NBC: McCain 800, Huckabee 240, Paul 14 (Romney 282)
CBS: McCain 790, Huckabee 199, Paul 10 (Romney 166)
ABC: McCain 819, Huckabee 240, Paul 14 (Romney 282)
CNN: McCain 812, Huckabee 217, Paul 16 (Romney 286)
AP: McCain 821, Huckabee 241, Paul 14, (Romney 288)

Reuters is reporting that both parties are having a difficult time with turnout in Louisiana:

ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana (Reuters) - The primary elections have been called the most gripping in recent years but not in the Deep South state of Louisiana where parties struggled to motivate voters on Saturday.

In Alexandria, a city in the center of the state, voting officials stood idle at several polling stations in black or racially mixed neighborhoods waiting for people to show up.

Hundreds of people crowded a local gymnasium for a basketball game while the voting station in the lobby had seen only 35 voters by mid-morning.

Republicans lost much of their interest after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney pulled out of the race on Thursday, leaving Sen. John McCain virtually certain to be the party nominee, analysts and voters said.

Democratic turnout in Louisiana has been shrinking for years and the trend seemed likely to continue despite the national interest in the race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, analysts said.

Washington Post is reporting the low turnout is worrying the Obama campaign.

Reports of low turnout in Louisiana caused a wave of concern in the Obama campaign on an otherwise smooth primary and caucus day in four states on Saturday. Although Sen. Barack Obama is expected to fare well in Louisiana, where about 45 percent of registered Democrats are African American, low turnout could drive down his numbers. The state has 66 delegates for the Democratic nomination.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton skipped Louisiana, even though it has become a symbolic touchstone for Democrats following the government response to Hurricane Katrina. Instead she sent her husband to campaign for her there while chasing better bets in Maine, which holds its caucus on Sunday, and Virginia.

Exit polls showing

Did Katrina Cause Hardship?

Louisiana Republican voters Yes 32%, No 68%

Louisiana Democratic Voters Yes 44%, No 55% No
Yes - White Voters 40%, Black Voters 46%

Economy (Nationally)

Republicans
Excellent/Good 51%
Not Good/Pour 49%

Democrats
Excellent/Good 10%
Not Good/Poor 90%

I keep seeing a lot of odd information coming out of the polling. Obama seems to be catching up nationally but a CBS poll finds that amongst Super Tuesday states Clinton holds a massive advantage. Everyone is reading into conflicting information about early voting. Most of the early voting and absentee ballots were cast when Clinton was riding high but there are conflicting reports on whether pollsters are taking these early voters into consideration.

Basically the idea right now is that people were so turned off by Bill Clinton and so turned on by the whopping win in South Carolina for Barack Obama (Also the Kennedy endorsements) that many are jumping the Clinton ship. I don’t know that we can really believe that and in California where a very large percentage of the state votes absentee, I just don’t know what we can expect.

Then there is this nugget, one poll shows 53% of Democrats believe we are making progress in Iraq. That could be very true our it could be one more indication that these polls are not entirely accurate.

So in short as I keep saying the following, polls taken with such small sample sizes in such a short period of time between contests and across such a wide array of states and spun in so many different ways and showing conflicting information probably should not be trusted.

My conclusion? I am not going to be citing polls in the next twenty-four hours as any indication of voting on the Democratic side. Republican polling seems to be a little more stable though there are probably problems with those numbers too so I am just going to avoid polls altogether and not get on the “lets make predictions” bandwagon. With everything running so close for Democrats we probably won’t know until Tuesday night or Wednesday or even later what is happening.

Report comes from Mark Halperin who points out that no major Republican candidate has aid advertising running in Super Tuesday states one week before the vote. What can we read from it? Halperin gets right to it, Romney is waiting for results in Florida and the others just plain don’t have the money.

As Mark points out this is a major symbol from a party which just a few years ago had dominated the money race.

Good morning all. The polls are open in Florida, record turnout has already occurred based on reports in the Democratic absentee voting and I will have the returns as they come in tonight.

Schedule for tomorrow’s Democratic and Republican caucuses in Nevada and the South Carolina Republican primary from ABC Sneak Peak found via Mark Halperin:

Nevada Republican caucuses:

Begin at 9 am PT (12 pm ET)
Straw vote begins at 9:15 - 9:45 am PT (12:15 - 12:45 pm ET)
Precints are asked to conclude at 10:00 am PT (1:00 pm ET)
First results posted 10-10:30 am PT (1-1:30 pm ET)
Results likely known by Nevada Republican Party by 12:30 PT (3:30 ET)

Nevada Democratic caucuses:

Begin at 11:30 am PT (2:30 pm ET).
Preference groups form at 12 pm PT (3:00 pm ET)
Second alignment begins at 12:15 pm PT (3:15 pm ET)
Results start coming into Nevada Democratic Party at 2 pm PT (5 pm ET).

South Carolina GOP primary: polls open statewide from 7 am to 7 pm ET.

As the presidential candidates race to release economic stimulus plans the President and the Congress appear to be moving toward passing legislation. A major obstacle both for the Democratic candidates and the Democratic Congress were “pay-as-you-go” rules implemented after taking charge. Economic stimulus, unlike many other programs, isn’t usually seen as needing to be paid for in the short term. Congress promised it wouldn’t pass any legislation it didn’t have a clear plan on funding but with the word “Recession” being thrown around, they seem ready for a new approach.

The solution? Congress appears to be ready to toss away pay-as-you-go in favor of economic stimulus in the hope that the money given to Americans will be fed back into the economy, hopefully saving jobs and giving short-term support to people who otherwise would be sunk by growing concerns of a recession. This is a win for Obama and Clinton who began pushing for such packages.

The Bush administration, it is rumored, the will announce something along the line of $800 per individual or $16,000 per household in tax rebates. President Bush is expected to make his plans known today. This would benefit the Republican presidential candidates who will no doubt jump on board or even call for more and point to this as a major reason for the need to have a Republican in the White House.

Meanwhile Democrats were considering a plan that would provide smaller rebates for most taxpayers with more assistance to lower-income individuals than the president’s rumored plan. This as seen as potentially $500 for individuals or $1,000 per household with some other programs benefiting low-income Americans added to it.

Whatever the outcome even if action is taken before November the issue and the fight over how to stimulate the economy has just begun on the campaign trail. More will come out later today.

Two stories today about how the race in the Republican party and possibly the Democratic Party might not be decided after Feb. 5th and possibly not until the convention.

First from Reuters:

By the time votes were counted on “Super Tuesday,” many experts believed, both Democrats and Republicans would have their White House candidates and be gearing up for November’s election.

Think again.

A remarkably unpredictable and chaotic campaign, with multiple candidates in both parties trading victories and no one grabbing the front-runner’s role, has strategists pondering a race that extends well into February if not far beyond.

From the Associated Press:

Even if Republicans choose a nominee before they convene in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sept. 1, there’s a good possibility he will emerge weeks or even months after the Democratic nominee is chosen, giving Democrats an advantage in fundraising, organizing and campaigning. Congressional Republicans particularly wanted an early nominee to draw voters’ attention from President Bush, whose low approval ratings could hurt the entire party in the fall.

Mitt Romney has been announced the projected winner in Michigan.

A large area of discussion in the Republican debate last night centered around Pakistani president Musharraf’s unwillingness to hunt al Qaeda with his forces despite hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the country. Also up for discussion was the leaders unwillingness to allow the United States itself to go in and fight terrorists along its border with Afghanistan. Many of the candidates spoke of the need for Musharraf to either get tuff and use the aid to accomplish the task or face pressure from their potential administration to let America in.

Today Musharraf warned the United States that it would be regarded as “invaders” if any attempt was made to cross the border into Pakistan to hunt al Qaeda. From the Associated Press report:

The New York Times newspaper reported last week Washington is considering expanding the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to pursue aggressive covert operations within the tribal regions.

Mr. Musharraf told the Straits Times that U.S. troops would “certainly” be considered invaders if they set foot in the tribal regions.

“If they come without our permission, that’s against the sovereignty of Pakistan. I challenge anybody coming into our mountains,” he said in the interview in the garrison city Rawalpindi.

“They would regret that day.”