It was actually the undecided voters as much as the independents that apparently allowed for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to prevail over rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)
On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain, whose campaign once lost all its financial resources, rebounded with a triumphant win over Mitt Romney, who had spent millions and millions of dollars in New Hampshire. But, just like Iowa, the former Massachusetts governor's expenditures prove that you can not merely 'buy votes.'
"The Concord Monitor" had excellent New Hampshire Primary coverage. I read articles from both their newspaper and the always outstanding "Washington Post," and I can honestly not say that one publication did not have any better coverage than the other. This is quite outstanding considering that "The Post" has all-star political journalists, like Dan Balz, but "The Monitor" still shined with their political coverage.
"The Monitor" quoted voters like Anglina Obara, 37, of Weane, NH, who decided to vote for McCain over Iowa winner Mike Huckabee because the Arizona senator was performing better in the polls.
Patti Smith, 55, of Hopkinton, NH, told "The Monitor" that she voted for Obama over Clinton because she wanted to do something positive for young people.
But, George Duley, 88, of the state capital Concord said experience mattered to him and he chose Hillary. Christine Crepo, 33, also of Concord chose Clinton over Obama as she was driving to the voting station.
Jim Richardson, 49, of Franklin, NH, chose Romney over McCain because of the age factor.
And, James Otey, 18, of Cantebury, NH, was among the many young people who have taken a liking to Cong. Ron Paul (R-Tx). Otey said he supported Paul because he wants the government to stay out of people's lives.
Another telling story from New Hampshire has to be the dismal showing for former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson. Rush Limbaugh's favorite candidate got 2,884 votes across the Granite State, for one percent of the vote. One of the reasons for this is likely because even New Hampshire Republicans are pro-choice (52%) as opposed to the much more conservative Iowa (22 %). Thompson and Huckabee have been fighting for pro-life voters.
Even Cong. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) fared better than Thompson as he got close to 4,000 votes, but that still accounted for one percent of the total Democratic vote. Like Iowa, more Democrats came out to vote in New Hampshire. There were many obscure candidates on both sides, including Dal Lamagna (D) who got a mere 8 votes.
In a "Washington Post" column, former John Kerry consultant Meredith Chaiken said even she was undecided about which Democratic candidate to choose. She said until this election she couldn't fathom how people could not make up their minds given the saturation of information about each candidate. In her column, she said 51 percent of Democratic voters and 61 percent of Republican voters in New Hampshire were similarly confused about which lever to pull.
For the record, I am still supporting former North Carolina senator John Edwards (D), who gave an eloquent speech last night, though it rephrased many of the same themes he has expressed before. He got 17 percent of the vote in New Hampshire.
Useful Links:
http://www.concordmonitor.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com
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