Press Box

Kerry’s Super Tuesday

The early numbers. (Plus a redundant California numbers addendum.)

As the big boys at the network anchor desks might put it, “There’s a big trend shaping up on Super Tuesday, and it’s not a Dennis Kucinich surge!”

Up and down the Atlantic coast and inland to Ohio, John Kerry is fanny-whacking his opponents and packing his bags for the Boston convention, according to the weighted exit polls of one media organization. The only exception to the sweep is the fairy tale republic of Vermont, where the late Howard Dean has crawled out of his political grave to stake claim to the pittance of his state’s 15 delegates.

Remember, these numbers are only tentative numbers, not necessarily predictive of the final results but used by media organizations to get a Tuesday afternoon handle on what may unfold by early Tuesday evening, when the Big Computer model analyzes the data.Connecticut

Kerry 63

Edwards 26

Dean 5

Georgia

Kerry 50

Edwards 39

Sharpton 7

Maryland

Kerry 59

Edwards 28

Sharpton 4

Massachusetts

Kerry 75

Edwards 16

Dean 3

Kucinich 3

New York

Kerry 61

Edwards 21

Sharpton 10

Ohio

Kerry 58

Edwards 30

Kucinich 10

Rhode Island

Kerry 70

Edwards 21

Dean 5

Vermont

Dean 63

Kerry 33

Kucinich 3

(Edwards was not on the ballot)

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The earliest California numbers of the afternoon gave 64 percent to Kerry and 24 percent to Edwards. But with the California polls still open, the Edwards campaign accepted the numbers as gospel and gave up, telling the national press at about 8 p.m. ET that their candidate would strike the tent officially on Wednesday morning.

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I know I am a bad, bad, bad boy for publishing these numbers, and to atone for my sins, I will be resigning my citizenship in a reality TV series this fall. Help me title it. Send suggestions to pressbox@hotmail.com. (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)