I know I swore off making predictions just a few days ago, but can I dip a toe in again, at least to the extent of guessing that the order of finish in both Tennessee and Virginia will be:
Kerry / Edwards / Clark / Dean
What, you ask, is my basis for this prognostication? Well, I glanced at a Zogby poll, once:
VA
Kerry 47%
Edwards 24%
Clark 11%
Dean 10%
TN
Kerry 45%
Edwards 21%
Clark 19%
Dean 5%
Plus, Political Oddsmaker has:
Virginia:
John Kerry, 8 to 7 (46.7% chance)
John Edwards, 5 to 2 (28.6% chance)
Wesley Clark, 7 to 1 (12.5% chance)
Howard Dean, 15 to 1 (6.3% chance)
Al Sharpton, 30 to 1 (3.2% chance)
Dennis Kucinich, 100 to 1 (1% chance)
All others, 1000 to 1 (less than 1% chance)
Tennessee
John Kerry, 7 to 5 (41.7% chance)
John Edwards, 11 to 4 (26.7% chance)
Wesley Clark, 7 to 2 (22.2% chance)
Howard Dean, 15 to 1 (6.3% chance)
Al Sharpton, 30 to 1 (3.2% chance)
Dennis Kucinich, 200 to 1 (less than 1% chance)
All others, 1000 to 1 (less than 1% chance)
That's enough for me.
Update: ARG's Tennessee poll show things tighter between Kerry and Edwards, but the order of finish remains the same. link via The American Street]
American Research Group
Likely Democratic
primary voters Feb 6
John Kerry 32%
John Edwards 21%
Wesley Clark 20%
Howard Dean 8%
Dennis Kucinich 1%
Al Sharpton 1%
Undecided 17%
Update: On Lean Left, one voter explains why he ended up voting for Edwards in Tennessee. P.S. The blogger, tgirsch, also wrote:
All that said, I could live with either Kerry or Edwards winning the nomination. One salivates at the idea of a three-time Purple Heart recipient (Kerry) debating military and foreign policy with career underachiever Bush. One also salivates at the idea of an Edwards v. Bush debate, given Edwards' obvious rhetorical abilities. Either way, I'm starting to feel better about our chances in 2004, so long as Edwards and Kerry survive, and Clark and Dean drop out soon.
6:15pm Slate has early exit polls, posted at 1:41pm:
Tennessee
Kerry: 44
Edwards: 26
Clark: 18
Dean: 6
Virginia
Kerry: 54
Edwards: 25
Clark: 9
Dean: 7
Daily Kos reports that a Clark fund raiser scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled.
8:57 Kerry has Virginia in the bag. With 85% reporting:
Kerry 51% (42 delegates) / Edwards 28% (25 delegates) / Clark 9% / Dean 7% / Sharpton 4% / Kucinich 1%
Obviously, this is a very poor showing for Clark, who really should bow out now, but an extremely poor showing for Dean, even considering that he didn't campaign in the state. For Dean to be so close to the Sharpton Line is embarrassing, and makes it even more imperative for him to win Wisconsin. My feeling is, no matter what his backtracking position is at the moment, if he doesn't take Wisconsin, or have an extremely strong second place finish (in the neighborhood of 30-35%), he's as dead as I pronounced him weeks ago, and he ought to pack it in and let us get down to a Kerry v. Edwards campaign. As long as they can keep it clean, that would be good for the party, and good for the country for the Democrats taking back the White House.
One other note: there's no sign of any kind of "liberal revolt" in Virgina -- both Dean and Kucinich did poorly.
In Tennessee, not only 8% has been counted, but Kerry's the projected winner, and shows at 40%. The interesting part is second place where Clark is current ahead of Edwards 25% to 24%. This may not hold up, but to the extent that winning second place may keep Clark in the race, this could be a bad thing. There's no chance of his winning now, and Clark really should look at what's best for his party and bow out gracefully, preserving his chances to be considered as a possible VP candidate.
Once again Dean and Sharpton are duking it out for 4th.
9:05 With 19% counted in Tennessee, 41 / 25 / 24 with Clark still ahead of Edwards.
BTW Maine still hasn't finished its count, as of 10:32am, it's at 80%.
9:30 Reports on Daily Kos say that Clark is not dropping out, that he's raised "more than $144K since yesterday," and that he told his staffers that he's going on to Wisconson. (There's some question if the cancellation of a fund raiser happened before or after that report, but it was also in Houston and Clark might have decided to spend all his available time in Wisconsin.
In the Tenessee vote tally, Edwards inches ahead of Clark 26% to 24%, but Dean is trouncing Sharpton 4% to 1%.
9:55 At 68%, Edwards pulls away 42 / 26 / 23. Jerome Armstrong notes on Daily Kos, this means that in Tennessee, the "anti-Kerry" vote is larger than what Kerry received, but I don't find that to be persuasive, because it's true in any race where the winner does not receive a majority. There's no guarantee that if Clark wasn't there all of his votes would go to Edwards. Perhaps most of them might, but some would have gone to Dean and some to Kerry as well.
10:04 Except, of course, that Kerry saying that tonight's results show he can do well in the South is not really true. Virginia isn't truly a Southern state, and in Tennessee the opposition vote was split between two Southern candidates. That enabled Kerry to win, but it doesn't really prove his viability in the South.
In Virginia, with 99% in: Kerry 52 (53 delegates) / Edwards 27 (29 delegates) / Clark 9 / Dean 7 / Sharpton 3 / Kucinich 1
In Tennessee, with 83% in: Kerry 41 (15 delegates) / Edwards 26 (11 delegates) / Clark 23 (7 delegates) / Dean 4 / Sharpton 2 / Kucinich 1
10:13 Clark is speaking just now and, while I doubt that he'll announce his withdrawal right now, he's clearly setting himself up for doing so very soon, possibly tomorrow. He's talking about the overriding goal of taking back the White House, he's pumping up the Democratic Party, he's dissing Bush, he's talking nice about Kerry and Edwards, and he's not sounding at all like a partisan pushing himself as the alternative.
10:19 Significantly, Clark spoke numerous times about "leaving Tennessee", but made no mention of going on to Wisconsin. He's out.
11:06 CNN reports that AP says he's out.