UPDATED 9:48: Clinton's lead in Pennsylvania is holding, ranging between 6 percent (consistent with polls reported this morning) and 8 percent. This gives her the ability to continue to fight - and to make the case that she can win in the big states and swing states. But it settles nothing, and makes it pretty clear that the tension in the Democratic Party will continue. Republican Bill Bennett has been arguing on CNN that Pennsylvania proves that "Clintons win," and that Obama is a big risk, because he's more liberal than John Kerry and Michael Dukakis. Bennett also says that both Clintons know how to find the center of American politics. Obama, he says, also seemed to know that until the last few weeks. CNN commentators are also noting that Obama vastly outspent Clinton, but she won.
It'll likely take a couple of days to sort out the exit polls and the response of superdelegates and other party leaders to today's voting in Pennsylvania. Next up: Indiana, in two weeks.
9:08 p.m.: CNN has called the Pennsylvania Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton. Only 7 percent of the poll results have been reported, but CNN seems comfortable with declaring Clinton the winner. The spread is still less than 10 percent, but this early, it's not possible to tell what the final percentages will be. CNN is saying, however, that Clinton is winning the blue-collar vote and that she will use that to try to convince superdelegates that if Obama couldn't capture blue-collar workers in this state and in Ohio, the Democratic Party risks losing them to John McCain in the November election.
Posted at 8:30 p.m.: The polls in Pennsylvania have been closed for 30 minutes, and major media are saying that the race is too close to call. That's not surprising, and we can't read much into it. In a less tight race, media such as CNN are able to call races based on their exit polls. Having been stung by wrong projections in close races, they're being more cautious now. For the past week, the Clinton-Obama race has been very close. Clinton has led, Obama has crept up, but a reasonable number of voters were undecided. A Philadelphia Inquirer poll earlier this week indicated that people who made up their minds a few weeks ago were trending toward Obama. So were the large number of new registered voters. But polls yesterday indicated that late-deciders would vote for Clinton.
Some media are saying that projections won't come until 10 tonight. More to come.