12:55AM - Given Clinton's win in California, Obama winning Missouri is that much more important. Obama won a majority of contests tonight, 13 to Clinton's 8, and his camp is claiming a 606-534 delegate victory, though we've all learned that hard delegate counts can be somewhat elusive.

Despite Obama's success, the sense is that Clinton had a good night if only for the fact that she more than held her own in some key contests and performed "better than expected." Thus a split decision looks like a win and, in the estimation of some pundits including Bill Kristol, she leaves Super Tuesday as a slight favorite as the contest moves forward. - TOM BEVAN

12:33AM - Fox just called Missouri for Obama. CNN hasn't yet, and with 98% reporting, Obama leads Hillary by 4,926 votes. - BLAKE DVORAK

12:24AM - Looking ahead, Karl Rove on Fox just said that Dem voters came out ahead of GOP voters 2-to-1 today. - BLAKE DVORAK

12:20AM - "I know a lot of people care about my endorsement," New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson tells XM Radio's POTUS '08. But voters "don't need someone like me telling them what to do," he says. - REID WILSON

12:13AM - Fox just called California for Hillary and McCain. Doesn't change the landscape all that much on the Dem side, especially considering that Obama and Hillary could still split the delegate count, althought it is a solid win for Hillary. Huge sigh of relief for them. On the GOP side, that might be the last nail in Romney's coffin tonight. - BLAKE DVORAK

12:08AM - McCain has won the close race in Missouri, stealing what would have been a major victory for Huckabee. On the Dem side, Obama has opened up a slight lead with 98% reporting. - BLAKE DVORAK

11:32 PM - Jim Geraghty runs down the list of bad news for Mitt Romney. Romney says he will continue, but looking around at some of the Romney supporting sites there's a whiff of resignation that he didn't do what he needed to do tonight. The real question: what will Rush, Hannity, et al. say tomorrow? The two candidates the talk radio crowd hates the most had the best nights, relatively speaking. So how will they react and will McCain make any fence mending moves? - TOM BEVAN

11:25PM - While we all settle in for the long night (thanks, California) and wait for that pot of coffee to brew, here's the latest state-by-state update:

Republicans
McCain: AZ, CT, DE, IL, NJ, NY, OK
Romney: MA, ND, UT, MT
Huckabee: AL, AR, GA, TN, WV
Too close to call: CA, MO

Democrats:
Clinton: AR, MA, NJ, NY, OK, TN
Obama: AL, CT, DE, CO, GA, ID, IL, KS, MN, ND, UT
Too close to call: CA, MO

-BLAKE DVORAK

11:15 PM - There is a fascinating race going on in MO right now. Obama has closed Clinton's lead down to 20,000 votes - with many precincts from St. Louis left to be counted. The exit poll showed a virtual tie between the two. Will Obama find enough voters to pull out the win? Of course, this is a great example of how we cannot reduce everything to the beauty contest. This race is essentially a tie, so expect Missouri to basically split its delegation to Denver. JAY COST

11:06PM - Romney spokesman Kevin Madden tells RCP: "Senator McCain has woefully underperformed everywhere as a result of his inability to appeal to conservatives. Grassroots Republicans recognize that McCain is unable to draw a clear contrast with Democrats on key issues and they're not willing to support him as the standard bearer for a party that he has a history of opposing on key issues." - REID WILSON

11:03PM - A rival campaign told the RCP that McCain's win in Arizona will come from absentee ballots. The results are part of what both Romney and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's campaigns are calling an underperformance for McCain on Super Tuesday. - REID WILSON

10:35 PM - Will Mitt Romney be able to salvage an otherwise bad night by winning California? It seems unlikely, given the winner take all by CD allocation of delegates. But Karl Rove suggested earlier that we may not know until tomorrow morning just how much Romney may be able to off McCain's lead, and hope he doesn't finish behind Huckabee. - TOM BEVAN

10:16 PM - While Super Tuesday is fun to watch - it is important to remember that it is not like a general election contest. No states on the Democratic side are winner take all. And many states on the Republican side are not, either. What this means is that we will not know the full implication of tonight's results until after the votes have been tabulated and delegate allocations have been estimated. This is much more the case for the Democrats than the Republicans. So, for instance, while Obama wins Connecticut - it matters by how much he won it. Generally, it is important to distinguish between the beauty contest and the delegate allocation in each contest. Both are important. It is easy to forget this - as the press is so inclined toward emphasizing the beauty contest. - JAY COST

10:02 PM - Huckabee's "surprise" showing in the South should not come as a huge surprise. The South has a habit of getting behind favorite sons. Recall that Super Tuesday was the invention of Southern Democrats going into the 1988 Democratic primary battle. Contrary to conventional wisdom - Clinton won the 1992 nomination not because he could spin a loss in New Hampshire into a win, but because he could go south. He won Georgia after having lost a whole host of states. Huckabee proved that he is reasonably viable by winning in Iowa and his placing in South Carolina. This was apparently enough for southern states to reward him. The real question, to my mind, is whether he can expand beyond the South (not including the WV caucus, of course). Last I checked, Huckabee has a lead in Missouri, though the exit poll shows McCain doing well. If Huckabee wins that - it will be a big deal. Of course, as Michael Barone is noting right now, that lead do not include St. Louis County. Relatedly, Huckabee becomes a "big deal" when he shows that he can win more than just evangelical voters. JAY COST

10:00PM - Tom nailed it: Utah for Romney. Utah also went for Obama. - BLAKE DVORAK

9:57PM - Another one for McCain: Oklahoma. - BLAKE DVORAK

9:53PM - It will be interesting to see how affected the turnout in Tennesse (Shelby County, in particular) was due to the storms. Memphis city schools were let out just after noon today in anticipation of the storms. How inspired were voters to get to the polls at that point? - KYLE TRYGSTAD

9:48 PM - A big prediction: Mitt Romney will win his second state tonight when the polls in Utah close in 12 minutes. - TOM BEVAN

9:41PM - Illinois was called instantly for Obama. Clinton won New York right away. Romney won Massachusetts, after a brief delay. How worried is John McCain that, 40 minutes after polls are closed, he hasn't gotten a call for Arizona? Exits show him beating Romney, but not by much. It looks almost certain McCain will win his home state by fewer than 10 points. - REID WILSON

9:35PM - Quick update: Dem states still too close to call: CT, MO, AZ.

GOP states too close to call: GA, MO, OK, TN, AZ. - BLAKE DVORAK

9:32PM - While the race in Arizona remains too close to call, Clinton enjoys just a 7-point lead among Latinos, the exit polls show. Latinos make up 18% of the electorate in the state, making it hugely important to any Democrat's winning coalition. More importantly, perhaps, it may be a harbinger of a better Obama performance among Latinos in California, which closes in another hour and a half. - REID WILSON

9:28PM - Obama wins Alabama the networks are reporting. - BLAKE DVORAK

9:26PM - At the moment, it appears Obama is winning more delegates than Clinton, not including New York and New Jersey, which will pull Clinton much closer. Still, if Obama comes even close to Clinton tonight, it's a win for him, at least in the sense that it advances the delegate-fight argument. - REID WILSON

9:23PM - Something to keep in mind: California polls don't close for 2 hours. How much of an effect will the election results being broadcast over the radio waves have on voters in the most delegate-rich state who are driving home from work and to the polls? - KYLE TRYGSTAD

9:20 PM - NY called for McCain. - TOM BEVAN

9:13PM - A note to the media: Mike Huckabee is not dead. He's ahead narrowly in Missouri, has already won Arkansas, Alabama and West Virginia and looks competitive in Arizona. If today is a bad day for Mitt Romney, it's a great day for Huckabee. Of course, if the Republican race comes down to a McCain-Huckabee battle, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter will be hurling themselves from windows later this evening. - REID WILSON

9:12PM - Fox just called NJ for Clinton. - BLAKE DVORAK

9:10PM - The irony, of course, of Hillary winning Mass. is that Governor Deval Patrick and Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy were backing Barack Obama. If Obama has a good night among Hispanics later in the evening, Kennedy may have had a bigger effect outside his home state than inside. Obama surrogates Claire McCaskill, Kathleen Sebelius and Janet Napolitano are nervous, we're sure. - REID WILSON

9:05PM - With the next wave of states, here's where things stand:

Republicans:
Huckabee: WV, AL, AR
Romney: MA
McCain: IL, NJ, CT, DE
Too close to call: MO, OK, TN, GA, AZ

Democrats:
Clinton: TN, AR, OK, NY, MA
Obama: GA, IL, DE
Too close to call: AL, CT, MO, NJ, AZ

-BLAKE DVORAK

8:55PM - Adding to Tom's earlier post, Arkansas, as Huckabee likes to point out, is really a pretty blue state. Democrats own five out of six seats in the state's Congressional delegation, along with the governor's mansion, which they won in 2006 by a wide margin. Sure, it went for President Bush twice, but the state is less Republican than people think. On the plus side, Clinton's team is confident they overperformed in one of the state's congressional districts, meaning they will earn more delegates from Arkansas than they had expected. - REID WILSON

8:54 PM - A look at the Missouri exits for the GOP: Huck cruising among evangelicals and in the Southwest. No surprise. Romney winning the St. Louis suburbs over McCain by 7. McCain winning the KC area huge. Romney winning on immigration, McCain on Iraq and again, probably to the surprise of the Romney folks, McCain winning 33 to 31 over Romney on the issue of the economy, which 46% of voters listed at the most important issue to them. UPDATE: It's worth adding that in Missouri, as in Florida, the 33% of those who feel the economy is "excellent" or "good" went for Romney by 16 points, but McCain by 8 points over Huckabee and 10 over Romney among the 67% of Missourians who feel the economy is "not so good" or "poor."- TOM BEVAN

8:42 PM - The Clinton campaign emails talking points on her victory in Arkansas:

We're very excited that Hillary Clinton has added a third red state in her victory column. Clinton now has scored strong victories in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas. The Obama campaign has been spinning that they have a monopoly on red states; tonight we showed they don't. With these important victories, Hillary Clinton has demonstrated that she can compete and win in red states.

Fair enough, but as far as Arkansas is concerned, tonight for Clinton it's a home state, not a red state. - TOM BEVAN

8:35 PM - To add to Blake's last post, Huckabee is having a very good night which would seem to indicate that the "A Vote for Huck Is a Vote For McCain" line that was pushed hard by the right wing talkers over the past week fell on deaf ears. - TOM BEVAN

8:30PM - Arkansas just closed. No surprise here: Huckabee and Clinton are the winners. What is noteworthy: Huckabee has won three states so far. - BLAKE DVORAK

8:18PM - Fox calls Alabama for Huckabee. - BLAKE DVORAK

8:10PM - So far, everything appears to be going according to script. Obama won Illinois, McCain won New Jersey, Romney won Massachusetts, Clinton won Tennessee. Keep your eye on New Jersey and Connecticut on the Democratic side. Obama appears to be running strong, if he could knock her off in two states in the Northeast that would be the first sign that he's headed for a big night. TOM BEVAN

8:04PM - Fox just called Tennessee for Clinton; New Jersey for McCain. - BLAKE DVORAK

8:01PM - Instant calls at 8pm: Obama wins Illinois, Clinton wins Oklahoma. Clinton-favored states Connecticut, New Jersey and Obama-heavy Alabama, Delaware not called.

Romney wins home state Massachusetts, McCain wins Connecticut and Illinois. - REID WILSON

8:00PM - Buckle up, nine states are closing.

Alabama
Connecticut
Delaware
Illinois
Massachusetts
Missouri
New Jersey
Oklahoma
Tennessee

-BLAKE DVORAK

7:40PM - Looking at the GA exits, Obama not surprisingly won black voters 88-11 and lost white voters 56-39. The breakdown among white men was 49-46 and white women 62-36. - BLAKE DVORAK

7:20PM - Another good sign of Obama's strength among white voters comes in 45 minutes, when Alabama polls close. 26% of the electorate there is black, while 28% is black in Georgia. Clinton has led in recent polls, and leads by just over a point in the latest RCP Alabama Average. If Obama pulls out another big win, Team Clinton should settle in for a long, lonely night. - REID WILSON

7:05PM - Barack Obama has won the Georgia primary, an instant call made by MSNBC and CNN, at least. That's the sign of what looks like an early good night for the Obama camp.

On the GOP side, the race is close between all three candidates, which is an early sign of Huckabee's prominence, a bad position for the Romney campaign. - REID WILSON

6:57PM - Reid Wilson has the first wave of exits over at Politics Nation. - BLAKE DVORAK

6:42PM - A source at the DNC says the turnout in Fairfield County, Conn., is surprisingly high. They think that that's good for Clinton due to proximity to her home in NY. They are probably wrong. Those affluent Democrats are likely to be for Obama, just as they gave Ned Lamont a big margin over Lieberman in the 2006 Democratic primary. - KEVIN RENNIE