According to David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, by sweeping today’s caucuses and primaries, Senator Obama more than doubled his pledged delegate lead over Senator Hillary Clinton.Before today, Obama led Clinton by 27 pledged delegates (pledged delegates are those won through caucus and primary election wins, as opposed to superdelegates which are basically endorsements by officials. These superdelegates are not necessarily fixed and can change their alliances).”In the four contests today, we estimate we won 103 delegates to Clinton’s 58 delegates for a net gain of 45 delegates,” wrote Plouffe on the Obama website.”The pledged delegate total through February 9 now stands at 1,012 for Obama and 940 for Clinton.”

Keep up with St. Louis politics at www.pubdef.net

Call it the “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline of the 21st Century. The Associated Press called the state of Missouri for Hillary Clinton around 10:30 PM.

NOT SO FAST!

As more precincts came in it became clear this was going down to the wire. By 11:00, Barack Obama was within 5,000 votes. After midnight, results showed Obama winning by about 9,000 votes.

With 3,357 of 3,371 precincts reporting, Obama leads Clinton 403,343 votes to 394,566. That’s 49.1% to 48.1% .

Wow.

Supporters of Barack Obama will be watching tomorrow’s Super Tuesday results at the Moolah Theater, 3821 Lindell Blvd, starting at 7:00 tomorrow evening.

Lines wrapped around three sides of the Edward Jones Dome before the doors opened and crowds of supporters poured onto the stadium floor.

According to a new poll from SurveyUSA, the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is now too close to call in Missouri.

As you may have heard, the biggest thing in politics since the ballot box is coming to St. Louis today and they could barely find a place big enough to hold the expected crowd.

KANSAS CITY — When Barack Obama stopped in Kansas City Tuesday, he was welcomed by a crowd so big that the fire marshal wouldn’t allow anymore people inside the Municipal Auditorium. The Kansas City Star put the numbers above 6,000. Others put the number closer to 8,000.

Senator Claire McCaskill and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius stood behind the presidential hopeful as he delivered a speech filled with humor and hope.

Obama asked his supporters not to be fooled by his opponents distortions. “People want to hoodwink you,” said Obama. “They want to bamboozle you. They want to run the ‘okie-doke’ on you.”

Sorry about the bouncy camera. You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to get this video.

JEFFERSON CITY — We heard an interesting rumor today in Jefferson City — at a John Edwards rally of all places (check back later for video). If Senator Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination for President, would he select Sen. Claire McCaskill as his runningmate?Selecting McCaskill would do two important things: repair relations with some female Democrats now supporting Hillary Clinton, and almost certainly ensure the Democrats win the State of Missouri, which has a nearly perfect record for selecting the President.Hmmmmmm…

Keep up with St. Louis politics at www.pubdef.net

More than a dozen Missouri elected officials, including U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, former U.S. Senator Jean Carnahan, and Congressman Russ Carnahan, gathered today to announce Senator Barack Obama is returning to St. Louis next weekend.