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Posted: February 5, 2008 7:51 PM
Clinton Looks to Rebound from Georgia in Connecticut, Delaware and Missouri
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As the first big round of polls close at 8 p.m. EST, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton hoped to do well in Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee, looking to rebound from a projected defeat in Georgia.

Sen. Barack Obama, helped by a heavily black voting population, appeared to cruise to victory in the state, like he did in South Carolina last month.

She hopes to pick up critical victories in Massachusetts, despite Sen. Edward Kennedy’s support for Obama and in New Jersey, both states located close to New York where the candidate enjoys high approval ratings.

Clinton visited Connecticut on Monday for some last-minute campaigning but the outcome is still up in the air. “Connecticut has a maverick history,” said NewsHour analyst Mark Shields on Tuesday. “They’ve shown a willingness to depart for establishment.”

A big state to watch is Missouri, which has traditionally been a swing state in the general electionand a tossup in the primary. Clinton visited St. Louis on over the weekend while Bill visited Columbia and Springfield on Saturday.

She is not expected to do as well as Obama in Alabama, Illinois, where he is a junior senator, or many of the caucus states such as Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota, Alaska and Minnesota.

At 8:30, polls close in Arkansas, where her husband served as governor before he won the White House; Clinton is expected to do well there.

In demographic breakdowns of early exit polling in Super Tuesday states, Clinton led among Hispanic voters - which will be to her benefit in states like California and New
York and woman voters, though her advantage over Obama narrowed from the early voting states.

If the nomination turns into a likely battle for delegates that drags on past Tuesday, Clinton announced that she would participate in debates in Ohio and Texas, states that vote on March 4.

According to Associated Press counts heading into Super Tuesday, Clinton leads the delegate count with 261 to Obama’s 190 delegates.