Wisconsin Knockout?

(CNN) ElectionCenter 2008

McCain wants knockout

McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is looking for big wins in the Wisconsin and Washington state primaries to demonstrate he is starting to unify the Republican party behind his nomination, including conservatives upset by his positions on immigration, campaign finance and other issues....

McCain also hopes he can score big enough wins to convince Mike Huckabee, the last remaining top-tier Republican candidate challenging McCain, to drop out of the race. The former Arkansas governor has vowed to stay in the race until McCain has enough delegates to win the nomination, saying voters deserve a choice.

"I'd like to think we've got enough support in Wisconsin, that we can actually win here, and it would be a very big thing for us," Huckabee said during a campaign stop in Hudson, Wisconsin, Monday. "But it would also be a good thing for Wisconsin for me to win, because it would show that the party was wrong to say this is over, and it would also be wrong to end the game before people in places like Wisconsin had a chance to vote.

We'll see how it goes. Later tonight I'll do my own "live blog", simply because it's an interesting way to follow the returns. My personal assessment is that there is a very large block of voters out there yet not at all ready to coalesce around McCain. But I don't know the demographics, I just don't know how many of the disgruntled there are in Wisconsin.

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6:50PM
As of 5:00PM (real time) Bill Bradlely has the simple statement based on early exit polls: 'John McCain will have a sizable win. --No details.

99.9% of coverage is Obama v Clinton. Geraghty: Possibly 60 - 40 Obama.

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7:25
From RCP:

8:00PM - Just caught some exit polling data from Fox:...
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*59-35: Huckabee is winning evangelicals.
* No numbers, but Huckabee is also winning conservatives.
* 54-31: Huckabee is winning "value voters".
* 53-47: McCain is winning Republicans, who make up 70% of all GOP voters. - BLAKE DVORAK

The big number here of course is McCain winning Republicans by 6%, in that all the others are subsumed as Republicans. McCain will also get most independents, the other thirty percent. So from these numbers it looks like a large win for McCain. But these are exit numbers, and early.
It is pleasing that evangelicals are finally coalecsing around Huckabee.

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7:56
How soon will they call the winner?

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8:01
CNN has already called for McCain, no numbers.

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9:10
55 - 37 McCain, with 21% reporting. That's a very solid win. Huck did win the evangelicals 54 - 37% (simply to state it one more time), but there does seem to be a rough equivalency otherwise between him and McCain on what I would generally consider conservative issues. I guess he's close enough for nearly half the conservative electorate.

Over-all a disappointment to my hopes, though not so much to my expectations. I'm still assuming the final count will be a little closer --the rural areas reporting a little later.
--Have no idea how Washington will turn out.

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10:28
This from Rich Lowry:

What Does It Say?
That running against the mathematically eliminated also-ran, Mike Huckabee,John McCain is getting about 55%? And that running against the once-fearsomeDemocratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama is getting about 55%?

Should Hillary get out of the race?

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10:44
This is very interesting, I don't know quite what to make of it. In Washington, 40% of the vote counted, McCain has 48%, Huckabee 21%, Paul 8%, and Romney, not in the race, 21%. This decidedly is a message vote. I doubt anybody expected that. Can't anybody get Romney to drop out! Get Paul to drop out! Doesn't everyone understand that everyone wants McCain and only McCain, and that Huckabee staying in just to "offer an alternative" is just offensive to everybody?