Your primary liveblogging

12:24 I keep nodding off, and doubt I'll be able to stay the course. I leave you with the thought that the longer this drags on, the more likely this is to become a Pyrrhic victory for whoever wins.

10:52 Ohio called for HIllary. In the interests of preserving human dignity, I will not attempt to spin this.

10:18 Pat Buchanan is claiming that this is basically a referendum on NAFTA. To the person with a hammer . . .

9:38: Commentator says "What George Bush did in 2004 was to create new Republicans, and John McCain will be looking to do that in a different way this time around." To be honest, I feel that both McCain and Bush are too old to start new families.

9:24: Stephen Green is attempting the oft-before-achieved primary drunkblogging.

9:21 Huckabee is basically conceding. Now that he's dropped out, I have to admit he's kind of charming, like your good-hearted Uncle Ned who believes in free silver, and fairies. Meanwhile, Rhode Island is projected for Clinton, as expected; the major question is how close the race will be.

9:09: Best line of the night so far is from The Economist: "Fox News is also reporting the impending Bush endorsement. Tough break for Mr McCain, but I guess it's best to get bad news out of the way early in the campaign. " That's weapons-grade snark.

9:00: I am really starting to get irritated by the portentious tone with which anchors relay the surprising news that John McCain has carried the Republican primary. Give it up, already. There is one piece of real news: he now has 1205 delegates, enough to lock the nomination. On the Democratic side, Texas and Ohio still too close to call--time to make a pot of coffee. Because I am an impartial journalist, I will not be using beans from either Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts. That's how you can be sure of my unbiased evenhandedness, despite the fact that I prefer Dunkin' Donuts.

8:44: Chris Matthews says that this is between the Starbucks crowd and the Dunkin' Donuts crowd, a nifty political analogy as these things go. Then he utterly spoils it by hastening to add that he likes both kinds of coffee equally well. Myself, I'm an unabashed Dunkin' Donuts girl.

8:34: MSNBC reports lines going out the door in Dallas. If one thing is clear, it's that this election is generating record turnout, at least among Democrats. Unless McCain can drum up similar interest among the Republican base, he's going to have a very tough fight in November.

8:32: Rove is now on spinning for McCain. Hello, MSNBC!

The post is getting too long . . . more below the fold

8:28: Fox News' math can't be right. They are reporting 449,702 votes for Obama and 323,623 for Clinton, which they claim is less than 1% of the vote. The entire population of Texas is only 23 million, so this implies that all of them are voting in the Democratic primary--two or three times.

8:23: Everything really is bigger in Texas; some precincts closed at 8, and about 1% of the vote is reporting. 1% of the vote is a freakishly large number of people.

8:20: Drudge says that the exit polls are too close to call in Ohio and Texas. That is not good for Hillary--Ohio was supposed to be a lock.

8:04: Bill O'Reilly is suggesting that minority turnout in Texas is a wash: Latinos broke 2-to-1 against Obama, but blacks broke 4-to-1 for him; the two allegedly cancel each other out. It's all on the white vote--will Rush Limbaugh's campaign for Hillary give her enough votes to matter?

8:02: A judge has allowed polls to remain open until 9:00 in Sandusky county. It's going to be a loooooooooooooooooong night.

7:51: More excitement: both Clinton and Obama camps are accusing the others of trying to rig the caucuses.

8:00: Fox News is reporting that the ballot shortages were in Cuyahoga and Franklin counties, which contain (respectively) Cleveland and Columbus. The Obama campaign has requested a poll extension for voters who were prevented by ballot shortages from voting. Also, allegedly the weather in Ohio is suppressing Hillary turnout, not Obama turnout as earlier speculation had said.

7:49: Fox News is actually doing reporting. Apparently some places in Ohio have run out of ballots. Assume that means voter turnout has been very high somewhere. Also assume that if it was in the cities, Obama will scream foul play, while a shortage in the suburbs will cause Hillary to have a baby cow.

7:47: CNN's editorial demagoguery on trade even more grating than Fox News' rampant cheerleading for the GOP. Time to switch channels.

7:45: Former DC journalist Alex Massie, now retreated to Scotland, attempts the never-before-achieved feat of primary-and-cricket-liveblogging. Added difficulty points because it is already well past midnight there.

7:37: C'mon, call Texas for McCain. The rest of us called it for him weeks ago.

7:05: Jeffrey Toobin just said the most vacuous thing I have ever heard about an election, and I include these gems: "You know the great thing about tonight is that it's all about the voters." Was this a surprise appearance, or did he spend all day thinking that up?

7:01: Vermont goes to Obama. Hippies like Obama--who could have guessed?.