Friday, January 4, 2008

New Hampshire Predictions

If it's true, as so many letter-writers on Salon's Iowa coverage believe, that the MSM is shilling for Hillary by ignoring Edward's second-place finish, I think there might be a backlash coming in New Hampshire.

My initial reaction last night was to predict that Obama would win even bigger in New Hampshire with more than 40 percent, Hillary would fall under 20 percent and Edwards would barely hang on in second place with maybe 25 percent.

But there's a lot of fury out on there Edwards' behalf - and not just from Edwards partisans - that he could turn to his advantage, if he plays it right.

I'm going to say that the cold fact that he beat the presumptive nominee despite being outspent 5-1, plus Elizabeth's determination, plus having nothing to lose, might just propel John Edwards to a close second in New Hampshire, and leave Hillary even further back in the dust. That will be enough to keep him alive through South Carolina and to Super Tuesday, where southern states will propel Edwards past Obama.

I'm sticking with my repug predictions, being on a roll. That scream of terror you heard last night came from Wall Street, where they can't write enough zeros on the checks they're sending to John McCain. The Stop Huckabee attacks are going to make the Anybody-But-Dean movement of 2004 seem like a knitting circle.

As for Willard, is there a repug out there who could really respect a front-runner who lost big to Gomer, despite out-spending him about 20-1?

And Rudy - please, please, please stay in the race. I promise you, Florida's going make you a winner. Really. Seriously. N-Pod swears it.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

3 comments:

Michael Westmoreland-White, Ph.D. said...

Anger alone won't cut it. Edwards new NH commercial, aired just this a.m., keeps his populist progressive economic theme--but uses Obama tones and reaches out to Independents and Republicans. He learns quickly and keeps going!

The Obama/Edwards 1-2 win in Iowa is very good news for NH: NH has 45% registered independents--and they don't show up in polls of Democrats. The Indies in NH said that if H.R. Clinton won in Iowa, they would vote in the GOP primary (probably for McCain)--but if Obama or Edwards won, they would vote in the NH Dem. primary. So, expect Indies to split their votes between Obama and Edwards (not necessarily in 50/50 fashion) and put Hillary 3rd again.

But I wouldn't count on Edwards winning SC. I think Obama will win there. Edwards might win in Nevada, also a caucus state, but if he hasn't won anything (not just 2nd place) before 05 Feb., he better start campaigning for Veep.

Yellow Dog said...

Interesting info about NH independents - hope you're right.

Michael Westmoreland-White, Ph.D. said...

Breaking news: help me spread it:
NH Dems boo Hillary:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/05/6197/