Hillary Clinton and John McCain Projected To Win California

Both CBS News and CNN have now projected Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton will win the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination primary and Republican Senator John McCain will win his party’s primary.

In the case of McCain, it should help him solidify his support amid signs that hard-core conservatives and radio talk show hosts shall not go quietly into the night. In the case of Clinton, it will likely give her a boost in terms of media imagery and open up the pockets of more potential donors. But Obama did also did quite well ..

So look for the contests in both parties to be far from over.

CBS News reports:

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were running a tight race on Super Tuesday, with Obama leading in the race for states, but Clinton holding a small edge in the battle for convention delegates.

Clinton won the night’s biggest prize with a victory in delegate-rich California. She also racked up victories in Massachusetts and six other states among the 22 holding Democratic contests on Super Tuesday, according to CBS News projections.

The former first lady is projected to win in Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee, New Jersey, New York — which she has represented in the Senate since 2001 — and Arkansas, where her husband, former President Bill Clinton, once served as governor.

And, on McCain CBS says this:

In a big night for John McCain in
the Super Tuesday battle for GOP delegates, CBS News estimates that the Arizona senator will win the delegate-rich, winner-take-all states of New York, New Jersey, Missouri, Arizona, Connecticut and Delaware, as well as the states of California, Illinois and Oklahoma.

CBS News also projects that Mike Huckabee will win Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and his home state of Arkansas. It represents a better-than-expected showing for the Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor. Earlier today, Huckabee won the West Virginia state GOP convention.

In addition, CBS News projects that Mitt Romney will take Massachusetts, where he served as governor, Utah, a winner-take-all state with a large Mormon population, Montana, Minnesota, Colorado and North Dakota.

So far today, McCain has won 395 delegates, Huckabee has won 110 delegates and Romney has won 93 delegates. Overall, McCain leads with 484 delegates, followed by Romney with 128 delegates and Huckabee with 117 delegates.

The biggest loser tonight: talk radio hosts.

After virtually turning their programs into nonstop commercials for Mitt Romney, and either portraying Huckabee as a spoiler or some kind of space cadet, Romney didn’t end the evening with an impressive string of wins — and Huckabee now seems the actual alternative to John McCain.

Perhaps this is due to the groundwork some of these hosts laid some months ago — painting Romney as a flip-flopping liberal who was changing key positions since it was election year.