New Hampshire Primary Open Thread

With the first votes having been cast and counted in Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, the first primary of the 2008 presidential campaign is under way. The latest poll closes at 8:00pm.

Polls show Obama leading Clinton with some giving the Illinois Senator a commanding lead. Some polls are also showing John Edwards surging at the end.

The Independent Weekly has been covering both Iowa and New Hampshire happenings. You can find links to their coverage in the top green box found on the front page and the tracker page of this site.

BlueNC's own Drama Queen has been posting about her experiences in New Hampshire. You will find her pieces fun and informative with wonderful pictures. You will find her diaries at this link. Don't miss them.

Happy New Hampshire Primary Day!

Comments

Based on my back of the envelope calculations

If voter turnout really is what was predicted (and everything seems to point that way), what we're seeing are smaller precincts. Predictions were for around 500,000 votes total, and with what we're hearing about independents, I'd guess 300,000 of those are Democratic votes. At 23% of precincts reporting, the total number of votes was around 62,000, which is only a little over 20% of the total vote.

I fully expect this thing to tighten (newer results are showing a tighter race). Don't know if it will be enough for Obama to take it, but my guess is if the exit polls didn't show a tightening, the networks would have called it already.

back to a 4 pt spread with 29% reporting

Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.

***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.

28%

http://www.politico.com/nhprimaries/nhmap-popup.html

Close

I see that Obama is starting to make a move. These numbers had better start moving. Certainly those urban areas where Clinton should be strong should report sooner, but we will see. I have always heard campaigns claim that there numbers aren't in yet. Sometimes these claims are true, and sometimes they are not. I have been paging through the results by counties and have noticed that several large areas have reported in heavily for Hillary and have nearly 100% reporting. That certainly would seem t support the Clinton precincts reporting in first.

Hillary opening it back up.

One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me

It will see saw back and forth

I guess..... It's still very close and Obama could easily take the lead at this point.

Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.

***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.

Nerve cracking.

Either way, it looks like a whole new ball game in the Palmetto State.

I agree

The story for me is the unprecedented turnout and the large number - 15% - who didn't pick their candidate until election day. I would love to see this kind of turnout in SC.

Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.

***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.

Well that's good

Now I know that what I'm doing will really make a difference :-)

Left on 49

54%

Tighter still.

I'm going to go ahead and predict that Obama pulls this out. But regardless, the closeness means we won't have a coronation after two small states vote. Despite rooting strongly for Obama at this point, I think that's a good thing. I really like Obama, but I don't want to nominate him unless he can handle himself in an electoral scrap.

Argh, Yankees...

Come on, people, count the freakin' votes. They do teach you how to count up there, don't they? :)

Just came back in from the other room

Where there was a lovely fire as well as MSNBC.com.

Edwards about to speak.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi

Elizabeth looks exhausted.

n/t
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi

time to go home

I'm leaving behind about a dozen nervous volunteers here at Obama HQ in Rock Hill, SC. I need to go though because i still have to drive an hour and 15 mins to get home.
Looks like I need to work my behind off the next couple of weeks. SC Primary on january 26th!

Left on 49

safe journey, LiberalNC

Thanks for the work that you're doing.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi

Congratulations to HRC

I'm not a supporter but you have to give credit where it's due. Amazing turn around for Hillary and her camp.

----
There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracts. They fear the future, mistrust the present, and invoke the security of the comfortable past which, in fact, never existed. - Robert F. Kennedy

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There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks. They fear the future, mistrust the present, and invoke the security of the comfortable past which, in fact, never existed. - Robert F. Kennedy

totally agree.

We've got quite a year ahead of us, don't we? And we still have this embarrassment of riches in the Democratic Party - from the top, right down to local races. 2008 is our year. :)

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi

No more polls for me.

Sayonara pollsters. You've melted my brains for the last time this year.

yeah, yeah,

I'm bookmarking this statement, Frank. We'll see. You can't play this politics game without letting the pollsters mess with you a little bit.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi

I don't need their help

I say enough embarrassing things on my own without parroting the latest poll numbers to everyone I meet. Seriously, I don't think their metrics work anymore. It's like the electorate has gone post-modern or something.

Well they did ok on the Rep. side.

No vote switching in NH so Kucinich and Richardson votes stayed Kucinich and Richardson votes. Folks may have thought Obama had it wrapped up and voted for McCain or another favorite. The wet eyes episode seems to have helped Clinton.
I am glad the contest will continue. The longer this country takes Obama and Clinton seriously the better for the USA long term.

Person County Democrats

I actively oppose gerrymandering. Do you?

home

Well I guess they wrapped it up while i was driving home.
Seems like the women came through big for Hillary. I guess a little crying can help you get a lot of votes with Democratic women.

*runs for cover*

I jest!

Seriously though, there's a lot of work to be done in South Carolina now. Wanna join Me? I promise it's fun!

Left on 49

It's odd, but I'm happy HRC pulled it out in NH

I agree with persondem - the longer this country takes both HRC and Obama seriously, the better off we all are. I don't want to see this end just yet. I also think this throws the Republicans for a loop. I'm happy to keep them guessing a little while longer.

***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.

Excellent diary on Kos

This is a nice look at what might have happened in New Hampshire. This person hasn't decided on a candidate yet, so no attacks or digs.

Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.

***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.

What might have happened in NH?

Link goes to new challenger against Foxx . . . which is a welcome bit of news no matter it was an errant cut-n-paste or not!

WOOT!

Hahahaha.....

I should never try to link so early in the morning. I was going to put something up about the new challenger to Foxx and then quite obviously got sidetracked. Lemme find the other link again.

Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.

***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.

I'm glad there was no coronation last night.

I'm glad that Hillary pulled it out, even though I'd rather vote for Edwards or Obama in the general election. Our nominee shouldn't be decided by one or two states, or crowned by the media.

That said - I was captivated by Obama's speech - so much so that I said (and fellow West Wingnuts will understand) "Aaron Sorkin must be writing his speeches". Nope. Here's an interesting article about the young man who puts Obama's words into speeches. It's a great read.

Jon Favreau has the worst and the best job in political speechwriting. His boss is a best-selling author who doesn't really need his help, having written the 2004 speech that catapulted him onto the national stage. At the same time, the same boss also happens to be capable of delivering a speech in ways that can give his audience the goosebumps.

But Barack Obama is more than a little busy campaigning across Iowa and New Hampshire right now. So it was Favreau who led the team that wrote Obama's victory speech in Des Moines last week—a moment that prompted the TV pundits to drop months of skepticism about Obama's candidacy to make breathless comparisons with the Kennedy era.

For Favreau, a 26-year-old jean-clad staffer (who is no relation to the comedian of "Swingers" fame) who worked in Obama's senate office, the contrast with the 2004 election could not be starker.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi

Had to give a bunch of interviews this morning

Seems I'm becoming famous in my old home country of Belgium now.
Apparently the press was looking for a Belgian that's involved in the primaries here and a national news paper found me.
Today an interview with me appeared in that paper and apparently journalists read eachothers papers.
So since then I had to do an interview with the national belgian press agency and another one with the belgian world broadcasting service.
The problem was that some of them forgot there was a 6 hour time difference and they started calling me at 7 am this morning...pfffft
I'm sure I didn't sound too cheerful.

Left on 49

Pretty cool, though!

You'll be blogging for two continents - in how many languages? whoo - you're hot.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi

I'm hot?

I'll let my wife know...ha ha ha.
To answer your question: I talk to the Belgian press in Dutch and I try to speak some form of decent English here.

I thought they spoke French in Belgium...

My understanding of the BeNeLux countries has just been turned upside-down.

I'm going to have to leave work early so I can absorb this revelation in a calmer environment. :0

Shows you what you know..LOL

Just messing with you :-)

Out of the 10 million people living there (on a surface only 1/4 of the size of NC) 6.5 million have dutch as a native language and 3.5 million have French as a native language.
And besides the best chocolate and beers in the world you also might know Belgium because some of our famous inventions like:
* fries (they call them french but they're not actually from France)
* the Saxophone
* Tintin
* The Smurfs
And so much more :-)
Plus our capital (Brussels) is also the capital of Europe as it houses the European parliament and is the home of NATO headquarters.

Any questions?
There will be a test tomorrow :-)