Here's a report from the blog Turn Maine Blue, where caucus goers and local news are reporting some results [by BTD, and here is CNN's running totals, with 44% reporting, it is 57-42 Obama]:

• Fairfield:

  In the end, said caucus Chairman Franklin Bouchard, there were 55 Democrats for Obama and 54 for Clinton. The vote means each camp will send seven delegates to the Maine Democratic Party convention in May.

• Obama wins Cape Elizabeth by a large margin.

• Hillary wins Turner (Results (including 8 absentees) were: Clinton 62; Obama 55; Edwards 1; Undecided 2) and Wells (Clinton: 151, Obama: 122, Kucinich: 4,Undecided: 4)

• Obama wins Houlton and Rockport

More below the fold:

It doesn't look like this in Maine today, but the picture is so pretty I'm using it anyway. There's heavy snow in Maine but it's not expected to deter turnout.

The Washington Post reports that older women will be key for Hillary in Maine.

The delegate count is small, the state has 24 pledged delegates and 10 superdelegates, who can support the candidate they prefer and make the decision at any time.

As to who is eligible to vote in the Maine caucuses:

Caucuses are held by each municipal Democratic committee. Any enrolled Democrat within a municipality can attend the municipal caucus. New voters and unenrolled voters can also attend by registering as Democrats at the caucus. Voters registered as Greens or Republicans must change their registration by Jan. 26, 2008 to participate in this year's Democratic Caucus. Young voters who will be 18 by Election Day, November 4, 2008 can participate in the caucus.

I'll start another thread on Maine when the results and exit polls are in.

By Big Tent Democrat

With all the talk about superdelegates, I must admit I am more than somewhat confused on what Barack Obama's position is. First Read reported:

Obama would not commit to a position he had put forward previously that superdelegates should vote the way their states did -- should the Democratic nomination come down to their votes.

"I think those superdelegates and elected officials and party insiders would have to think long and hard about how they approach the nomination if the people they represent have said that Obama is our guy," Obama said the morning after the February 5th primaries.

(Emphasis supplied.) It is obvious why Obama will not stick to that position - having lost California, New York, New Jersey, Florida* and Michigan* - he would be guaranteeing a huge loss for himself among superdelegates. Having won in states like Alaska, Idaho and the like, he will be giving away the game with that position.

Thus he now says:

By Big Tent Democrat

It is funny to see the Obama camp decrying the rules that allow superdelegates to choose whichever candidate they prefer. I happen to agree with them. There should NOT be any superdelegates. That is one of many travesties in this horror show of a nominating process that the DNC has approved. Let's face it, the DNC has screwed this up six ways to Sunday.

From the absurd caucus system which is the biggest disenfranchising process in this entire system, to the craziness of apportioning delegates, to this Washington travesty, we have been cursed with an awful system for choosing our nominee.

What are we left with? These crappy rules. And what can we do? Accept it. As Matt Yglesias writes:

I'll take a middle ground view -- I think Chris is right to think it'd be a pretty bitter pill to swallow if that's how things shake out, but the controlling principle here is that "the rules are the rules." . . . [T]here's a lot of oddness in the nominating system and there's no point of plucking out any particular feature and slamming it as unfair as the process unfolds.

Update (TL): Comments now closed on this thread.

Here's a thread for the speeches delivered by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama at tonight's Virginia Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. (Earlier thread on this here.)

Here is an AP summary of Hillary's speech.

Obama's speech sounds very similar -- almost a replica -- of this one he gave in Denver last week.

Update: 8:53 pm ET: There's your JFK references I predicted earlier, Ted Sorenson at work -- two in one parapgraph.

We’re the party of a man who overcame his own disability to tell us that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself; who faced down fascism and liberated a continent from tyranny.

And we’re the party of a young President who asked what we could do for our country, and the challenged us to do it.

More...and question for Obama supporters below:

Hillary Clinton's campaign tonight announced their fund-raising since Super Tuesday has topped $10 million from more than 100,000 donors.

Update: From the Louisiana exit polls:

Blacks were nearly half the Democratic primary electorate and Obama racked up one of his largest margins yet among them. He won nearly nine in 10 blacks, male and female, according to the exit polls for The Associated Press and television networks.

Most other Democratic voters were white and Clinton won them by about 40 points, a margin she has met or exceeded only in Alabama, Tennessee and her former home state of Arkansas among 19 Democratic primaries surveyed this year. Continuing a pattern seen in other Southern states, Obama won only three in 10 white men and did no better among white women.

The networks have called Louisiana for Obama. But, check out the counties Hillary won or is leading in substantially: Acadia, Allen, Avoyelles, Bearegard, Caldwell, Cameron, Catahoola, Grant, Jeff Davis, Lafourche, Lasalle, Livingston, Sabine, St. Bernard, Terrebone, Vermilion, Vernon, Washington, West Carroll and Winn. Map showing her counties and original post below the fold:

The votes aren't fully counted, but it's pretty clear that as expected, Barack Obama will win big today in Washington State, Nebraska and Louisiana. Hillary Clinton's campaign as released the following statement:

(Shorter version: We're concentrating on Ohio and Texas.)

Tonight there are contests in three states that the Obama campaign has long predicted they would win by large margins. According to a spreadsheet that was obtained by Bloomberg News, the Obama campaign predicted big victories in Washington State, Nebraska and Louisiana.

The Obama campaign has dramatically outspent our campaign in these three states, saturating the airwaves with 30 and 60 second ads. The Obama campaign has spent $300,000 more in Louisiana on television ads, $190,000 more in Nebraska and $175,000 more in Washington. [More...]

(larger version here).

The results of the Washington caucuses should be available soon. Here's a thread to discuss them.

CNN projects Mike Huckabee as the winner in the Kansas caucuses today.

With 76 percent of precincts reporting, Huckabee had 62 percent of the vote, compared with 22 percent for Arizona Sen. John McCain and 11 percent for Texas. Rep. Ron Paul. Kansas has 36 delegates at stake Saturday.

Experts say Huckabee can't make the numbers nationally and McCain will be the Republican nominee. Huckabee responds:

Well, I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles. And I still believe in those, too."

Almost 17,500 Washington voters in the state's primary (not caucuses) will not have their ballots counted. Why? Because they didn't follow the rules -- prominently stated in red on their ballots -- to declare themselves either a Republican or a Democrat.

Nearly one in four King County voters who mailed in their ballots did not identify themselves as Democrat or Republican, nullifying their votes in the presidential primary.

The elections office Friday called it a combination of protest and error. Some voters do not want to publicly declare a political party, even though their vote remains secret. Other voters might not know their votes will not be counted unless they choose a party.

It won't matter in terms of delegates. As Big Tent Democrat wrote earlier, the delegates in Washington are picked from the caucus results today, not next week's primary.

Obama delivered a good speech at the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Iowa. Tonight there is another one, in Virginia.

More than 6,000 party activists and donors are expected to pack the Stuart C. Siegel Center to hear to Clinton and Obama as both campaigns increasingly view Virginia as the major prize of Tuesday's primary. Clinton is scheduled to speak at 8:30 p.m. About two hours later, Obama is planning to address the crowd.

Expect Obama's speech to be a good one...I also anticipate it will be laced with JFK references or else sound reminiscent of him. Why? Ted Sorenson, JFK's speechwriter is on board his campaign.

Sorenson, who turns 80 in May, has long been retired from actual speechwriting but he now feels compelled to lend creative service to who he feels is the country's best option right now: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. "I endorsed Barack Obama for president... because he is more like John F. Kennedy than any other candidate of our time," Sorensen said recently.

Sorenson has experience working with Obama's young speechwriters.

According to reports, Sorenson has now become close with the young speechwriters in Obama's camp -- and has occasionally thrown in a creative phrase or a clever one-liner to be used during one of the senator's future exhortations. In addition, Sorensen is said to be giving advice and support to the Obama campaign.

As I've said here many times, speechwriters write speeches, candidates deliver them. No matter what words Sorenson feeds Obama, he is not JFK. [More...]