WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2008
Super Tuesday Voters Go To The Polls
Both Parties Have Contests From Coast To Coast
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, casts his presidential primary vote at Kenter Canyon Charter Elementary School in Los Angeles, Feb. 5, 2008. (AP)
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Voters enter a polling place as the doors are opened on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
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Jamelle Chadwick arrives to cast her ballot for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney inside a Mormon church, Feb. 5, 2008, in Murray, Utah. (AP)
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Play CBS Video Video Huckabee Wins First Race Mike Huckabee has won the first race of Super Tuesday in West Virginia. There are nine "winner-take-all" state races for the GOP, meaning 388 delegates are up for grabs. Teri Okita reports.
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Video No 'Billary' White House Sen. Hillary Clinton tells David Letterman on "The Late Show" that she plans to wear "the pantsuits," laying to rest any question of which Clinton will be in charge if she's elected.
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Video Romney Ad: 'Very Close' A new ad for Mitt Romney shows similarities between the policy of John McCain and Hillary Clinton, asking "don't we need a leader who agrees with conservatives?"
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News Tools Super Tuesday Map See which states are holding Super Tuesday contests and how many delegates are at stake.
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In-Depth 2008 Presidential Hopefuls Profiles and the latest news on the Democrats and Republicans running for the White House.
CBS News reports that Huckabee won on the second ballot at the convention with 52 percent of the votes cast. CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder reports that John McCain called many of his representatives in West Virginia and asked them to vote for Huckabee, in order to thwart Romney on the second ballot.
The vote went to a second ballot after the first round didn't result in a majority for any of the four candidates: Huckabee, McCain, Romney and Ron Paul.
Each party is holding contests in more than 20 states today, including some of the most populous, such as California and New York. At stake are about half the delegates who will choose a nominee at party conventions in August and September.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Rodham Clinton, her lead eroded by a strong challenge from Barack Obama, looked to re-establish herself as the clear Democratic frontrunner.
For Republicans, McCain hoped to bury rival Romney's presidential hopes on the biggest primary day in U.S. history.
"We have primaries from coast to coast. No one has ever done this including our voters," Clinton told CBS News' The Early Show. "I really want to encourage people, if you're in one of those Super Tuesday states, to come out and help pick a president."
Clinton, the New York senator and wife of former President Bill Clinton, was long seen as the inevitable Democratic candidate with double-digit leads in the polls just weeks ago. Her supporters had expected that she would lock up the nomination with big wins on Super Tuesday.
But Obama, a first-term Illinois senator campaigning on a theme of hope and change, has narrowed her lead to little or nothing in the latest national and individual state polls.
Neither candidate was expected to emerge from Super Tuesday as the presumptive nominee. Clinton and Obama each hoped to win the majority of delegates at stake and claim front-runner status heading into the next rounds of state primaries and caucuses.
"We're all kind of guessing about what it's all going to mean because it's never happened before," Clinton said. "There's a lot we're going to find out about how all this works."
One thing is certain, Obama said: "No matter what happens I think we'll see a split decision."
Obama told The Early Show that he'd especially love to win in Illinois.
"That's where I live. Those are the folks who know me best and hopefully we'll do just fine there."
With so many states casting votes, Democrats were spending unprecedented amounts of money on television advertising. Clinton and Obama each poured more than $1 million a day into TV ads in the last week alone.
Total spending this primary season for both parties is now well over half a billion dollars, far more than ever before, reports CBS News correspondent Chip Reid.
The electoral territory was vast and so were the stakes. Romney, his Republican bid on the line, logged more than 5,000 miles in a 37-hour coast-to-coast dash as he tried to block McCain from wrapping up the nomination. McCain led by double digits in national polls, but some surveys showed Romney gaining ground in delegate-rich California.
Romney sought until the end to exploit conservatives' mistrust of McCain, a veteran Arizona senator who opposed President George W. Bush's tax cuts when they were introduced, advocated a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants favors mandates to slow global warming and led campaign finance reforms that activists say trampled on their free speech rights.
"I'd like as many delegates as I can get," Romney told The Early Show. "I think what began to happen in California over the weekend was really encouraging. I think you had a lot of conservative voices on talk radio and print voices saying, 'We've got to have a
conservative, and Mitt Romney's the guy.'"
McCain struck back Monday with a television ad that showed Romney in a 1994 Senate campaign debate against Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, saying he was "an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I'm not trying to return to Reagan-Bush."
"Well, I'm sure we'll do very well throughout the country, and California will be tough, but I'm hopeful," McCain told The Early Show. "I'm happy with where we are."
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, focused on the South, where he enjoys support from Christian conservatives.
McCain could finish first in several Southern and border states - Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Missouri - with Huckabee and Romney splitting the conservative vote.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's decision to quit the race and endorse McCain after Florida's primary has given the Arizona senator a boost in Northeastern states where there are many moderate Republicans.
McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner-of-war who has campaigned on his national security experience, would be a formidable rival for either Obama or Clinton because of his appeal to independents. "I can lead this nation and motivate all Americans to serve a cause greater than their self-interest," he said Monday.
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More From Politics
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- I did my civic duty and voted. Now, are there any schmucks here that disrespected what our soldiers are fighting and dying for over the years by not voting? If so, then, shame on you!
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- REPUBLICAN VOTERS WERE COMPLETELY RIPPED OFF DUE TO RAMPANT VOTER REGISTRATION FRAUD IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. THOUSANDS OF REGISTERED REPUBLICANS WERE ILLEGALLY SWITCHED TO INDEPENDANTS, THEREFORE COULD NOT VOTE.
WE ARE NOW LIVING IN AN SOCIALIST OPPRESSIVE NATION WHERE OURS RIGHTS ARE CLEARLY BEING VIOLATED. - Reply to this comment
- Bravo California !
Obviously, the Californians are proving their accurate political views despite the fact they are surrounded by %u201Cthe so-called political advisors%u201D(certified by the entertainment industry !!), who try to influence the californians for their purpose.
Do not think that the voters know nothing about politics. And even in case we need some advice , it is sure that such %u201C so-called political advisors%u201D are NOT qualified enough. - Reply to this comment
- "Who is the more
Posted by tibu987 at 11:42 PM : Feb 05, 2008
So what woule explain the American people voting for Bush twice? The Clinton''s don''t even hold a pimple of the nose of stupidity like good ol'' Bush! - Reply to this comment
- No religious nutjobs! Just say no to Romney and Huckabee!
- Reply to this comment
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWL7F4nK_Yw&feature=user WHO WOULD RONALD REAGAN VOTE FOR? WATCH FOR YOURSELF.
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- 10:41PM CST
Hillary slightly ahead and looks strong, unfortunately.
It may be four years more of the Clintons; too bad for the country.
More of the same-o, entrenched, inept, corrupt pols.
The blondes and little old ladies have spoken; of course they know nothing of the candidates (the Clinton twins), Hillary''s ability to hold the highest office in the world, or the important issues to be undertaken. But hey, she is a woman............
"Who is the more foolish...........the fool or the fool that follows him/her - Reply to this comment
- 10PM CST
Hillary slightly ahead and looks strong, unfortunately.
It may be four years more of the Clinton twins, too bad for the country.
More of the same-o, entrenched, inept, corrupt pols.
The blondes have voted, no matter the quality of the candidate.
"Who is the more foolish...........the fool or the fool that follows him/her?." - Reply to this comment
- This is Christian nation. We don''t do that stuff around here no more.
- Reply to this comment
- why is bob s so anti-woman? it is so obvious who he wants to win! slanted! Slanted! slanted!
- Reply to this comment
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
