Ten for ten: Hawaii is Obama territory

Last night's battle in Hawaii was was easily a blowout:

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama won a landslide victory in the state of his birth last night as an unprecedented turnout at the Hawaii Democratic caucus overwhelmed precinct volunteers and party officials.

With 100 percent of precincts counted, Obama had 28,347 votes, or 75.7 percent, to 8,835, or 23.6 percent, for U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Excitement about Obama, who graduated from Punahou School and represents Illinois, raised interest in last night's caucuses to record levels. Party officials had expected a larger-than-normal turnout and printed 17,000 ballots. It proved well short of the more than 37,000 votes cast and many precincts resorted to handing out scraps of paper to voters to write in their choice.

In comparison, the last caucus in 2004 had a total of nearly 4,000, which had been considered a strong turnout.

Ian Lind also did some liveblogging of the Hawaii caucuses.

Barack Obama hasn't lost a single contest since Super Tuesday ended. He's got the lead in delegates and the momentum; traditional media outlets are describing Hillary Clinton's campaign as "fading".

It's becoming very difficult for Howard Wolfson and Mark Penn to spin what's happening. The suggestion that the states Obama has already won somehow "don't matter" is laughable, and what's more, Obama is now winning over constituencies that had been going for Clinton.

If he locks up Ohio, Vermont, Texas, and Rhode Island in a couple of weeks, Clinton may see little choice but to throw in the towel.