January 07, 2008
N.H. Countdown: Of Knuckleheads, Huckaburgers & Crybabies
As much as you might resent the presidential candidates for forcing you to confront the 2008 election so early, it's hard not to feel a little sorry for them. Most are sleep-deprived and anxious just four days after the Iowa caucuses, the results of which forced some candidates to retune their campaign strategies on the run.
This is especially true for Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is locked in a super-tight battle for first in tomorrow's New Hampshire primary, polls released today show. Her decisive loss to Barack Obama in Iowa seemed to send her camp into a tailspin. There are strong hints that if she is humiliated in the Granite State, a personnel shuffle will follow.
A mixture of anxiety, adrenaline and sheer physical exhaustion may explain why we've seen such a range of emotions from Clinton this week. First, she feistily returned fire at rivals Obama and John Edwards at the ABC/Facebook debate on Saturday -- a performance that indicated she wasn't going to take the onslaught of attacks lying down.
An uncharacteristically emotional moment for her today is sucking up most of the oxygen in coverage of New Hampshire. That she seemed to choke up when asked about the hardships of campaigning by a voter raises questions about her gender again. Those questions have distracted the media before, but the Clinton Crying story comes less than 24 hours before Granite Staters go to the polls.
When asked, "How do you do it?" by a New Hampshire voter, a visibly fatigued Clinton choked up as she said, "You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political, it's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it."
There are some who don't buy that display of vulnerability as genuine, of course -- Hillary being Hillary. A sizable strain of Democrats and moderates just flat-out distrust the Clinton machine -- a pretty big change of heart from when she and President Clinton swept into Washington in 1992. But Hillary Clinton, a former Goldwater Girl, was never the icon of the left that the media portrayed her as being.
Getting less attention on the air is former Senate colleague Edwards' unkind dig at Clinton's emotional moment. "I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are tough business, but being president of the United States is also tough business," he said when asked his reaction. "What I know is I'm prepared for that and I'm in this fight for the middle class and the future of this country for the long haul, through the conventions, straight to the White House."
Did Edwards really just call Clinton a big crybaby? The former North Carolina senator has, smartly, softened his language on the Clinton Crying moment as the day has progressed. Edwards is projected to come in well behind Clinton and Obama tomorrow. If he does, and isn't able to gain ground in South Carolina -- the first Southern primary in a state that seems to be evenly split between Clinton and Obama -- we'll see who's crying on the morning of Jan. 27.
Moving on. If you are unhappy with the way the major media outlets have been covering the campaigns, you're far from alone. California Rep. Duncan Hunter lured reporters to a press conference on the promise he had a "major announcement" to make, only to tell them, Haha, I'm NOT dropping out, and BTW you're a bunch of morons.
Reports ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf: "The Republican congressman from California went on a tirade in Manchester, N.H., on Monday about the 'knucklehead' corporate media executives, specifically at ABC News and Fox News, who kept him out of debates on Saturday (ABC News/Facebook/WMUR) and Sunday (Fox News) here in New Hampshire. He used the word knucklehead about 15 times."
Hunter won one delegate in Saturday's Wyoming GOP caucus -- more than Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain. (TPM has video of Hunter crashing the set of "Morning Joe" to inform America of this.) Saying that New Hampshire voters, and not ABC or FOX, should decide who the viable candidates are, Hunter lashed out, "I am not going to let some arrogant knucklehead executive in a glass office 10 stories above a mall in New York City decide the outcome of this election."
Who wants to bet that the Vietnam vet really was thinking about a word other than "knucklehead?"
The battle among Republicans in New Hampshire is between McCain and Romney, but with so many voters undecided, Huckabee is praying for a last-minute rally of support. He's got more cameras than ever on him now, as today's coverage of "The Huckaburger" -- a bison patty named for the former Arkansas governor -- attests.
Even if "live free" Granite Staters don't go for Huck's brand of economic populism, which they probably won't, he could still emerge victorious. A decisive McCain win would hand yet another embarrassing defeat to Romney. That gives the field even more reason to club Romney and, they hope, defang his formidable organization and fundraising operation.
And here's something we're not hearing too much about: the prospect that Romney's momentum sputters out and Giuliani's risky Florida-MegaTuesday bet doesn't deliver. A battle between McCain and Huckabee would be "a classic George H.W. Bush vs. Ronald Reagan battle, the likes of which the country has not seen since Reagan was elected president," Georgetown's Christopher Hull told us in an interview last Friday.
The first Granite State votes will be cast after midnight tonight, and the last polls close at 8 p.m. tomorrow. Hotline is on the ground and updating regularly. See Pollster.com for a guide on how to read New Hampshire polls.
Posted at 6:35 PM
Posted to:
Barack Obama, Campaigns, Democrats, Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards, John McCain, Media, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Rudy Giuliani, WH 2008
Share via
