Kerry Sails, Clark Flails, Dean Derails, Lieberman Bails

[Rspaight]

...while Edwards reaches and Sharpton preaches.

To the numbers as of this writing (Candidate/Votes/Percent/Delegates):

Arizona:

Kerry 95,055 43% 30
Clark 59,712 27% 22
Dean 31,007 14% 3
Edwards 15,498 7% 0
Lieberman 14,656 7% 0
Kucinich 3,628 2% 0
Sharpton 1,100 0% 0

Delaware:

Kerry 16,729 50% 14
Lieberman 3,683 11% 0
Edwards 3,657 11% 0
Dean 3,439 10% 0
Clark 3,145 10% 0
Sharpton 1,885 6% 1
Kucinich 343 1% 0

Missouri:

Kerry 211,737 51% 36
Edwards 103,198 25% 20
Dean 36,305 9% 0
Clark 18,328 4% 0
Lieberman 14,726 4% 0
Sharpton 14,312 3% 0
Gephardt 8,306 2% 0
Kucinich 4,876 1% 0
Uncommitted 4,316 1% 0

New Mexico:

Kerry 40,347 42% 10
Clark 19,632 21% 7
Dean 15,660 16% 4
Edwards 10,815 11% 0
Kucinich 5,166 5% 0
Lieberman 2,488 3% 0
Uncommitted 460 1% 0

North Dakota:

Kerry 5,316 50% 10
Clark 2,502 24% 4
Dean 1,231 12% 0
Edwards 1,025 10% 0
Kucinich 308 3% 0
Lieberman 98 1% 0
Sharpton 28 0% 0

Oklahoma:

Clark 90,469 30% 15
Edwards 89,194 30% 13
Kerry 81,012 27% 12
Lieberman 19,674 6% 0
Dean 12,719 4% 0
Sharpton 3,938 1% 0
Kucinich 2,544 1% 0

South Carolina:

Edwards 128,819 45% 28
Kerry 86,751 30% 17
Sharpton 27,640 10% 0
Clark 20,628 7% 0
Dean 13,457 5% 0
Lieberman 6,993 2% 0
Kucinich 1,277 1% 0

Nothing really unexpected, with the exception of Edwards' surge in OK.

Assuming Clark's win there holds (I smell a recount), that'll get him through the next week, with a bunch of seconds in the West. However, as I fearlessly predicted in this space last week, he got beat by Sharpton in SC, leaving me to wonder how well he'll do in TN and VA Tuesday.

Edwards' convincing win in SC, near-win in OK, and strong showing in MO give him some momentum. He did pretty poorly elsewhere, though. If he takes TN and VA Tuesday, he will be the anti-Kerry and Clark will be finished.

Dean, I think, is already finished. He did no better than third anywhere, has no momentum and little money. Unless he pulls off a miracle in WA or MI on Saturday, he's done.

Lieberman finally, mercifully pulled the plug on his moribund campaign, leaving Bush as the only Republican still in the race.

Sharpton, of course, is in it for whatever delegates he can grab and a chance to have a say on the platform. Should be interesting to see how he does in MI.

Which leaves Kerry still in the driver's seat. His worst showing was third in the OK photo-finish, and handily won DE, NM, AZ, ND and MO. If he sweeps the next four, it's all over.

Delegate Count:

Kerry 244
Dean 121
Edwards 102
Clark 79
Lieberman 25
Sharpton 5
Kucinich 2

Ryan