People are talking about the election in a bunch of different threads, but I though I’d open this one as sort of a center point to talk about the NH results.
It’s now 8:21 eastern, the polls in New Hampshire have closed. CNN is reporting the following results.
For the Republicans, with 11% of the presincts reporting CNN picks McCain the winner with 37% of the vote. Romney is second, with 28%, Huckabee third, with 12%, and Guiliani fourth with 9%
For the Democrats, with 13% of the precincts in, there is no reported winner yet, but Clinton is first with 40%, followed by Obama, second with 36%, Edwards, third with 17%, and Richardson fourth with 4%.
So, when does Edwards bail and throw his support to Obama. He can’t go with Hillary after that debate the other night. Maybe he thinks he has a shot at the #2 slot again? Please, Barack, don’t even think about it!!
It would be interesting if Clinton manages to win. The media attention since Iowa has been very favorable for Obama and unfavorable for Hillary; if she’s able to overcome even that, we’re in for a good show.
The other question is, what does Romney do? Romney has spent what can best be called “a buttload of money”, and he hasn’t won any delegates yet. At what point does he say, “You know, this just isn’t worth it”?
The turnout differential between the two parties right now is impressive - with 44 D and 43 R precincts reporting, the Dems have ~44K votes, and the Pubbies have ~27K votes.
I think he would be a huge wuss not to keep plugging along until February 5th. If he does not have a good showing then he should take a good hard look at what he is doing and pull the plug on the run.
Southern NH has a large number of former MA residents since its within commuting distance of the Boston area. Upstate is more rural, and more conservative.
Southern New Hampshire is more liberal…a lot of Mass. immigrants. The northern part of the state is the old country Yankees, and they tend to lean libertarian/conservative.
Neither of which he’s yet won, and one of which (SC) he’s been polling third.
For what it’s worth, Romney actually has more delgates than Huckabee, right now, because he took the Wyoming primary (which got almost no media coverage.) He’s definitely in a tight spot now, though. He has almost no shot at SC, so his best hope is getting a respectable showing on Super Tuesday and politicking the convention to get support.
I’m not sure why everyone is down on Romney. He didn’t win NH or Iowa, but it looks like he is going to get the most votes combined between those states.