On To New Hampshire!
The weekend is typically a time to rest and recuperate from the rigors of the work week, but there is no rest for the Presidential candidates, especially Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
With the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, Barack Obama has taken his crew to New Hampshire to try to continue the momentum he gained in Iowa, as the frontrunner. He has his work cut out for him in New Hampshire. Senator Clinton’s team has established a very firm foothold in the state, so both Obama and John Edwards see New Hampshire as a real turning point. Obama needs to keep the momentum going and Edwards needs to keep his campaign afloat. There will be no rest for any of the Democratic candidates, especially Hillary Clinton. Another loss for her in New Hampshire would be a real slap in the face. Her third-place finish in Iowa was a real shocker to her campaign. It remains to be seen whether it was general dissatisfaction on the part of Iowans with Washington politics (of which she is seen as a ’standing’ member), a personal dislike of the candidate herself, or just the freaky way the Democratic caucus is conducted in Iowa. Is this just a fluke? What will happen in a regular ballot scenario, as in the New Hampshire primary? It’s just about anyone’s guess at this point.
On the Republican side, Mitt Romney has to salvage something in New Hampshire. He needs a win. Mike Huckabee’s ‘come-from-behind’ win in Iowa certainly unsettled the Romney camp, which spent lots of Romney’s money and time, just to come in second place. With his extremely well-organized group functioning at peak performance levels, it appears that it was a voter backlash against his negative ads that did him in. Now, Romney is in New Hampshire and really needs to make a good showing in the primary. His chief opponent in New Hampshire is John McCain, who has powerful supporters throughout the state. The scuttlebutt is that Romney is going to increase his negative ads against McCain, which I personally think could backfire. With all the high-powered talent Romney has around him, someone needs to tell him to concentrate on pitching his strengths, rather than his opponents’ weaknesses.
As for Huckabee, the ‘Wonder Boy’ of Iowa, he has chosen to sit-this-one-out. Huckabee has done very little in New Hampshire and has decided to put all his efforts into the South Carolina primary where he has built a strong base of support. That way, his anticipated loss in New Hampshire won’t have much impact on his long-term campaign.
Tags: Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John McCain, Mitt Romney, New Hampshire Primary, Presidential primary, RepublicansLeave a Reply
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