The early West Virginia exit polls are out from the Associated Press. What stands out to me:

If they had to choose, seven in 10 voters said they'd prefer that their candidate wins the Democratic presidential nomination, even if the race continues for months. A quarter said they'd prefer the race ends as soon as possible, even if their candidate loses the nomination.

...Barely a third of Clinton supporters say they'd vote for Obama over John McCain in a November matchup. As many claim they'd vote for Republican John McCain and a quarter said they would not vote for president. If that horse race were Clinton vs. McCain, half of Obama backers say they'd vote for Clinton, about three in 10 say they'd back McCain and the rest would stay home.

The voters are 95% white, 50% rural and 40% are over age 60. 70% do not have college degrees.

I wonder about this. CNN is reporting Obama will speak from Missouri within the hour BEFORE`the West Virginia polls close. I believe that is a mistake. Does Obama really need to spin now? He needs to fight for these voters. This is not the way to do it. (6:15)Obama speaking now. Talking about Dems not being divided and clear choice in November. Sounds like the standard stump speech.

Imo, this is bad from the Obama camp.

Exit poll - Clinton wins 69% of the white vote, 71% of women. This is a biiiiig won.

Exit poll. Experience voters - Clinton 93-3. Changers voters - Obama 53-45.

Jerome Armstrong makes a great point:

Tell us what you know about today's West Virginia race or anything. I'll add anything I find out in this post.

I saw a Fox flash that 70% of WV voters said Hillary Clinton shares their values. 45% say Obama shares their values.

63% say Clinton is honest. 47% say Obama is honest. [More...]

Demography is political destiny. In West Virginia too. There are turnout issues in that the Media has portrayed the race as over. Obama has spent plenty of money in WV and I am sure the Obama camp will be working overtime to get their voters out.

My speculation, 6% of the vote will be A-A and Obama wins 90% of that vote. The remaining 94% goes 67-33 Clinton. Thus, the final score will be 64-36 Clinton. A 28 point win. The Obama memo predicted a 12 point Clinton win. What is your guess?

By Big Tent Democrat

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Marie Cocco names names:

I won't miss Citizens United Not Timid (no acronym, please), an anti-Clinton group founded by Republican guru Roger Stone.

Political discourse will at last be free of jokes like this one, told last week by magician Penn Jillette on MSNBC: "Obama did great in February, and that's because that was Black History Month. And now Hillary's doing much better 'cause it's White B---- Month, right?" Co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski rebuked Jillette.

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I'm working today and will return for the results from West Virginia's primary.

Some things to read today:

• The Washington Post's continuing series, Careless Detention by Dana Priest and Amy Goldstein on the merciless and inadequate health care provided to immigrant detainees. Today's segment is on errors in psychiatric diagnoses and the drugs administered, and how gaps in the system resulted in suicides.

• Baze v. Rees, Fearing Too Much Justice, by Elisabeth Semel, director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Lis and I co-chaired the NACDL Legislative Committee together for years in the '90's and she is one of the smartest and most committed people I know.

• The defense continues its closing argument in the Tony Rezko Chicago corruption trial.

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The Hillary Clinton campaign sent out a memo today on why West Virginia's primary matters.

Shorter version: Obama may not have spent much time in West Virginia but he threw an awful lot of resources at it.

Some quotes below, but the link takes you to the full memo.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be in the U.S. Senate today to vote on a few bills. Why? MSNBC's Chuck Todd says it's to court the labor vote.

The bill at issue is "a procedural vote allowing state and local first responders collective bargaining rights."

A military judge today dismissed the charges against Guantanamo detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani. The Pentagon had claimed al-Qahtani was the "20th hijacker" for 9/11. He had been subjected to harsh interrogation techniques.

The charges against five other detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were approved. They face a possible death penalty.

Here are some of the techniques used on al-Qahtani, from the interrogators' log : [More...]

This is a hilarious development:

Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson, a Democratic convention delegate pledged to support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said yesterday that he thinks Sen. Barack Obama has "in a real sense" won the Democratic nomination and that he now plans to support Obama at the August convention.

Heh. Now it seems to me the Obama camp needed to tell this fellow he should not do that. But they did not:

David Plouffe just . . . mentioned that the Clinton Campaign has said that pledged delegates could switch. He said their focus is on reaching 2025 total delegates and that it is in reach.

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E.J. Dionne points out that while Barack Obama's problem with white working class voters is more acute than normal, this is a Democratic problem, not just an Obama problem:

Cartoonists and satirists mocked Hillary Clinton's incarnation as a fighter for blue-collar voters. Yet those who know her well think the fighting Hillary is closer to her self-image -- as someone who has had to overcome many blows in life -- than the inevitable nominee who wove a web of entitlement around herself and ran on experience, much of which was derivative of her husband's.

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Hillary Clinton is expected to take a massive victory in West Virginia tonight and the Media will be forced to suppress a yawn. They have declared the race over and therefore this would upset their narrative. On NBC at the least, the storyline will be WWTBQ (See Corrente).

I believe the storyline should be the one I have been discussing for days, how can Obama do better with white working class voters. There are thing he can do to improve his performance with that demo. I won't be holding my breath that the Media will find that an interesting issue to discuss. The evilness of Hillary Clinton will be the subject of the night as it is most nights for the Media. I really wonder what they will talk and write about if and when Clinton is out of the race. They have nothing to say about either Obama or McCain. Seriously. [More...]