Archive for the ‘New Hampshire Primary’ Category
Gitell on NECN
January 11, 2008Here are the links to my appearances on NECN NewsNight with Jim Braude last night and after the Iowa caucuses.
WTKK Appearance With Michael Graham: @ 10:20 A.M.
January 9, 2008I will be on the air with Michael Graham shortly after 10:20 a.m. on 96.9 FM-Talk. The subject is, of course, the New Hampshire Primary.
Road After NH Primary
January 9, 2008I spotted an ebullient Senator Lindsey Graham in the lobby of the Nashua Crown Plaza last night where John McCain was holding his election night fete. I wanted some insight about the race moving into South Carolina, and Graham agreed to speak with me. He motioned me to sit with him in one of two adjacent chairs, the kind that Middle Eastern kings and “presidents” sit in when visited by foreign diplomats. Graham was charming gracious with me and the scores of reporters calling his blackberry.
He mapped out McCain’s strategy in South Carolina post New Hampshire, explaining that McCain had won the support of the state’s head of the National Guard, an elected position in the state. Understand this. There is a two star general in South Carolina, who needs to run for reelection. This general has endorsed McCain and will use his political organization on McCain’s behalf. “John uses the words ‘win’ and ‘victory,'” Mr. Graham, who described Mr. McCain as a Reaganite figure who could weave the Republican coalition back together, said. “John is the soldier’s candidate.”
Also interesting was what Patrick Buchanan told me about Rudolph Giuliani’s novel strategy of foregoing early contests to focus on Florida and the February 5 states. “You’re going to go 0 for 4 and win the thing?” Buchanan asked. “If he were my strategist, he’d be sleeping with the fishes,” he added.
NH Republican Primary: Could be a good night for McCain
January 9, 2008I’m not going to report numbers I’m hearing from campaigns. But I think I can say this: It could be a very good night for McCain and not so good for Romney.
New Hampshire Primary: Salem Snapshot
January 8, 2008I’ve been here since the morning. The balmy weather has magnified an already intense interest in the contest.
One of the polling places I hit was Salem Town Hall. Salem is a community of some 30,000 adjacent to Massachusetts. “It’s very busy,” Salem’s Town Clerk, Barbara Lessard told me. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I run out of ballots.”
The town, an outlying bedroom community for Boston, has almost 8000 independents, 4900 Democrats and 5200 Republicans. The absentee ballots, of which there were 300, broke largely Democatic, according to Lessard.
The conventional wisdom is that independents break for either Democratically or Republican. My sense, this time, is that both parties will see a major increase in the number of voters, including independents.