Slapstick Politics: Super Tuesday Colorado Caucus Results

**Update 2--Super Tuesday Postmortem: Colorado Caucus Results

**Update--welcome Michelle Malkin readers, scroll for Colorado results and plenty of background links below . . .

MSM coverage: 9NEWS--7NEWS--CBS4--Rocky Mountain News--Denver Post

Update (12:45 am)--Colorado election fundraising numbers for Dems, GOP

Update (11:45 pm)--The Drunkablog provides tonight's (only?) LOL caucus moment
Joshua Sharf--Denver GOP misses a chance to educate and engage Republicans with caucus disorganization

Update (10:45 pm)--Romney, Obama declared winners
Final look at the unofficial numbers:
Obama 66%-Clinton 33% (98% reporting)
Romney 60%-McCain 19%-Huckabee 13% (68% reporting)

Update (10:30 pm)--videos from around the state-Dem/GOP HQ, Bob Schaffer/Mark Udall

Update (10:15 pm)--Ben DeGrow and Steven Nielson report from their caucuses on turnout, votes

Update (10:00 pm)--complete county-by-county results for Colorado

Update (9:45 pm)--Romney looking to the Mountain West for help

Update (9:40 pm)--CNN:
D--Obama declared winner with 64% (45% reporting)
R--Romney leads McCain 54-22% (20% reporting), should be declared winner soon

Update (9:15 pm)--CNN:
Democrats--Obama 65%-Clinton 34% (29% reporting)
Republicans--Romney 49%, McCain 25%, Huckabee 18%, Paul 7% (8% reporting)

Update (8:45 pm)--CNN has a running tab of returns for Colorado
Colorado GOP is also updating numbers by county
Hot Air has state-by-state winners

Update (8:40 pm)--
First numbers from the parties are in:

Early numbers from the Colorado Democratic Party showed Obama with a 2 to 1 margin over Sen. Hillary Clinton with less than 10 percent of precincts reporting.

Numbers from the Colorado Republican Party showed Romney had a 10 percent lead over Sen. John McCain and former Gov. Mike Huckabee with only a fraction of precincts reporting.

Update (7:30 pm)--precinct voted 5-1 Romney over McCain.

Candidate speeches were short but heated; Ron Paul supporters vociferous, attack Iraq War to much derision; elected delegate for precinct 409 to Denver County assembly; general mood subdued

9NEWS--overwhelming, overflow crowds at most Denver-area locations

Caucus update from Denver County GOP District 4 (6:42 pm)--
Arrived at Lake Middle School--home to both Republican and Democrat
caucuses. So far only Dem signs directing voters--GOP voter
suppression? (j/k)

Many, many more people (probably 4x at least 6 or 7x) than in 2006, and still 20
minutes to caucus kickoff.

Lots of Ron Paul supporters . . . stay tuned . . .

Even as results from the East coast and Midwest roll in, Coloradans are waiting to contribute their two cents in the Super Tuesday caucus.

Some thoughts going into tonight:
With other states having already completed their caucus/primaries, or with exit polling data available, how does an Obama victory in Georgia or an unexpected Huckabee win in West Virginia influence Colorado voters, who haven't even left their houses yet?

How does Colorado's Latino vote influence the Clinton/Obama battle?

And for those who are disaffected/disillusioned by the current GOP field, here's what the Colorado Democrats have in store for their caucus platforms.

An update on a story posted earlier--looks like Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News journalists will be allowed to participate in their caucuses after all (and as a result of some legal questioning), but will be limited in their election coverage so as to maintain some semblance of journalistic "objectivity".

Note--Colorado's caucuses are non-binding:

At stake in Colorado are 43 Republican and 55 Democratic delegates selected through the caucuses. The caucuses are nonbinding and Colorado voters won't select the delegates until the major parties have their conventions in May.

However, Tuesday's straw polls in Colorado were considered crucial because the final delegates will be selected through that process and it gives political momentum to the winners.

Look for updates as the evening rolls on . . .