Hillary Clinton pulled it off tonight in New Hampshire, winning the Democratic primary despite nearly a week of negative press and talks today of major shake-ups in her campaign following her third-place finish in Thursday's Iowa caucus. Pundits on TV are attributing her comeback after Barack Obama's recent surge and expected New Hampshire win to two main things: Saturday's nights ABC debate and Clinton's show of emotion yesterday. There is also talk of New Hampshire voters' defiance and desire to be heard after most everyone had already called the nomination for the seemingly unstoppable Obama. And they truly did reopen the race, even though the majority of them think Obama would fare better in the general election. So much for my "Meet the Press" bad-omen prediction yesterday, and so much for all the poll numbers strongly indicating an Obama win today. The conversation with Hillary Clinton has just begun, and I think it will be an interesting dialogue between Clinton and Obama in Nevada and South Carolina right through Feb. 5.
But, did Obama's Iowa momentum already destroy one potential presidential candidate? I found this story in The New York Times late last night, and will be keeping an eye on any decisions by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the wake of Clinton's defeat over Obama.
While the Democratic race has really come down to just Clinton and Obama (sorry, Edwards), the Republican race is still very wide open. John McCain delivered somewhat of an upset to (again) former front-runner Mitt Romney, who came in second, as he did in Iowa (though he won the little-talked-about Wyoming caucus on Saturday). So the Republicans have had three caucuses and three winners (Mike Huckabee won in Iowa). And don't forget about Rudy Giuliani, who is relying on a national strategy that doesn't put too much pressure on these early states. I am listening to MSNBC in the background right now, and just as I am trying to sum up this paragraph, I hear Tim Russert do it for me: "Who is the Republican front runner right now?"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment