New Hampshire Takeaways

I'm a bit puzzled by the media reactions to New Hampshire, and frankly, over the whole presidential campaign. Even voices I like and respect seem to have blind spots, and odd analysis. Here are my short takes.

Hillary Clinton: Hillary lost New Hampshire by somewhere around what she was predicted to by polls and speculation. There were no particular surprises that I could see. And she gave a decent speech, congratulating Bernie Sanders on his win, and rousing her supporters. I have no idea what all of the hand-wringing was about, from pundits and journalists. Should she lose South Carolina? New story.

Bernie Sanders: The only thing surprising about Bernie's performance was that he finally got some decent coverage. I think the astonished reactions may have had something to do with the press largely ignoring him and his events, and then being forced to witness that he has support akin to Trump's. But, of course, with far more substance, and with followers who are considerably more informed, and demanding politically. That's not to say I don't have significant issues with the "Bernie Bros."

John Kasich: That my Ohio Governor Milquetoast came in second is the absolute flip-side of front-runner Trump, showing that there are more nutbars in Vermont than we thought, but that they're are people who respond to what by contrast seems normal, sensible. He's not. But he's eminently preferable.

Marco Rubio and Jeb! Bush: Both continue to be plagued by saying or doing the "wrong" thing in the eyes of the press. Bush continues to be barely a footnote, and Marco, after a strong finish in Iowa, has been assailed as a talking-point regurgitating robot. Anything and everything considered a mistake or error for these guys wouldn't even register if Trump did or said it. I'd take either of these guys over Trump or Cruz. But I wouldn't be happy about it.

Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie: The field is being culled, and only Ben of these three remains standing. I'll be shocked if he isn't the next to go. Chris Christie I'll be sorry to lose. Bully that he is, I think I liked him best of the worst.

Ted Cruz: Cruz is far and away the candidate I'd have the hardest time dealing with if he won the general. He's a disingenuous Dominionist, bent on eliminating the wall between church and state. He's unctuous, creepy, and just plain awful. Fortunately, he won the Iowa caucus, and that is usually the kiss of death. I'm hoping so.

And finally. . .

Donald Trump: The media is going into convulsions (likely only rivaling those of Reince Preibus and the rest of the GOP establishment), self-flagellating over having treated Trump as a clown and a sideshow. Newsflash, news people: He is still a clown and a sideshow. Oh, he may continue to do very well. He may very well win the nomination. And--to my increasing horror--the voters of the United States may have hit peak Idiocracy centuries ahead of schedule, and lead to his eventual election. I hope not.

While the media continues to mea culpa all over itself over the wrong thing, what they should be doing is actually turning their syntax parsing onto him. His speeches--regularly played in their entirety on cable news, regardless of their newslessness--are filled with repetition that makes Rubio's current drubbing completely unjustified. They aren't even speeches at all. They're ad libbing, and bad ad libbing at that. They're akin to Sarah Palin word salad, but half as entertaining. [Story continues below]



Trump's "victory speech" in New Hampshire, if you subtract his thanks to dead and living relatives and his skeevy staff, was more of this empty, crass, 5th-grade level blather. No other candidate in the entire race (or any other) would survive this horrible speech. At best, anyone but Trump would suffer a days-long dissection of its awfulness, to speculation of his dropping out, or dire warnings that he must course-correct. Not Trump. They don't even mention it.

But here, don't take my word for it. Read a few verbatim quotes from the "speech." Tell me this is presidential. Tell me this wouldn't disqualify anyone else. Try to parse any of it for coherency. It's terrible.

Read it here: Haaretz

GOP Clown Car Continues to Empty Out: Carly Fiorina & Chris Christie

Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina have bailed  out of the 2016 GOP Clown Car. We can only hope she landed on him, and not the other way around.

Carly was far too icy and prickly to ever gather any steam, as far as I'm concerned. For all of the "unlovableness" people try to heap on Hillary, Carly made her look like your favorite pie-baking, cuddly grandma. And Carly was the mean, brittle other grandma you'd cry when you'd have to visit, and you couldn't enter that one room, or sit on the furniture unless it was covered with plastic. Like her face (ha!).

Christie was probably in my short (very short) list of GOP candidates who wouldn't have freaked me out if he'd won. He's a bully. And probably corrupt. But he'd also get things done without pulling Jesus into everything. and without embarrassing the living crap out of America for the next four years. I'm a bit sorry to see him go.

Dr. Ben Carson Causes Pile-up, Confusion at GOP Debate

Hilarious.

FOX "News" Trots Out Sarah Palin for Her. . .What?

The excerpted article below isn't earth-shattering by any means, though it is well written and entertaining. What made it stick out to me was its pointing out of the obvious: Sarah Palin brings nothing to the discussion. I'd amend that to any discussion. I've been watching FOX "News" (something I rarely do) on a random evening, and seen them trot out Caribou Barbie. It goes something like this:

"Some people are outraged that President and Mrs. Obama have been seen eating Hebrew National hot dogs.  After all, aren't they awfully expensive, in these hard times? And isn't he supposed to be Christian?  Here to talk about it with us today is former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin."

"Well, thanks, Megyn, and ya know, back in Alaska and across this great country of ours, people are hurting--goin' to Sam's Club and also discount stores too, and so--but it's all about perception, because, well, those Jewish hot dogs are so darned expensive and elitist, not that I cast any particular apersions though on those Jews, they got on me for that blood libel, don't want that again, anyway, and so. . ."

And on it goes. Actually, my sentence structure is a little too linear for Palin. But the fact is, every answer is a convoluted word salad that sometimes has a little to do with the subject. But she's not an expert on much of anything. To put her on the teevee to spout off on just about any subject is akin to putting on your Aunt Marge. The sheen of celebrity is all she has to offer.

[Excerpt]


Fox News, your Sarah Palin reminder service

. . .Which brings us to the night’s chief difference maker, Sarah Palin of Fox News. Though you were probably making progress in forgetting about her, she surfaced for an abbreviated segment that got interrupted by Jon Huntsman’s “third place is a ticket to ride” speech. Summoned by Fox anchors Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier to track the primary trend lines, she answered the call in her very own way. That is to say, shallowly and with a touch of narcissism. . .

Read more at: Washington Post

Mitt 1st, Paul 2nd, Huntsman 3rd

Another first: an excited crowd for Mittens. Image from LA Times

First place Mitt Romney wasn't a surprise in New Hampshire. In fact, for a long time, it has been almost a foregone conclusion. The question was, will he win big? Not big enough? I don't think it matters. The optics have him winning twice in a row. That's the biggest head of steam Romney has managed to date in this contest. The big news is Ron Paul in second and Jon Huntsman third. Those are the best showings either is likely to get, unless a massive change in momentum results. I can't picture 76-year-old Paul as President. And I can't picture Jon Huntsman--the seemingly sanest* one of the bunch--winning over the tea baggers.

*Huntsman may be comparatively sane. But his support of the Medicare-killing Ryan plan (among other things) makes him just as unacceptable to me.


[Excerpt]


Mitt Romney wins New Hampshire GOP primary

Reporting from Manchester, N.H.—

Mitt Romney rolled to an easy victory Tuesday in the New Hampshire primary, taking a broad stride toward capturing the GOP presidential nomination as the contest heads south for a pair of potentially make-or-break contests. . .

Read more at: Los Angeles Times

Bill Richardson Drops out of Presidential Race?

Photo from Democracy for New Mexico

I add the question mark because this has been up in the air, and back and forth. He's in, he's out, he's in. . .I'm pretty sure he's out now. And as good a candidate as he is on paper, like Christopher Dodd and Joe Biden, he was just not lighting up the electorate. Meanwhile, Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards remain in the race with the two front-runners, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Let's hope one or both of them stay a while to keep it interesting.

[Excerpt]

Richardson to End 2008 Presidential Bid

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ended his campaign for the presidency Wednesday after twin fourth-place finishes that showed his impressive credentials could not compete with his rivals' star power.

Richardson planned to announce the decision Thursday, according to two people close to the governor with knowledge of the decision. They spoke on a condition of anonymity in advance of the governor's announcement. . .

Red more at: Huffington Post

Barack Obama's New Hampshire Speech

There is no doubt that Barack Obama is a gifted speaker. And he manages to turn a concession speech into a victory speech. Some of what he says is sort of rote. "A few weeks ago, no one could have imagined what we have accomplished here tonight?" Why not? A few years ago maybe.

But his overall message is great. The only thing that troubles me is a "Southern Revivalist Preacher" tone he sometimes wanders into. But if he ends up winning the Presidency, he won't be needing the BIG speech voice as much, I suppose. Check it out.

Jon Stewart on the Presidential Primaries

It's been a long time since there were any new The A Daily Show with Jon Stewart clips to post. But he's finally back, and I thought I'd share with you a recent post, showing that Stewart can be just as funny, even without writers. Take it away, Jon!

Ballot Problems Responsible for Hillary's Win?

Photo from source, ABC News

This story is typical on a day after a surprising election outcome. Hillary Clinton pulled out a seeming "come-from-behind" victory in the New Hampshire primary. It's become the story, even though John McCain was almost pronounced dead as a candidate a few weeks ago, and he won too.

But since Hillary's votes seemed out of scale with the pre-vote polls, people are falling all over themselves, trying to sort out why. Now, I have no doubt that election fraud occurs. I will go to my grave believing that the current occupant of the White House cheated to get there. But in this case, I think we should remember how many people were undecided going in.

Also worthy of mention, Air America's Rachel Maddow's point that all year, Hillary had double-digit leads in New Hampshire. Barack Obama's ascendancy was just a few days old. That may have been the anomaly. And, I'm sorry, but if 3% of the voting public would be so lazy and/or stupid that they'd vote for the first name they recognize. . .there's just not much you can do about that. You can't idiot-proof it enough for people that dumb.

[Excerpt]

Ballot Changes Cited in Vote's Discrepancy With Polls

Without a doubt, a big source of the discrepancy between the pre-election surveys and the election outcome in New Hampshire is the order of candidates' names on the ballot and in the surveys.

Our analysis of all recent primaries in New Hampshire showed that there was always a big primacy effect — big-name, big-vote-getting candidates got 3 percent or more votes more when listed first on the ballot than when listed last. . .

Read more at: ABC News

Hillary Clinton Wins New Hampshire

Photos from source, AOL News

I've already covered my feelings on this outcome here, but I wanted to "make it official" on the blog: Hillary Clinton has been declared the winner of the New Hampshire primary. As I type this, she is giving her speech, which follows Barack Obama's stirring (but dishearteningly preacher-like) speech.

Hillary is sounding like a completely different person from her "near tears" headline story yesterday. And looking at the numbers (85,625 vs. 79,323 so far), it wasn't even really a squeaker. Close, but not 2000-election close.

So good for Mrs. C. Now, I hope that John Edwards pulls off an equal come from behind to really shake things up.

New Hampshire Dumps FOX "News!"

Do you hear the harp strings? New Hampshire Republicans have seen the light, and pulled its sponsorship of the FOX "News" Republican Presidential debate!

[Excerpt]

N.H. GOP backs out of Fox GOP forum

In protest of Fox News’ excluding Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter from its GOP presidential candidates forum Sunday, the New Hampshire state Republican Party has withdrawn its sponsorship of the forum. . .

Read more at: Politico

Rudy Giuliani/Dick Cheney 2008?

Photo from Democratic Underground

Rudy Giuliani is invisible in the Iowa Caucus, and isn't expected to show up much in the New Hampshire primary either. So, what is Capt. 9/11 to do? Say something craazzzy!

[Excerpt]

Giuliani muses on vice president, cabinet

Would a Rudy Giuliani administration be populated with a cabinet of Republican rivals and a powerful, all-knowing vice president like Dick Cheney?

Possibly, according to musings Giuliani shared in answers to questions from New Hampshire voters Wednesday evening in Hooksett. . .

Read more at: Boston.com

Mitt Romney's New Hampshire Hope

As I type this, MSNBC is projecting Mike Huckabee the winner of the Iowa Caucus, and Mitt Romney in a less-than-close second place (Democrats Edwards, Clinton and Obama are in a three-person tie with Obama just squeaking ahead). So Mitt Romney needs to focus hard on New Hampshire. Here is his "seal the deal" ad, if you're interested.

But note this line from the ad: "In the next 10 years, we'll see more progress, more change than the world has seen in the last 10 centuries." Really, Mitt? A thousand years? Overstate much?