Liveblog: Meet and Meat
11:46pm: Just before I retire for the evening, a final update. Obama's winning margin is up to 17 points over Clinton. And it looks like he'll take at least nine more delegates from Wisconsin than Clinton.
9:27pm: He finishes up... the crowd goes wild. Now, as for the Wisconsin win, the margin still looks like about 13% but not all precincts are back. This doesn't mean much of a delegate spread, however. So far, Obama has taken 21 delegates to Clinton's 17.
9:22pm: It's 9:22 and he's still going. The crowds had to wait awhile for him, so I guess he's giving them their wait's worth.
9:11pm: As we get into foreign policy, Obama's speech hits the thirty minute mark. The crowd still sounds like it's into it though.
9:05pm: I was curious how Obama would look and sound tonight, because my Belo brethren at the Dallas Morning News blog observed that Obama was hacking and coughing today in San Antonio and blamed some sort of cold. He sounds a little gruff, and he's definitely red around the nose. But his energy level seems pretty good.
9:03pm: I'm also curious how much Wisconsin's same day voter registration helped catapult Obama to a strong win tonight. Same day voter registration is credited for helping vault Jesse Ventura into the Minnesota Governor's Mansion.
9:01pm: The way both campaigns were playing the expectations game, we were led to believe the final election results in Wisconsin would be pretty close. Instead, with about 20% of the precincts reporting, Obama is leading Clinton by double digits -- a thirteen percent margin right now. Wisconsin has the college town of Madison, but it's also a heavily blue collar state that I'm told looks demographically like Ohio. What does this mean for Obama's chances in Ohio?
8:59pm: First spontaneous "Yes We Can" breaks out in the middle of the speech.
8:55pm: I'm being told he is speaking without teleprompters, if anyone was curious.
8:53pm: Obama says, "I know some people have been looking through my kindergarten papers," in a direct dig at the Clinton campaign's weird oppo-research drop showing that Obama for wanting to be president since age five.
8:52pm: Curious about whether Obama has teleprompters. Gonna try to get the answer for you.
8:50pm: While Obama goes into some more familiar lines from his stump speech, an apology for the break in this liveblog. The KVUE wireless card for my laptop totally pooped out, something about "runtime error 650D". I tried to reconnect for half an hour, then decided because I didn't want to abandon the liveblog, I scarfed down a chopped beef sandwich and peaced out of Scholz's so I could connect here at home.
8:49pm: Obama is going into his usual riff about Washington being the place where good ideas go to die.
8:46pm: Just a reminder that Stiles is liveblogging Obama's speech from inside that crazy crowded arena right now. Read it here.
8:45pm: Obama is reminding Texans that early polling is underway, and he wants you to "take some friends and family" to the polls. The crowd goes wild when he says he won in Wisconsin.
8:44pm: Check out the exit poll overview from Mark Halperin here.
8:41pm: While CNN lingers on the split screen, Fox and MSNBC go straight to Obama and leave Clinton's speech. "Y'all know how to do it in Texas," Obama said. "Houston, I think we've achieved liftoff here."
8:40pm: All three cable networks are in split screen right now, but we're hearing Clinton's audio louder.
8:39pm: As Senator Clinton hits the meaty part of her speech, we go into split screen. It appears Barack Obama has taken the stage in Houston, which means Clinton will probably be interrupted by Obama. Is this symbolic or what?
8:38pm: In the absence MSNBC called Wisconsin for Barack Obama. Exit polls suggested this because Obama did surprisingly well with white women, which is a strong Clinton voting bloc.
8:35pm: No, nothing's wrong with your computer. The problem was MY computer. I'll explain later.
7:31pm: It's a liveblogging bonanza tonight. My main man Stiles is at the Obama event in Houston, where it looks like the crowd has piled in.
7:29pm:Ian Davis, who heads Texans for Obama, the grassroots volunteer group, is taking the people here through a tour of the precinct conventions and how that will all go down.
7:21pm: I found an outlet and brought and internet connection. About to order to BBQ. Polls close in Wisconsin in 40 minutes. Here we go.
