Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
greets voters and supporters outside a polling place in Derry, New Hampshire,
January 8, 2008, the day of the New Hampshire Primary.
REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Posted on 01/08/2008 8:11:09 PM PST by NormsRevenge
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Hillary Rodham Clinton proved Tuesday that more than one Clinton can be "the Comeback Kid." Clinton, whose husband used a second-place finish in New Hampshire in 1992 to propel himself to the White House, had trailed Obama in recent polling. In the last days, though, she overhauled her campaign operation here and took a new tone to the trail. Aides, meanwhile, executed the long-laid ground game that even rivals acknowledged was masterful.
Her campaign had braced for a New Hampshire loss but instead celebrated a win in a state where her campaign worked aggressively to derail Obama's momentum. Even as Primary Day began, it was still uncertain if her game plan had worked.
The campaign had made more than 1.4 million phone calls to voters and 6,000 volunteers canvassing the state in the last few days.
The one-time front-runner's lead had evaporate in the campaign's closing days, but she trod onward. She spent Tuesday visiting polling locations and coffee shops and vowed to meet with as many voters as she could before polls closed.
"We're going to work all day to get the vote out," Clinton said before dawn, visiting a polling location with daughter Chelsea.
Clinton overhauled her strategy after her Iowa embarrassment, a third-place showing in the opening caucuses. She took voters' questions and appeared less stilted. She showed more emotion, worked hard to connect with voters and appeared less imperial. She and husband Bill Clinton retooled her stump speech to emphasize change — the watchword of this election.
"If you want to know what I will do as president, I hope you will look at what I've done," she told reporters in her closing argument. "Because the election isn't about choosing change over experience. Change only comes with experience. And with the challenges we face, we've never needed change more, or the experience and strength to make it happen."
In the end, though, key voting blocs were there for Clinton in New Hampshire — or weren't there for Obama, depending on how the campaigns frame it. According to exit polling conducted by The Associated Press and the networks, far more women voted than men; Clinton won 45 percent of them compared to 36 for Obama.
Also according to exit polls, only half as many New Hampshire voters under 30 turned out as in Iowa, depriving Obama of crucial support.
Clinton's organization delivered. She hired the state's top political organizers, including the executive director of the New Hampshire Democratic Party that helped orchestrate 2006's landslide wins in the state House, Senate and Executive Council. She also picked up the popular chairwoman of the party and other party elders. She also picked up key advisers, including Howard Dean's guru Karen Hicks and belatedly Al Gore aide Doug Hattaway.
The homegrown, Granite State feel of the Clinton organization mimicked that of Sen. John Kerry's 2004 win here.
The campaign organized down to the precinct level. They built lists of endorsers and volunteers. They spent more than $5 million on 5,000 television ads in New Hampshire media markets.
Despite that, as the summer wore on, Clinton's poll numbers leveled out. Obama built a similar organization and his name identification crept upward.
When asked Tuesday morning what she planned to tell supporters Tuesday night, Clinton only offered a cautious "We'll see."
As her optimistic smile made its way to polling places and businesses, record turnout hinted she faced a more difficult than predicted challenge from Obama. Her husband, the former president, starting spinning a loss here and blaming the calendar for not giving the campaign time to adjust after Iowa.
"The only thing I hate is New Hampshire should have had the customary 10 days after Iowa. If they had, I wouldn't have any doubt about the outcome of this. It's just hard to overcome the media deluge," Bill Clinton said in Seabrook, returning to his frequent criticism of how reporters have covered his wife compared to Obama.
"It's just almost impossible to vote five days after Iowa without being unduly influenced by the media coverage from Iowa. So, you know, that colored the polls — the switch in the polls for two days — and then we've had a three-day election."
Even without the time, it was enough.
Another year of the cackling? Please no.
yup..before you know it, you've got all the women voting for you.
What a charade.
She smiled and all I could think was, Doesn’t the US Senate have a Dental plan? Savor your last victory Bucky Beaver!
Poll watchers, you were manipulated by the media!!
She is a legend in her own mind.
She’s more beatable than Obama.
So much for the “Hillary is collapsing, Hillary will fold soon...” rhetoric.
Much of news is what we want to hear.
The familiar ‘Comeback Kid’ story. MSM strategy to win the WH for the Clintons. And so it begins...
I guess it is in Clintonese. Like the definition of “sexual relations”.
Maybe some folks are right.....brain check required before you are allowed to vote....
“”The only thing I hate is New Hampshire should have had the customary 10 days after Iowa.”
Wasn’t it the Dems who were responsible for altering the ‘customary’ schedule of the Presidential Election Process?
Must be the granite in the water.
If this idiot gets anywhere near the Oval Office, America as we know it is over.
New Hampshire must be more “racist” than “sexist”.
CLINTON 89,095 [39%]
OBAMA 82,397 [37%]
Four points is usually just outside, if not just inside, the margin of error. The results don’t jibe with the earlier exit polls.
This is why we shouldn’t be too excited about having her as the nominee. The Clintons are dangerous. They always seem to pull out elections. There is no way in my mind that I believe that all the pollsters were so wrong. Something is amiss. They will do the same thing in the general election, especially in close states. They will get their Democratic buddies to find voters in graves and elsewhere to put them over the top.
Obviously, the Obama haven’t learned how to do that as yet.
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