are better poker players than he is.
Both Obama and Hillary are disciples of Saul Alinsky.
Have you read Hillary’s Wellesley thesis, that she later tried to suppress?
Red Pill on June 2, 2008 at 12:03 AM
Another great reminder from that site is that Bill Clinton promised that as President his administration would be the “most ethical administration in the history of the country.”
Heh. Kind of turned out the same way as “the most ethical congress ever”, didn’t it?
Red Pill on June 2, 2008 at 12:05 AM
SOOOOO right. The Dhimmies will regret picking a trophy black instead of simply nominating a good candidate regardless of his or her color.
Mojave Mark on June 2, 2008 at 12:28 AM
The Dem nomination isn’t over until Hillary says it’s over.
Red Pill on June 2, 2008 at 12:53 AM
I have to admit that Ol’ Hill actually looks like someone you might want to party with, in the headline photo. he-he-he
kcd on June 2, 2008 at 9:57 AM
Red Pill, sorry man, never happened. Hell, take a gander at Google Earth; the westernmost point in the US remains Wrangell Point, Attu Island in the Savage Islands, which were never turned over to Russia or any such thing. Russia owns two Aleutian islands, both just off their coast.
Clinton’s a dirtbag, but let’s not go inventing new offenses he committed – there are plenty of real ones on his record.
E1701 on June 2, 2008 at 11:19 AM
Hill looks like someone who likes to watch……girls gone wild is not far ahead….
crashman on June 2, 2008 at 11:46 AM
Hillary is waiting for something to happen so she can step in. If she pulls out before the convention she has no chance at all. Does she know something or is she just hoping that something will come up? Based on the money she is spending out of her pocket to hang around, it would appear that she might be expecting some new revelation to surface in the near future. Remember the democrats have experienced these type of scenarios on a number of occasions (not just Robert Kennedy) but Toricelli in New Jersey (Senator pulled illegally for Lautenberg due to scandal and perceived unelectability) and the late Senator from Minnesota (Wellstone I believe) also comes to mind.
As long as the super delegates can elect her, she still has a chance if they decide to back her for any reason. I am sure her investigative team is going full speed digging up whatever they can. This is why she is willing to spend millions of her own money to keep herself available. She is determined and undoubtably knows more than we do.
jerseyman on June 2, 2008 at 5:20 PM
Indeed. This is the same woman who abused access to FBI and IRS files in order to dig up dirt on people she didn’t like.
Red Pill on June 3, 2008 at 1:03 AM
Ok, I can’t resist saying this…when I look at the picture for ths post, I think we should have a caption contest…who can come up with the funniest explanation of what the guy satnding behind Hillary is doing…
Red Pill on June 3, 2008 at 2:33 AM