Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Clinton Out Front--So Far

With 63% of the vote in, Hillary Clinton has about 5,000 more votes than Barack Obama in New Hampshire and is up 39% to 37%. According to Kos, Hillary is enjoying a "huge" advantage among women voters who might be annoyed over the bad press she's got over tearing up. As someone who's teared up while speaking in public myself, I'm with them.

One angle that interests me is the possibility that caucus voters in Iowa and primary voters in New Hampshire have been voting to make sure the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama moves forward and that no one wins easily. The anti-Hillary wave in Iowa kept her from being inevitable but the apparent pro-Hillary wave in New Hampshire ensures that she won't be crushed and might ensure that she'll move forward on equal footing.

If that's the case, I think people are right. The best thing that can happen to either Hillary or Obama is a strong, testing primary battle. That will make them both better candidates and is the best way to prepare the winner for the general election.

Update: The Associated Press called the primary for Hillary, but CNN is holding back.

1 comment:

Scottye said...

I'm not entirely convinced Clinton has won, as it stand at 11:23 pm she has about 4000 more votes than Obama. That's barely a 2% lead. In a race this close I think it's fairly premature to declare a winner with roughly 20% of the votes left to count. But that's just me.