ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House played down talk that the United States might be headed for a recession and said a report on fourth-quarter gross domestic product released earlier on Wednesday did not change its outlook.
"I have not heard at all that we have changed our outlook, and we are not forecasting a recession," White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters traveling with President George W. Bush to California for the start of a tour of western states.
U.S. GDP in the fourth-quarter grew at a meager annual rate of 0.6 percent, the Commerce Department said. That reading was weaker than 1.2 percent rate forecast by private economists.
The report also said GDP increased by 2.2 percent in all of 2007, the slowest pace in five years.
Fratto also urged the U.S. Senate to move quickly to pass a $150 billion stimulus package aimed at boosting the economy.
"I think the only thing we can do is help remind them that America is expecting action and they are expecting it quickly and the only way for an economic growth package to have the desired impact is to do it quickly," he said.
(Reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Neil Stemplema
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
McCain: A serious candidate
If Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is having fun in his second run for president, he sure has a strange way of showing it.
John McCain on Monday addressed a Washington think tank about the issue of energy security. (Getty Images)In a speech Monday on energy security -- the last of three major policy addresses in the lead-up to the formal announcement of his presidential bid on Wednesday -- McCain projected an air of somber seriousness that showed little of the fun-loving maverick that voters (and the media) fell in love with in 2000.
It's worth noting that McCain's subject matter -- how American dependency on foreign oil is undermining national security -- is something short of hilariously funny. And it didn't help that McCain read the speech from a huge teleprompter in the back of the room, which led many people in the audience to crane their necks to see the TV screen.
But, whatever the circumstances, McCain's speech sparked little energy among the crowd gathered at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The lone highlight was when he pulled out a huge and cumbersome cell phone from the 1980s and modern model to show the power of American ingenuity. In general, the speech was extremely heavy on policy proposals and light on uplifting rhetoric.
The press conference afterward was more of the same. McCain answered a series of questions with his voice soft and his hands clasped in front of him. Asked about the Supreme Court hearing set for Wednesday on a legal challenge to the 2002 campaign finance bill that bears his name, McCain said quietly, "I would hope that most people would recognize we have eliminated one of the most corrupting influences in Washington ... soft money."
Even a semi-antagonistic question on whether putting a lobbyist -- former Rep. Tom Loeffler (R-Texas) -- in charge of his national fundraising effort undermined his reform message didn't excite McCain. He recounted that he had known Loeffler since the early 1980s, adding: "He is one of a large number of people helping me with fundraising."
McCain has shown flashes of his trademark wit and biting sense of humor -- especially during a recent bus tour of Iowa and New Hampshire. But McCain version 2008 is considerably more restrained than the 2000 model.
It would seem that McCain's change in attitude is part of a broader effort to paint him as a serious man for serious times. McCain allies believe he is the only candidate in the Republican field with the experience to handle the tough challenges facing the nation domestically and internationally. Showing his serious side, the theory goes, is essential to proving to people that McCain and McCain alone is prepared to walk into the Oval Office in January 2009 and begin governing.
It also reflects the belief within his campaign that while the fun-loving McCain may have been an appealing figure to many voters in 2000, it didn't win him the primary. McCain has gone to great lengths to become the frontrunner/establishment favorite in this race, which means less bomb throwing and more statesmanship
Still, flashes of the "old" iconoclastic McCain still peep out from time to time. Witness the minor outcry over his warbling of "Bomb Iran" last week. Could McCain -- now no longer burdened with the "frontrunner" tag -- shift back to a more freewheeling approach to the campaign?
Maybe.
Asked Monday about last week's Iran controversy, McCain had this advice for his critics: "Lighten up and get a life
John McCain on Monday addressed a Washington think tank about the issue of energy security. (Getty Images)In a speech Monday on energy security -- the last of three major policy addresses in the lead-up to the formal announcement of his presidential bid on Wednesday -- McCain projected an air of somber seriousness that showed little of the fun-loving maverick that voters (and the media) fell in love with in 2000.
It's worth noting that McCain's subject matter -- how American dependency on foreign oil is undermining national security -- is something short of hilariously funny. And it didn't help that McCain read the speech from a huge teleprompter in the back of the room, which led many people in the audience to crane their necks to see the TV screen.
But, whatever the circumstances, McCain's speech sparked little energy among the crowd gathered at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The lone highlight was when he pulled out a huge and cumbersome cell phone from the 1980s and modern model to show the power of American ingenuity. In general, the speech was extremely heavy on policy proposals and light on uplifting rhetoric.
The press conference afterward was more of the same. McCain answered a series of questions with his voice soft and his hands clasped in front of him. Asked about the Supreme Court hearing set for Wednesday on a legal challenge to the 2002 campaign finance bill that bears his name, McCain said quietly, "I would hope that most people would recognize we have eliminated one of the most corrupting influences in Washington ... soft money."
Even a semi-antagonistic question on whether putting a lobbyist -- former Rep. Tom Loeffler (R-Texas) -- in charge of his national fundraising effort undermined his reform message didn't excite McCain. He recounted that he had known Loeffler since the early 1980s, adding: "He is one of a large number of people helping me with fundraising."
McCain has shown flashes of his trademark wit and biting sense of humor -- especially during a recent bus tour of Iowa and New Hampshire. But McCain version 2008 is considerably more restrained than the 2000 model.
It would seem that McCain's change in attitude is part of a broader effort to paint him as a serious man for serious times. McCain allies believe he is the only candidate in the Republican field with the experience to handle the tough challenges facing the nation domestically and internationally. Showing his serious side, the theory goes, is essential to proving to people that McCain and McCain alone is prepared to walk into the Oval Office in January 2009 and begin governing.
It also reflects the belief within his campaign that while the fun-loving McCain may have been an appealing figure to many voters in 2000, it didn't win him the primary. McCain has gone to great lengths to become the frontrunner/establishment favorite in this race, which means less bomb throwing and more statesmanship
Still, flashes of the "old" iconoclastic McCain still peep out from time to time. Witness the minor outcry over his warbling of "Bomb Iran" last week. Could McCain -- now no longer burdened with the "frontrunner" tag -- shift back to a more freewheeling approach to the campaign?
Maybe.
Asked Monday about last week's Iran controversy, McCain had this advice for his critics: "Lighten up and get a life
Mc Cain emerges as front runner while democrats spin super Tuesday wins
Fresh off impressive coast-to-coast primary wins, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain laid claim Wednesday to front-runner status, while Barack Obama declared delegate superiority over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
But the Democratic outcome was not immediately clear, with hundreds of delegates still being tallied. Even though Clinton took eight states to Obama’s 13, preliminary numbers showed her in the lead in the delegate race, as she added heavy-hitting Democratic states to her list of victories — including California, New York and Massachusetts — leaving the nomination to be decided another day.
Arizona Sen. McCain put more distance between himself and his closest rival Mitt Romney taking coast-to-coast wins, and Romney lost more ground to Mike Huckabee, whose campaign’s fundraising pales in comparison to the other two GOP candidates, but whose Christian conservative credentials gave him badly needed wins in southern states.
“We’ll be hitting the campaign trail tomorrow morning, flying back this afternoon, and hopefully we can wrap this thing up, unite the party and be ready to take on the Democratic nominee in November,” McCain told reporters Wednesday in Phoenix.
The Democratic race was too close to call well into Wednesday. In New Mexico, FOX News affiliate KASA reported that results won’t be known until at least midday Wednesday. The Associated Press reported that provisional ballots won’t be counted until noon local time, or 2 p.m. ET.
The latest numbers from the Land of Enchantment had Clinton and Obama with little more than 100 votes separating them after 98 percent of precincts reported early Wednesday morning. More than 6,000 provisional ballots were being kept for a review.
But Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the outcome was already clear.
“By winning a majority of delegates and a majority of the states, Barack Obama won an important Super Tuesday victory over Senator Clinton in the closest thing we have to a national primary. … Obama showed that he can win the support of Americans of every race, gender, and political party in every region of the country.”
In Missouri, Clinton was thought to have pulled out a win until Obama managed to scrape out an victory in vote tally. The state’s delegate count — which must be translated from precinct totals into congressional districts — wasn’t complete Wednesday morning, but the two were likely to split Missouri’s 72 delegates.
Click here to read Campaign Carl Cameron’s blog on how John McCain’s campaign regrouped after last summer’s downward spiral.
Clinton was able to hold on to victory in the delegate-rich states, capping off the night with a win in the major battleground of California, ceding ground to Obama only in smaller and mid-sized states and convincing political pundits that she had gained solid ground.
“Hillary won enough. She won the states she had to win. Obama did well, but Hillary comes out of this ahead and is the favorite for the nomination,” said Martin Frost, a former Texas congressman and a FOX News contributor.
The Illinois senator did well throughout the country and in areas that are known as red Republican states, including Alaska, Idaho and Alabama.
He also won the Connecticut, Utah, Georgia and Delaware primaries, and the North Dakota, Kansas, Colorado and Minnesota caucuses. He captured Illinois, where he is a senator but which is also Clinton’s native state.
“If there is one thing on this February night that we do not need the final results to know — our time has come,” Obama said in his hometown of Chicago. “And change is coming to America.”
Click here for a photo essay of Super Tuesday.
Clinton notched the California victory alongside critical wins in Democrat-heavy New Jersey and New York, her home state. She won primaries in Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, where she served as first lady when Bill Clinton was governor.
“Tonight in record numbers you voted not just to make history but to remake America,” Clinton said from New York, where she repeated her claim that she’s the more experienced candidate. “We know what we need is someone ready on day one to solve our problems.”
Clinton also took Massachusetts, one state where Obama would have liked to have pulled an upset — it’s the home of Sen. Ted Kennedy and springs roots for many of the Kennedy clan who endorsed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination last week.
As a result, the Democrats are still in a delegate dogfight since all of the Tuesday contests award Democratic delegates proportionally. The weekend brings Democratic races in Louisiana and Nebraska. Tight polling in coming primary states of Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia next Tuesday make predictions frivolous.
The upside for Clinton, Frost said, is that her lead “is made up almost entirely by the superdelegates, but she has a real advantage among superdelegates, among party officials, elected officials, and if she can kind of play this out, if she can break even, come close to break even in this next round of primaries … and if she can then run the table in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania, she’ll be the nominee. And it’s Obama’s job to prevent her from doing that.”
On the GOP side, McCain took the bulk of the contests, winning New York, Missouri, Arizona, Oklahoma, Delaware, Connecticut, Illinois and New Jersey before rounding out the night with a win in California.
Nine of the day’s 21 GOP primaries and caucuses are winner-take-all, and McCain won six of those races compared to two for Mitt Romney and one for Mike Huckabee.
“Tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner,” the Arizona senator told a crowd of cheering supporters in Phoenix. “And I don’t really mind it one bit.”
Romney won seven races total, five of them caucuses — Alaska, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota. He also won primaries in Utah, where he once lived and where his Mormon church is headquartered, and Massachusetts, which he governed for one term.
Huckabee won five states, including primaries in Arkansas, where he was governor for 10 years, and Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. Earlier in the day, he swiped victory away from Romney during the second round of ballots cast in West Virginia’s Republican convention.
His strong performance seemed to prove that he’s more than just a spoiler for Romney, as he had suggested.
“A lot of people have been trying to say that this is a two-man race,” Huckabee said in Little Rock Tuesday night. “Well, you know what — it is, and we’re in it.”
Wednesday morning, speaking with FOX News, he again brushed aside suggestions that he was running for the vice presidential nomination on McCain candidacy, as well as suggestions that he and McCain are cooperating on the campaign trail.
“I’m staying in the race because I still want to be president, and until somebody gets 1,191 delegates, we don’t have a nominee,” Huckabee said.
He added: “People see this alliance between McCain and me. What it is is both of us acutally believe that the process of politics ought to be civil, and I think that’s what’s going on. And we like each other but we’re opponents. We’re not colleagues in this thing.”
Despite the limited prizes, Romney showed confidence in Boston, telling supporters, “One thing that’s clear is this campaign is going on. … We’re going to keep on battling. We’re going to go all the way to the (Republican national) convention, we’re going to win this thing and we’re going to get in to the White House.”
Despite the heavy focus on Super Tuesday, no candidate was able to clinch the nomination.
On the Democratic side, 1,681 delegates were up for grabs Tuesday and 2,025 are needed to secure the party’s nomination. For Republicans, 1,023 delegates were being decided Tuesday and 1,191 are needed to win the Republican nomination.
No candidate had enough delegates banked already to reach those majorities.
But the Democratic outcome was not immediately clear, with hundreds of delegates still being tallied. Even though Clinton took eight states to Obama’s 13, preliminary numbers showed her in the lead in the delegate race, as she added heavy-hitting Democratic states to her list of victories — including California, New York and Massachusetts — leaving the nomination to be decided another day.
Arizona Sen. McCain put more distance between himself and his closest rival Mitt Romney taking coast-to-coast wins, and Romney lost more ground to Mike Huckabee, whose campaign’s fundraising pales in comparison to the other two GOP candidates, but whose Christian conservative credentials gave him badly needed wins in southern states.
“We’ll be hitting the campaign trail tomorrow morning, flying back this afternoon, and hopefully we can wrap this thing up, unite the party and be ready to take on the Democratic nominee in November,” McCain told reporters Wednesday in Phoenix.
The Democratic race was too close to call well into Wednesday. In New Mexico, FOX News affiliate KASA reported that results won’t be known until at least midday Wednesday. The Associated Press reported that provisional ballots won’t be counted until noon local time, or 2 p.m. ET.
The latest numbers from the Land of Enchantment had Clinton and Obama with little more than 100 votes separating them after 98 percent of precincts reported early Wednesday morning. More than 6,000 provisional ballots were being kept for a review.
But Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the outcome was already clear.
“By winning a majority of delegates and a majority of the states, Barack Obama won an important Super Tuesday victory over Senator Clinton in the closest thing we have to a national primary. … Obama showed that he can win the support of Americans of every race, gender, and political party in every region of the country.”
In Missouri, Clinton was thought to have pulled out a win until Obama managed to scrape out an victory in vote tally. The state’s delegate count — which must be translated from precinct totals into congressional districts — wasn’t complete Wednesday morning, but the two were likely to split Missouri’s 72 delegates.
Click here to read Campaign Carl Cameron’s blog on how John McCain’s campaign regrouped after last summer’s downward spiral.
Clinton was able to hold on to victory in the delegate-rich states, capping off the night with a win in the major battleground of California, ceding ground to Obama only in smaller and mid-sized states and convincing political pundits that she had gained solid ground.
“Hillary won enough. She won the states she had to win. Obama did well, but Hillary comes out of this ahead and is the favorite for the nomination,” said Martin Frost, a former Texas congressman and a FOX News contributor.
The Illinois senator did well throughout the country and in areas that are known as red Republican states, including Alaska, Idaho and Alabama.
He also won the Connecticut, Utah, Georgia and Delaware primaries, and the North Dakota, Kansas, Colorado and Minnesota caucuses. He captured Illinois, where he is a senator but which is also Clinton’s native state.
“If there is one thing on this February night that we do not need the final results to know — our time has come,” Obama said in his hometown of Chicago. “And change is coming to America.”
Click here for a photo essay of Super Tuesday.
Clinton notched the California victory alongside critical wins in Democrat-heavy New Jersey and New York, her home state. She won primaries in Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, where she served as first lady when Bill Clinton was governor.
“Tonight in record numbers you voted not just to make history but to remake America,” Clinton said from New York, where she repeated her claim that she’s the more experienced candidate. “We know what we need is someone ready on day one to solve our problems.”
Clinton also took Massachusetts, one state where Obama would have liked to have pulled an upset — it’s the home of Sen. Ted Kennedy and springs roots for many of the Kennedy clan who endorsed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination last week.
As a result, the Democrats are still in a delegate dogfight since all of the Tuesday contests award Democratic delegates proportionally. The weekend brings Democratic races in Louisiana and Nebraska. Tight polling in coming primary states of Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia next Tuesday make predictions frivolous.
The upside for Clinton, Frost said, is that her lead “is made up almost entirely by the superdelegates, but she has a real advantage among superdelegates, among party officials, elected officials, and if she can kind of play this out, if she can break even, come close to break even in this next round of primaries … and if she can then run the table in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania, she’ll be the nominee. And it’s Obama’s job to prevent her from doing that.”
On the GOP side, McCain took the bulk of the contests, winning New York, Missouri, Arizona, Oklahoma, Delaware, Connecticut, Illinois and New Jersey before rounding out the night with a win in California.
Nine of the day’s 21 GOP primaries and caucuses are winner-take-all, and McCain won six of those races compared to two for Mitt Romney and one for Mike Huckabee.
“Tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner,” the Arizona senator told a crowd of cheering supporters in Phoenix. “And I don’t really mind it one bit.”
Romney won seven races total, five of them caucuses — Alaska, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota. He also won primaries in Utah, where he once lived and where his Mormon church is headquartered, and Massachusetts, which he governed for one term.
Huckabee won five states, including primaries in Arkansas, where he was governor for 10 years, and Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. Earlier in the day, he swiped victory away from Romney during the second round of ballots cast in West Virginia’s Republican convention.
His strong performance seemed to prove that he’s more than just a spoiler for Romney, as he had suggested.
“A lot of people have been trying to say that this is a two-man race,” Huckabee said in Little Rock Tuesday night. “Well, you know what — it is, and we’re in it.”
Wednesday morning, speaking with FOX News, he again brushed aside suggestions that he was running for the vice presidential nomination on McCain candidacy, as well as suggestions that he and McCain are cooperating on the campaign trail.
“I’m staying in the race because I still want to be president, and until somebody gets 1,191 delegates, we don’t have a nominee,” Huckabee said.
He added: “People see this alliance between McCain and me. What it is is both of us acutally believe that the process of politics ought to be civil, and I think that’s what’s going on. And we like each other but we’re opponents. We’re not colleagues in this thing.”
Despite the limited prizes, Romney showed confidence in Boston, telling supporters, “One thing that’s clear is this campaign is going on. … We’re going to keep on battling. We’re going to go all the way to the (Republican national) convention, we’re going to win this thing and we’re going to get in to the White House.”
Despite the heavy focus on Super Tuesday, no candidate was able to clinch the nomination.
On the Democratic side, 1,681 delegates were up for grabs Tuesday and 2,025 are needed to secure the party’s nomination. For Republicans, 1,023 delegates were being decided Tuesday and 1,191 are needed to win the Republican nomination.
No candidate had enough delegates banked already to reach those majorities.
Obama Wins Kansas
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Obama wins backing of Kansas governor Tue Jan 29, 3:36 PM ET
TOPEKA, Kan. - Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday endorsed Barack Obama for president, a Super Tuesday boost in a GOP-leaning state that Democrats hope to reclaim in the White House campaign.
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"I think he represents the kind of leader that we need for the future of the country," Sebelius told The Associated Press. "I think he brings the hope and optimism that we really need to restore our place in the world, as well as to bring this country together and really tackle the challenges that we have."
Her announcement came hours ahead of Obama's rally in El Dorado, the hometown of his grandfather on his mother's side, and one week before the Kansas caucuses, which are part of the multistate contests Feb. 5. Sebelius said she would attend the event to "welcome him back to Kansas and join the campaign."
Democratic presidential candidates long had sought Sebelius' backing in a state that George W. Bush carried by large margins in the 2000 and 2004 elections. No Democratic nominee for the White House has won Kansas' electoral votes since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
But Sebelius, now in her second term, has shown an ability to triumph in GOP territory. She won re-election in 2006 with nearly 58 percent of the vote. In Kansas, less than 27 percent of the voters are registered Democrats.
She said her two "20-something" sons and 86-year-old father, former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, already were backing Obama, and that the Illinois senator had the ability to bridge generations for the betterment of the country.
Sebelius has taken the governor's office by wooing moderate Republicans and independent voters. Obama hopes to do the same in Kansas. Democrats will have caucuses at 50 sites on Super Tuesday to split up 32 of their 41 delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer in Denver. Sebelius is one of the remaining nine delegates who will represent the state.
For Obama, it was another in a string of high-profile endorsements in the past two days, following on those from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.; and Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy.
The campaign of Obama's chief rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, sought to play down the impact of Sebelius' endorsement.
"It's just going to be who's going to work the hardest and get their people out," said Dan Lykins, the state Democratic Party treasurer and co-chairman of Clinton's Kansas campaign.
Sebelius has impressed Democrats nationally by election success, and party leaders let her give the Democratic response Monday night to Bush's State of the Union address.
She is coming off a year as head of the Democratic Governors Association, a group that Bill Clinton once led. The governor made Democrats' lists of potential vice presidential running mates for nominee John Kerry in 2004, and while there's less of the same talk this year, she is seen as possible Cabinet appointee in a Democratic administration.
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Obama wins backing of Kansas governor Tue Jan 29, 3:36 PM ET
TOPEKA, Kan. - Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday endorsed Barack Obama for president, a Super Tuesday boost in a GOP-leaning state that Democrats hope to reclaim in the White House campaign.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I think he represents the kind of leader that we need for the future of the country," Sebelius told The Associated Press. "I think he brings the hope and optimism that we really need to restore our place in the world, as well as to bring this country together and really tackle the challenges that we have."
Her announcement came hours ahead of Obama's rally in El Dorado, the hometown of his grandfather on his mother's side, and one week before the Kansas caucuses, which are part of the multistate contests Feb. 5. Sebelius said she would attend the event to "welcome him back to Kansas and join the campaign."
Democratic presidential candidates long had sought Sebelius' backing in a state that George W. Bush carried by large margins in the 2000 and 2004 elections. No Democratic nominee for the White House has won Kansas' electoral votes since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
But Sebelius, now in her second term, has shown an ability to triumph in GOP territory. She won re-election in 2006 with nearly 58 percent of the vote. In Kansas, less than 27 percent of the voters are registered Democrats.
She said her two "20-something" sons and 86-year-old father, former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, already were backing Obama, and that the Illinois senator had the ability to bridge generations for the betterment of the country.
Sebelius has taken the governor's office by wooing moderate Republicans and independent voters. Obama hopes to do the same in Kansas. Democrats will have caucuses at 50 sites on Super Tuesday to split up 32 of their 41 delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer in Denver. Sebelius is one of the remaining nine delegates who will represent the state.
For Obama, it was another in a string of high-profile endorsements in the past two days, following on those from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.; and Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy.
The campaign of Obama's chief rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, sought to play down the impact of Sebelius' endorsement.
"It's just going to be who's going to work the hardest and get their people out," said Dan Lykins, the state Democratic Party treasurer and co-chairman of Clinton's Kansas campaign.
Sebelius has impressed Democrats nationally by election success, and party leaders let her give the Democratic response Monday night to Bush's State of the Union address.
She is coming off a year as head of the Democratic Governors Association, a group that Bill Clinton once led. The governor made Democrats' lists of potential vice presidential running mates for nominee John Kerry in 2004, and while there's less of the same talk this year, she is seen as possible Cabinet appointee in a Democratic administration.
Email Story IM Story Printable View RECOMMEND THIS STORY
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Full Coverage: 2008 Presidential Election
Off the Wires
McCain, Clinton lead delegate count AP, 5 minutes ago McCain misses vote on economic stimulus AP, 9 minutes ago News Stories
McCain: Frail with the Far Right at TIME Magazine, Feb 06 Obama Campaign Projects Deadlocked Race After Primaries Finish Bloomberg via Yahoo! News, Feb 06 Opinion & Editorials
The Strange GOP Nominating Victory at RealClearPolitics, Feb 06 McCain: a maverick no more? at Christian Science Monitor, Feb 06 Politics News
McCain widens lead, Clinton lends cash AP Obama bullish; Clinton looks to March AP Obama says GOP will have dirt on Clinton AP Romney faces long odds for nomination AP McCain appeals to conservative critics AP Most Viewed - Politics
Obama bullish; Clinton looks to March AP Senate economic aid package faces test AP McCain widens lead, Clinton lends cash AP Obama says GOP will have dirt on Clinton AP Report: Voter turnout records broken AP Politics Video
Super Tuesday Was HUGE ABC News - 1 hour, 34 minutes ago Clinton lends her campaign $5 million AP - 2 hours, 42 minutes ago Star-Studded Obama video becomes internet hit AP - Wed Feb 6, 4:21 PM ET McCain vows to unite Republican party AP - Wed Feb 6, 12:10 PM ET
Sponsored Links( What's this? )
Car Insurance Quotes Online
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Complete just 1 offer and it is your's free.
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AP Photo: In this image made from video, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius delivers the Democrat response to... Slideshow: Barack Obama
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Super Tuesday Was HUGE
ABC News
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Friday, January 11, 2008
Obama can Win
The exit polls in New Hampshire showed that even in defeat, Barack was viewed favorably by over 80 percent of Democrats and that 46% of voters thought he was the candidate most likely to win in November versus 36% who said that about Hillary. And here's where I think he now has an opening: some 28% of the Democratic voters in New Hampshire thought Hillary could unite the country but about half felt the same way about Barack.
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What I have sensed in California is that people are hugely eager to find a president who can bring the country together again.
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Barack has made the case for change. Hillary has made an effective counter argument that she is the only one experienced enough to know how to change. What I see in California -- and what polls from New Hampshire suggest -- is that Barack now has an opening to argue with great effect: yes, but I am the only one who can bring the unity that actually makes change possible.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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What I have sensed in California is that people are hugely eager to find a president who can bring the country together again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barack has made the case for change. Hillary has made an effective counter argument that she is the only one experienced enough to know how to change. What I see in California -- and what polls from New Hampshire suggest -- is that Barack now has an opening to argue with great effect: yes, but I am the only one who can bring the unity that actually makes change possible.
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The Palmetto State Debate
January 11th, 2008 by Jon
So there was a debate last night. There’s plenty of analysis about it from all sorts of different sources. The consensus that I’m getting is that Big Fred did quite well – and I agree with that assessment. If you’ve been wondering where Fred’s Super Nova in the Belly was – it was on display last night.
Despite what you might read from Phil, Mitt did a fairly decent job last night despite the fact he didn’t get as much camera time as he’s gotten in debates past. His answers were well thought out and based in fact – not hyperbole. Even his detractors ended up admitting that Mitt gave the best informed answers of any candidate last night. It wasn’t his best performance, but he got the job done. I can live with that.
I, for one, was glad to see Big Fred go after the Huckster. Fred basically took Mitt’s comparison ads and beat Huck over the head with them. Huck tried (and failed) to beat back Fred’s onslaught. Additionally, Huck’s answer to Chris Wallace’s question on taxes gave a new definition to Extreme Waffling.
As long as I’m on the Huck Bashing Bandwagon, I’d like to point you to a very well written post by Article VI’s John Schroeder. Schroeder is a member of the demographic Huck is counting on to catapult him into the Oval Office. The only problem is, Schroeder would just as soon see Huck catapulted into History’s Dustbin. Opines John:
Other candidates do not look good to me for a variety of reasons, but Huckabee is repulsive because of his appeals to bias and bigotry. That cannot be allowed to prevail. Romney should play to win and not merely beat Huckabee, but beat Huckabee he must at the bare minimum. (Emphasis Added)
I’ve stated this before, but just to reiterate the point – Mike Huckabee is dangerously naïve, completely unprepared, and enormously unqualified to sit in the Big Chair. Those facts and his record give me more than enough reason to vote against him. The singular fact that he has gone to the anti-Mormon well and has – as Schroeder already illustrated – appealed to religious bias and bigotry has brought me to the conclusion that I can never vote for a ticket with Huckabee on it. His latest ad in Michigan is typical – long on rhetoric, short on details, and ends with a poll tested line saying that “Americans want a president like the guy they work with, not the guy who laid them off.” Sigh.
Memo to Huck: I want a president whose capitalist principals have made him and those around him extremely wealthy. I’ve never gotten a job from a poor person – or a governor for that matter. End Memo.
Mitt has stated that he’s in this race for the long haul. Of the GOP candidates, he’s the best suited for the long march. Most everybody else is strapped for cash. The democrats are, through their willing accomplices in the MSM, doing everything they can to remove the one conservative from the republican field with the best shot at getting the nomination. Mitt will stay in this race until he either wins or himself decides to get out. Nobody else will make that decision for him.
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The Palmetto State Debate
January 11th, 2008 by Jon
So there was a debate last night. There’s plenty of analysis about it from all sorts of different sources. The consensus that I’m getting is that Big Fred did quite well – and I agree with that assessment. If you’ve been wondering where Fred’s Super Nova in the Belly was – it was on display last night.
Despite what you might read from Phil, Mitt did a fairly decent job last night despite the fact he didn’t get as much camera time as he’s gotten in debates past. His answers were well thought out and based in fact – not hyperbole. Even his detractors ended up admitting that Mitt gave the best informed answers of any candidate last night. It wasn’t his best performance, but he got the job done. I can live with that.
I, for one, was glad to see Big Fred go after the Huckster. Fred basically took Mitt’s comparison ads and beat Huck over the head with them. Huck tried (and failed) to beat back Fred’s onslaught. Additionally, Huck’s answer to Chris Wallace’s question on taxes gave a new definition to Extreme Waffling.
As long as I’m on the Huck Bashing Bandwagon, I’d like to point you to a very well written post by Article VI’s John Schroeder. Schroeder is a member of the demographic Huck is counting on to catapult him into the Oval Office. The only problem is, Schroeder would just as soon see Huck catapulted into History’s Dustbin. Opines John:
Other candidates do not look good to me for a variety of reasons, but Huckabee is repulsive because of his appeals to bias and bigotry. That cannot be allowed to prevail. Romney should play to win and not merely beat Huckabee, but beat Huckabee he must at the bare minimum. (Emphasis Added)
I’ve stated this before, but just to reiterate the point – Mike Huckabee is dangerously naïve, completely unprepared, and enormously unqualified to sit in the Big Chair. Those facts and his record give me more than enough reason to vote against him. The singular fact that he has gone to the anti-Mormon well and has – as Schroeder already illustrated – appealed to religious bias and bigotry has brought me to the conclusion that I can never vote for a ticket with Huckabee on it. His latest ad in Michigan is typical – long on rhetoric, short on details, and ends with a poll tested line saying that “Americans want a president like the guy they work with, not the guy who laid them off.” Sigh.
Memo to Huck: I want a president whose capitalist principals have made him and those around him extremely wealthy. I’ve never gotten a job from a poor person – or a governor for that matter. End Memo.
Mitt has stated that he’s in this race for the long haul. Of the GOP candidates, he’s the best suited for the long march. Most everybody else is strapped for cash. The democrats are, through their willing accomplices in the MSM, doing everything they can to remove the one conservative from the republican field with the best shot at getting the nomination. Mitt will stay in this race until he either wins or himself decides to get out. Nobody else will make that decision for him.
Sphere: Related Content
Posted in 2008 presidential campaign | No Comments »
Success is testing the Huckabee campaign
Success Is Testing the Huckabee Campaign
By LIBBY QUAID
The Associated Press
Thursday, November 29, 2007; 6:31 PM
WASHINGTON -- The tiny campaign of former Gov. Mike Huckabee is growing so swiftly, some have scrambled to buy winter coats so they can volunteer for him in Iowa.
"Our campaign is not about high-paid consultants," Huckabee said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's about ordinary people who've come from as far away as Oregon and Florida to get to Iowa, many of whom are coming up there from Southern states where they're having to buy a coat so they can survive going door-to-door, answering phones, getting out material and signing up people for the caucuses."
Republican Presidential hopeful, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, is interviewed by the Associated Press after a lunch with journalists in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Charles Dharapak - AP)
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Huckabee has climbed to second place in Iowa polls despite having millions fewer dollars than his rivals. The former Arkansas governor is doing so well, his aides wonder if his campaign can keep up with the momentum.
"I think the organization has to catch up to the candidate and the candidate's message," said Eric Woolson, Huckabee's Iowa state director.
Huckabee, speaking with reporters in Washington, said: "Is momentum enough? No, but if momentum turns into the ground game, the money and everything else, then yes, it is."
"We tend to forget that at this stage of the game in 1979, Ronald Reagan was flat broke and was in fourth place," Huckabee said, recalling a recent encounter with campaign strategist Ed Rollins, who worked for Reagan.
"He said, 'We were so broke, we were sleeping three to a room in New Hampshire and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,'" Huckabee said.
Reagan had angered the GOP establishment by challenging President Ford four years earlier, and he wasn't expected to win, Huckabee said.
"Now he's the icon, and everybody wraps themselves up in Ronald Reagan, and he's the standard bearer, you know, he's the gold standard of the Republican Party," Huckabee said. "He was anything but that, prior to his election and his term."
Huckabee's fundraising is eclipsed by that of Mitt Romney; the former Massachusetts governor has raised more than $62 million, while Huckabee has raised about $5 million.
So while voters are seeing Huckabee's first television commercials this week, they aren't seeing other typical signs of activity.
"I don't know that there will be any direct mail in the next 38 days" from the Huckabee campaign, Woolson said.
For now, the focus is on personal contact with voters and building support one precinct at a time. Huckabee pointed to a Washington Post-ABC News poll indicating that his supporters are more enthusiastic about their candidate. Nearly half of his supporters said they definitely would vote for him, while 29 percent of Romney's supporters said they would definitely vote for Romney.
"We've got to have people who, no matter how much snow is on the ground, no matter how good the Orange Bowl is, they're going to still come out and be there with us on caucus night," Huckabee said.
___
Associated Press writer Ron Fournier in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
By LIBBY QUAID
The Associated Press
Thursday, November 29, 2007; 6:31 PM
WASHINGTON -- The tiny campaign of former Gov. Mike Huckabee is growing so swiftly, some have scrambled to buy winter coats so they can volunteer for him in Iowa.
"Our campaign is not about high-paid consultants," Huckabee said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's about ordinary people who've come from as far away as Oregon and Florida to get to Iowa, many of whom are coming up there from Southern states where they're having to buy a coat so they can survive going door-to-door, answering phones, getting out material and signing up people for the caucuses."
Republican Presidential hopeful, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, is interviewed by the Associated Press after a lunch with journalists in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Charles Dharapak - AP)
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Huckabee has climbed to second place in Iowa polls despite having millions fewer dollars than his rivals. The former Arkansas governor is doing so well, his aides wonder if his campaign can keep up with the momentum.
"I think the organization has to catch up to the candidate and the candidate's message," said Eric Woolson, Huckabee's Iowa state director.
Huckabee, speaking with reporters in Washington, said: "Is momentum enough? No, but if momentum turns into the ground game, the money and everything else, then yes, it is."
"We tend to forget that at this stage of the game in 1979, Ronald Reagan was flat broke and was in fourth place," Huckabee said, recalling a recent encounter with campaign strategist Ed Rollins, who worked for Reagan.
"He said, 'We were so broke, we were sleeping three to a room in New Hampshire and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,'" Huckabee said.
Reagan had angered the GOP establishment by challenging President Ford four years earlier, and he wasn't expected to win, Huckabee said.
"Now he's the icon, and everybody wraps themselves up in Ronald Reagan, and he's the standard bearer, you know, he's the gold standard of the Republican Party," Huckabee said. "He was anything but that, prior to his election and his term."
Huckabee's fundraising is eclipsed by that of Mitt Romney; the former Massachusetts governor has raised more than $62 million, while Huckabee has raised about $5 million.
So while voters are seeing Huckabee's first television commercials this week, they aren't seeing other typical signs of activity.
"I don't know that there will be any direct mail in the next 38 days" from the Huckabee campaign, Woolson said.
For now, the focus is on personal contact with voters and building support one precinct at a time. Huckabee pointed to a Washington Post-ABC News poll indicating that his supporters are more enthusiastic about their candidate. Nearly half of his supporters said they definitely would vote for him, while 29 percent of Romney's supporters said they would definitely vote for Romney.
"We've got to have people who, no matter how much snow is on the ground, no matter how good the Orange Bowl is, they're going to still come out and be there with us on caucus night," Huckabee said.
___
Associated Press writer Ron Fournier in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
Letter From former presidential candidate, Bill Richardson
It is with great pride, understanding and acceptance that I am ending my campaign for President of the United States.
When I entered the campaign, it was clear that we, as Democrats, had the most talented field of candidates in my lifetime running to change the direction of our country. And in the end, one of them will.
Despite overwhelming financial and political odds, I am proud of the campaign we waged and the influence we had on the issues that matter most to the future of this country. A year ago, we were the only major campaign calling for the removal of all of our troops within a year's time from Iraq. We were the only campaign calling for a complete reform of education in this country, including the scrapping of No Child Left Behind. And we were the campaign with the most aggressive clean energy plan and the most ambitious standards for reducing global warming. Now, all of the remaining candidates have come to our point of view.
I am honored to have shared the stage with each of these Democrats. And I am enormously grateful to all of my supporters who chose to stand with me despite so many other candidates of accomplishment and potential.
Now I am returning to a job that I love, serving a state that I cherish and doing the work of the people I was elected to serve. As I have always said, I am the luckiest man I know. I am married to my college sweetheart. I live in a place called the Land of Enchantment. I have the best job in the world. And I just got to run for president of the United States.
It doesn't get any better than that.
When I entered the campaign, it was clear that we, as Democrats, had the most talented field of candidates in my lifetime running to change the direction of our country. And in the end, one of them will.
Despite overwhelming financial and political odds, I am proud of the campaign we waged and the influence we had on the issues that matter most to the future of this country. A year ago, we were the only major campaign calling for the removal of all of our troops within a year's time from Iraq. We were the only campaign calling for a complete reform of education in this country, including the scrapping of No Child Left Behind. And we were the campaign with the most aggressive clean energy plan and the most ambitious standards for reducing global warming. Now, all of the remaining candidates have come to our point of view.
I am honored to have shared the stage with each of these Democrats. And I am enormously grateful to all of my supporters who chose to stand with me despite so many other candidates of accomplishment and potential.
Now I am returning to a job that I love, serving a state that I cherish and doing the work of the people I was elected to serve. As I have always said, I am the luckiest man I know. I am married to my college sweetheart. I live in a place called the Land of Enchantment. I have the best job in the world. And I just got to run for president of the United States.
It doesn't get any better than that.
What happened in New Hampshire?
So, what did happen in New Hampshire?
On Monday night, the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama was preparing for a blowout day as they would defeat Sen. Hillary Clinton, dealing a serious blow to her chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination.
By Tuesday night, everyone was left stunned as a nine-point lead - one poll had it at 13 - evaporated and it was Clinton giving a victory speech and Obama thanking her on a job well done.
So, was it Clinton's tears causing women to come out and prop her campaign up? Was it an over-confident, some say cocky, Obama campaign getting humbled? Did Bill Clinton pull it out for his wife like he did in 1992 when he came in second here and declared himself the Comeback Kid?
Let's go inside the numbers.
UNDECIDEDS MATTERED
All of the polls had Obama gaining 37% and Clinton winning 30%.
The final results? Obama got 37% and Clinton 39%. What happened? Undecided voters spoke.
Exit polls show that 15% of the voters on Tuesday made up their minds as they headed to the polls that day. And with a record number of voters, nearly 300,000, that means you had 40,000-plus who cast ballots that had not made their feelings known. If you assume Clinton won 60% of those voters, that's about 24,000 to Obama's 16,000. What was her margin of victory? About 8,000.
TEARS FOR FEARS
Clinton was down three points to Obama among women prior to the vote. After the vote, she beat him by 13 points. Many believe her newfound sensitivity, especially with the choking back of tears on Monday, caused women to be more sympathetic to her and vaulted her over the top.
TRADITIONAL VS. NON-TRADITIONAL
Obama took the risky strategy of going after independents, the young vote and Republicans. Clinton? She went after labor, older voters, women and blue collar. The result? She won the key categories, especially single females. She also dusted Obama in the big cities, winning by wide margins.
The Bill Factor
I'm not sold that he pulled it out for her. I think he was used wisely, but it was her overhaul of her message that won the day.
White flight from Obama
There is some speculation that New Hampshire, 97% white, said Obama was the guy, but once they got into the booth, changed their minds. Not sure if that was the case, and it's hard to quantify. Maybe New Hampshire just gave her the close victory.
WHAT'S NEXT
Nevada on Jan. 19, where Obama has picked up two huge union endorsements. Then the battleground of South Carolina, where the Clintons and Obama will duke it out for black votes. The key? BLACK WOMEN. They are 40% undecided. Bill will pour on the charm to get them to back his wife. The Obama campaign should unleash his wife, Michelle, and let the mother of two, professional lawyer from the South Side of Chicago rally sisters to her husband.
Then Tsunami Tuesday, when 23 states go to the polls on Feb. 5. Among them? California, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Arkansas. Who dominates here will likely be the nominee.
On Monday night, the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama was preparing for a blowout day as they would defeat Sen. Hillary Clinton, dealing a serious blow to her chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination.
By Tuesday night, everyone was left stunned as a nine-point lead - one poll had it at 13 - evaporated and it was Clinton giving a victory speech and Obama thanking her on a job well done.
So, was it Clinton's tears causing women to come out and prop her campaign up? Was it an over-confident, some say cocky, Obama campaign getting humbled? Did Bill Clinton pull it out for his wife like he did in 1992 when he came in second here and declared himself the Comeback Kid?
Let's go inside the numbers.
UNDECIDEDS MATTERED
All of the polls had Obama gaining 37% and Clinton winning 30%.
The final results? Obama got 37% and Clinton 39%. What happened? Undecided voters spoke.
Exit polls show that 15% of the voters on Tuesday made up their minds as they headed to the polls that day. And with a record number of voters, nearly 300,000, that means you had 40,000-plus who cast ballots that had not made their feelings known. If you assume Clinton won 60% of those voters, that's about 24,000 to Obama's 16,000. What was her margin of victory? About 8,000.
TEARS FOR FEARS
Clinton was down three points to Obama among women prior to the vote. After the vote, she beat him by 13 points. Many believe her newfound sensitivity, especially with the choking back of tears on Monday, caused women to be more sympathetic to her and vaulted her over the top.
TRADITIONAL VS. NON-TRADITIONAL
Obama took the risky strategy of going after independents, the young vote and Republicans. Clinton? She went after labor, older voters, women and blue collar. The result? She won the key categories, especially single females. She also dusted Obama in the big cities, winning by wide margins.
The Bill Factor
I'm not sold that he pulled it out for her. I think he was used wisely, but it was her overhaul of her message that won the day.
White flight from Obama
There is some speculation that New Hampshire, 97% white, said Obama was the guy, but once they got into the booth, changed their minds. Not sure if that was the case, and it's hard to quantify. Maybe New Hampshire just gave her the close victory.
WHAT'S NEXT
Nevada on Jan. 19, where Obama has picked up two huge union endorsements. Then the battleground of South Carolina, where the Clintons and Obama will duke it out for black votes. The key? BLACK WOMEN. They are 40% undecided. Bill will pour on the charm to get them to back his wife. The Obama campaign should unleash his wife, Michelle, and let the mother of two, professional lawyer from the South Side of Chicago rally sisters to her husband.
Then Tsunami Tuesday, when 23 states go to the polls on Feb. 5. Among them? California, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Arkansas. Who dominates here will likely be the nominee.
Top 3 Reasons why barack Obama lost in New Hampshire
1. John Edwards. Before it's all said and done tonight, 60,000+ voters in New Hampshire will have cast ballots for one of three candidates: John Edwards, Bill Richardson, and Dennis Kucinich. The vast majority of these votes will have gone to Edwards, the most progressive candidate in the race except for Kucinich (whose voters account, incidentally, for only about 3,000 of those 60,000 votes). Hillary Clinton defeated Barack Obama in New Hampshire by about 6,000 votes. Does anyone in America doubt that without Edwards, Richardson, and Kucinich in the race, those 60,000 almost-entirely-progressive voters would have favored Obama over Clinton by a wide enough margin to give Obama a win in New Hampshire? No, no one doubts that--but because Edwards finished with a disappointing (yet not entirely unpredictable, given previous polls) 17% in New Hampshire, no one thinks to consider the importance of Edwards tonight, and point out that in a two-person race Obama would have actually (as those same polls once predicted) have blown Hillary's doors off in the Granite State. Today's result was devastating for Edwards; he was hoping for a Hillary loss, such that he could soldier on, watch Hillary drop out, and go into hand-to-hand combat mode with Obama. The joke, of course, is on Edwards, and those of us who support him, as his continued presence in the presidential race only ensures that he'll never see his best-case scenario materialize. John Edwards has become the biggest obstacle to John Edwards' own ambitions--strategically speaking--which is what tells me, sadly, that it's time for him to drop out of the race. The penalty for all of us, if he fails to do so, is the eminently beatable Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008.
2. The media. Nothing is worse for a candidate than a premature coronation, and that's what the media saddled Obama with yesterday. Undoubtedly, the media effectively calling the race for Obama yesterday--all but saying to America that the only issue left was how much he'd win by--depressed turnout for Obama while raising it for Clinton. Obama voters had every reason to believe, because they'd been told this by every poll and every pundit, that Obama no longer needed their vote. And Clinton supporters knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that their preferred choice needed them as never before. Obama's surrogates, particularly Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, made a last-ditch effort today, on the airwaves of New England, to emphasize to Obama voters that their vote was still desperately needed. That message was too little, too late, and as it turns out the Obama bump from his Iowa victory was, if anything, too big. So big the media salivation turned into overreaction, which turned into smugness and complacency among precisely those voters Obama's Iowa bump should have energized. As with the John Edwards effect, there's an undeniable irony here--almost a paradox--in that it was Obama's very success in Iowa (where he outpolled Hillary by 9%; compare that to Hillary's squeaker of a win tonight <2%>) that cost him New Hampshire. Yet, once again, was this Obama's fault? No. His only failure was not realizing that the national media was, and is, and always will be, more powerful than any single campaign's GOTV machine.
3. The "diner" moment. Hillary's close-to-tears confession in a New Hampshire diner yesterday that this race was "personal" for her had countless effects on the electorate, all of them positive for Hillary. And yet I'm not saying the moment was contrived or false; in fact, I believe it was genuine, and well-timed but not in a schemed-out way (well-timed in the same way fate is well-timed; it's no surprise, really, that 24 hours before the New Hampshire primary, as Hillary faced the probable end of her national political career, she would feel so exhausted and harried and depressed and disappointed that her voice would crack for all of ten seconds. That's just the way life, and the human psyche, works). Women realized, when Hillary teared up, that she was not merely a machine, or a woman ashamed of her femininity and trying to "be a man" in a man's world, but that she was a woman like them, trying to do the hardest thing any woman in American history has tried to do (quite possibly): become the most powerful person in the known universe. And it's no surprise, then, in a sense, that women went for Hillary overwhelmingly today in New Hampshire, and gave her a clear (albeit narrow) victory. Likewise, Hillary's tears at that diner brought out two types of television pundits and on-the-ground activists--bigots and cynics--and both these groups can't help but push voters toward precisely those candidates they most vehemently oppose. Thank the man who raised a sign saying "Iron My Shirt!" at a Hillary rally for Hillary's win; thank pundits like Chris Matthews, and other old, chauvinistic white men on the boob tube, who openly wondered whether a) Hillary's tears were contrived (I don't think the voting public felt they were, generally), and b) whether those tears signaled she somehow wasn't ready to lead the most powerful nation on earth. That unparalleled, bald-faced assault on the very humanity of a tough and courageous woman couldn't have had any other effect than to turn out voters for her. That, and the moment in that diner really was touching; I've never felt so warmly toward Hillary, though admittedly that's not saying much.
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2. The media. Nothing is worse for a candidate than a premature coronation, and that's what the media saddled Obama with yesterday. Undoubtedly, the media effectively calling the race for Obama yesterday--all but saying to America that the only issue left was how much he'd win by--depressed turnout for Obama while raising it for Clinton. Obama voters had every reason to believe, because they'd been told this by every poll and every pundit, that Obama no longer needed their vote. And Clinton supporters knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that their preferred choice needed them as never before. Obama's surrogates, particularly Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, made a last-ditch effort today, on the airwaves of New England, to emphasize to Obama voters that their vote was still desperately needed. That message was too little, too late, and as it turns out the Obama bump from his Iowa victory was, if anything, too big. So big the media salivation turned into overreaction, which turned into smugness and complacency among precisely those voters Obama's Iowa bump should have energized. As with the John Edwards effect, there's an undeniable irony here--almost a paradox--in that it was Obama's very success in Iowa (where he outpolled Hillary by 9%; compare that to Hillary's squeaker of a win tonight <2%>) that cost him New Hampshire. Yet, once again, was this Obama's fault? No. His only failure was not realizing that the national media was, and is, and always will be, more powerful than any single campaign's GOTV machine.
3. The "diner" moment. Hillary's close-to-tears confession in a New Hampshire diner yesterday that this race was "personal" for her had countless effects on the electorate, all of them positive for Hillary. And yet I'm not saying the moment was contrived or false; in fact, I believe it was genuine, and well-timed but not in a schemed-out way (well-timed in the same way fate is well-timed; it's no surprise, really, that 24 hours before the New Hampshire primary, as Hillary faced the probable end of her national political career, she would feel so exhausted and harried and depressed and disappointed that her voice would crack for all of ten seconds. That's just the way life, and the human psyche, works). Women realized, when Hillary teared up, that she was not merely a machine, or a woman ashamed of her femininity and trying to "be a man" in a man's world, but that she was a woman like them, trying to do the hardest thing any woman in American history has tried to do (quite possibly): become the most powerful person in the known universe. And it's no surprise, then, in a sense, that women went for Hillary overwhelmingly today in New Hampshire, and gave her a clear (albeit narrow) victory. Likewise, Hillary's tears at that diner brought out two types of television pundits and on-the-ground activists--bigots and cynics--and both these groups can't help but push voters toward precisely those candidates they most vehemently oppose. Thank the man who raised a sign saying "Iron My Shirt!" at a Hillary rally for Hillary's win; thank pundits like Chris Matthews, and other old, chauvinistic white men on the boob tube, who openly wondered whether a) Hillary's tears were contrived (I don't think the voting public felt they were, generally), and b) whether those tears signaled she somehow wasn't ready to lead the most powerful nation on earth. That unparalleled, bald-faced assault on the very humanity of a tough and courageous woman couldn't have had any other effect than to turn out voters for her. That, and the moment in that diner really was touching; I've never felt so warmly toward Hillary, though admittedly that's not saying much.
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