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.