Michigan Primary

Hillary Clinton is the only Democratic candidate left on the Michigan ballot. I'm going to predict a Hillary victory. Remember readers, you heard it hear first. Nowhere else do you get such accurate and hard-hitting punditry.

On the Republicanside, the pre-voting polling is either favoring Mitt Romney or John McCain.

Detroit Free-Press

Romney - 27 percent

McCain - 22 percent

Huckabee - 16 percent

Reuters, C-Span and Zogby

McCain - 27 percent'

Romney - 24 percent

Huckabee - 15 percent

American Research Group Inc

McCain - 31 percent

Romney - 30 percent

Jim Geraghty of The National Review is hearing that Romney is ahead of McCain 35 to 39 percent.

The Associated Press did issue exit polling with Republican voter. The GOP establishment should be depressed with these numbers.

_ six in 10 say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases

_ a similar number approve of the war in Iraq

_ a little more than half say it should be higher priority for the next president to reduce the budget deficit rather than cut taxes.

There are two ways to view these numbers. If the AP asked only registered Republican than the numbers indicate the base isn't enthused platform issues. That is bad news for the party. If AP was asking all registered voters than Michigan is turning red. I don't see that happening. John Kerry ran a horrible Michigan campaign and still beat Bush in the state.

Iraq, abortion and tax cuts are barely getting the majority of Michigan GOP voters. The Republican nominee can't talk about how great the economy is without being laughed out of the room. I'm expecting the GOP to swiftboat the Democratic nominee. It's what they know.

Update: The Guardian exit polling has Romney ahead of Mccain. There are still many precincts that need to be counted.

8.30pm: Polling is just about over. Results are now coming in from the first precincts to close and there is a lead for Romney in the early returns. To put in its proper context this is the first 1% of polling stations (Romney's actual votes are 3,393 and McCain's 2,751 - 39% to 31%).