Either Relevant or True » Primary Coverage

Hello, everyone! Tonight we are covering the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, live.

8:00 PM: We start off with a bang, with North Carolina being called for Obama. Indiana is still too early to call.

8:15 PM: Chuck Todd joined for an early breakdown of the numbers (and a failed attempt to use Chuck Todd’s magic to get Indiana called). If Clinton does not win Indiana with a double digit lead, Obama will probably finish with more delegates tonight. Sen. McCaskill joined to discuss the Obama campaign and his momentum.

8:30 PM: Howard Fineman joined. Apparently, the word from the superdelegates that have not yet chosen a candidate is, they will decide when the regular delegate race is essentially locked up - and this is projected to be May 20th. It’s unlikely that superdelegates would back a candidate that did not have the lead in regular delegates. Indiana is still too early to call, and the panel joins.

8:45 PM: Exit polling shows that Rush Limbaugh’s “chaos” strategy…failed! Polling of Republicans in Indiana show that they nearly split their votes between the two candidates, just like the overall results. David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, joined to discuss the Obama campaign’s outlook tonight. Several urban counties in Indiana have not reported, and so Indiana is still too early to call.

9:10 PM: We go now to Obama’s speech in Raleigh, NC. The Indiana race has changed from “too early to call” to “too close to call”.

10:00 PM: Indiana is still too close to call, and one county is saying they will not have their votes counted until midnight.

On that note - I bid you good night on another primary evening!

Remember when this used to be interesting and kinda exciting in that wonkish flavor instead of just tedious?

I’m just happy that the endgame seems to finally be coming together.

Is it over yet? Can I take my head out from under the covers? Almost 8 straight hours of coverage so far.

They all certainly got tired as the night wore on.

For my favorite moments of the afternoon (it began at 3 pm for me)/evening/night/ is hard to choose between the duet of Keith and Chris on “Gary, Indiana” from The Music Man and Keith being stupefied to discover that at long last he disagreed with Rachel on something while agreeing with Pat.

Later on then when Arrow ended, but when they finally got into a discussion of Rush Limbaugh’s Chaos Theory efforts and were discussing how he may have influenced the black vote, my mind froze.

It is hard for me to imagine any black person listening to Rush Limbaugh in the first place let alone letting him influence one’s voting patterns, unless that person is already part of the extreme Neo Con McCain bandwagon.

I did not recognize the tie.

Hilary won Indiana.

Totally off topic, but a little humor for all - some free Monty Python to listen to:

http://free.napster.com/features/playlist/playlist.html?mix_pl=MIX_66831

Crooks & Liars say the Chaos Strategy failed. Raw Story says it succeeded. But not enough for it to do the Hillaroid any good.

I couldn’t watch the coverage and didn’t tivo. Did Matthews say anything awkward or embarrassing, and did Keith look like he wanted to hang himself or was he having a pretty good time?

MYSELF wrote: I couldn’t watch the coverage and didn’t tivo. Did Matthews say anything awkward or embarrassing, and did Keith look like he wanted to hang himself or was he having a pretty good time?

Actually, my opinion only, and I may be projecting as I was so relaxed and relieved at long last after the North Carolina results came in, but Chris did rather well and twice playfully gave one world answers to Keith - Yup and Yes. He also correctly used, in context, several words I was surprised he knew.

By the time they were singing their duet and talking about releasing a CD of it, they were so tired that they both seemed to be having a really good time.

The tortured movie analogy of the night belonged to Keith, probably about A Christmas Story and the Red Ryder BB gun re Hammond, but I have repressed it after a deep groan and closing my eyes.

My impression was that they were all enjoying it as the Indiana results were so tight and with all kinds of delicious minute detail, especially re Hammond and Gary Indiana and their mayors and then David Shuster coming on to talk about his family connections in Bloomington and what they were telling him about the college absentee vote.

In fact, Keith commented to the effect that it was the kind of primary night that they had been waiting for.

They kept going to Chuck Todd in hopes that that would lead to MSNBC calling the results as that seems to always happen when Chuck is on camera. It did again his time, but after Keith and Chris had left.

When Dan Abrams came on several hours later than scheduled, he was calling his two hour wrap up After Hours and had his tie off and tried several times, unsuccessfully, to get Chuck Todd to remove his tie as well. There was also a jazz band playing.

The only person who was still going strong at that point was Rachel Maddow.

When Keith mentioned the Gavin’s no-hitter, I switched, only to see it lost in the 9th…at that moment I knew Hillary would eek out the Indiana victory. Keith was great last night. He seemed to be having fun in a tortured 8 hours of primary coverage sort of way. Moments after Keith & Chris signed off, Indiana was called during a Chuck Todd appearance with Dan A. Lucky Chuck!

Anyway, I hope Keith can finally get some vacation time. With the football last year and numerous weekend primaries, he seems to be working a lot.

You have to love MSNBC’s coverage.
I think they have excellent commentators — KO (of course), even Tweety, plus Brian Williams, Brokaw, Russert, Fineman and the panel.

They seem to have such fun — KO’s bell, the Chuck Todd and the state calling “jinx” — just the interplay between everyone is so relaxed but still so insightful. Then, Dan Abrams with tie off and a jazz band!!!

CNN cannot touch MSNBC for cool!!!

I had to work last night and just happened to catch Keith and Chris’s “Gary Indiana” duet. I could totally see a production of “Music Man” all MSNBC.

Keith - Harold Hill
Rachel - Marion
Chris - the part Buddy Hackett played
Pat - Mayor Shinn
Nora and Andrea - the Pick a little talk a little ladies
David G, David S, Eugene and Howard Fineman as the School board (barbershop quartet)
Joe - the anvil salesman
Tucker - Marion’s little brother (Little Ronnie Howard in the Movie)

I hope Keith is proud of himself. I mean, he KNOWS you’re not supposed to SAY anything when a guy’s got a no-hitter going…it’s a JINX.

The second he said it, I said “Oh well, there goes the no-hitter, poor guy.”

And Olberfan54321, as for Monty Python’s Always Look At Bright Side of Life, to quote Philadelphia radio legend John DeBella: “Be good, stay outta trouble, save chicken fat, join the WACs, don’t believe everything disc jockeys say on the radio including…”

HA! Red Toots. Well done. I was reading your Music Mann cast and wondering who Tucker would play, and that was perfect.

My only change would be letting Andrea play Mrs. Mayor Shinn, which is a great role, especially in the Grecian tableaux.

“One Grecian Urn, two Grecian Urns, Three Grecian Urns….and a Fountain! TRICKLE, TRICKLE, TRICKLE!”

That’s actually a role I would love to play myself, someday. I could channel Hermione Gingold. When you think of it, that was a very talented cast in that movie.

I think you have a point about Andrea, Rafismom.

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