FoxNews has called the results of the New Hampshire primary based on the 14% of the vote that is in as well as exit poll results. At this point Kerry has 38% of the vote to Dean’s 24%. Edwards and Clark are tied for third at 13%.
CNN has also projected a win for John Kerry.
It looks like Kerry is it, although I suspect Dean will not give up until the bitter end.
UPDATE: This is interesting – remember that the primaries are not like the Electoral College vote. The winner does not take all – and right now Howard Dean leads in the delegate race with 104 delegates to Kerry’s 81 – quite a significant lead. Is this a sign of a longer race? It’s possible. Dean can easily keep himself alive for some time, and the vote doesn’t matter – the delegate count does. While I thought that the idea of a brokered convention seemed too much of a longshot before, the odds of such an event occuring get slightly greater with each contest.
The delegate count is important, because it shows why calls for a Dean withdrawal are grossly premature. Dean still has a substantial amount of money, as well as a great infrastructure in states that KERRY CANNOT AFFORD to run in. Specifically, when Junior Tuesday rolls around, Kerry will probably only place first in two or three states, and will have divided his resources. Dean stands to gain several delegates through strong second place finishes like in NH, where enough votes come in to grant some delegates, and can easily take a few states for himself. If Dean shows any signs of life when California and NY vote, it could be very, very interesting.
A clarification: I don’t think that Dean’s going to do much on Junior Tuesday, but I think he’ll still have the resources to contest the race until he gets some victories in later weeks, leading up to Super Tuesday.