Redstate

Posted at 4:54pm on Jun. 30, 2008 An Insider's View on Taking Back New Hampshire

By Bob Clegg

As the 2008 general election draws ever nearer, the eyes of the nation will turn once again to those handful of states deemed "swing states" and once again one of those will be our state of New Hampshire. Having been one of only three states to change its color from the 2000 election to the 2004 election, we will be closely watched as the country tries to gauge which direction the coveted independent vote will go this cycle.

New Hampshirites are strong-willed, independent voters who don't take kindly to people telling us what to do. Nowhere is this more evident than when you look at how we have voted over the past 8 years. In 2000, we delivered New Hampshire to then-Governor Bush by 1%, voted for a Democrat Governor, and both congressional districts went to Republicans. In 2004, we delivered New Hampshire to our neighboring Democrat Senator, John Kerry, by 1% (9,000 votes), voted for a Democrat Governor, a Republican Senator, and 2 Republican congressmen.

Read on . . .

Posted in 2008 | New Hampshire | NH-02 — Comments (12) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:37pm on Jan. 14, 2008 "Most of these people are not rational."

The Ron Paul Revolution comes to New Hampshire

By Neil Stevens

Original link via Ace of Spades HQ...

For the last eight years, the Democratic left has claimed that voting machines are the tools of electoral fraud in America. They claimed that the efficiency that makes them useful also makes them unreliable. However, a lack of efficiency also has a cost, unfortunately a personal one.

Read on...

Posted in 2008 | Brownshirts | DSM IV | New Hampshire | Political Intimidation | Ron Paul | Twelve Letter Profanities — Comments (42)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:50am on Jan. 9, 2008 MI Morning Update: McCain, Clinton Win in New Hampshire - All Eyes Turn to Michigan

By saul anuzis

302 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

Oh what a night…in New Hampshire.

John McCain won the New Hampshire primary with 37% of the vote, followed by Mitt Romney with 32% and Mike Huckabee with 11%. In order to qualify for delegates, a Republican finisher had to garner at least 10% of the statewide vote. NO other candidates qualified for delegates.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won a come from behind race against Barack Obama.

Posted in Archived | Fergus Cullen | Michigan Presidential Primary | Michigan Republican Party | New Hampshire | Saul Anuzis — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:56am on Jan. 9, 2008 New Hampshire--The Aftermath

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Right in predicting the winner of the GOP race. Massively wrong in predicting the winner of the race on the Democratic side, but in my defense, I did write this. And this. Hillary Clinton is obviously not going away and after the results in New Hampshire, she has no reason to. The race for the Democratic nomination may be a bitter and hard fought one after all. And it is entirely possible that the winner will be bloodied and bruised at the end of the entire process.

The race for the Republican nomination will be hard fought as well. Romney is in serious trouble. Perhaps he can revive his candidacy in Michigan but if he disappoints there, it is hard to see how he will continue. At that point, either it becomes a McCain-Huckabee race or the GOP Powers That Be decide that it is high time for a consensus candidate. In which case, Fred Thompson might--I said "might"--have a second act left in him after all.

Posted in 2008 | Democrats | New Hampshire | Republicans — Comments (45)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:52am on Jan. 8, 2008 Report from the polls

By Soren Dayton

When I pulled into the Hooksett polling place around 6:30 AM, I came into a traffic jam. It was 15 minutes before I could get to a parking spot. Simply put, turnout was huge. The Union-Leader reports massive turnout. The Secretary of State has predicted a 500k turnout, and three or four campaigns are using this for their turnout model. Last night, talking to some state party officials, they pointed out that 417k people voted in the high-turnout 2006 general election. I am watching MSNBC right now and Chuck Todd semi-predicted even higher. If, as the Union-Leader reported, over 10% of the voters are new-registrants, it could be even higher.

At the polling places that I have seen, Obama, McCain, and Clinton have volunteers at polling places. No Romney or Rudy people. (although one place had a parked truck with a big Romney sign on it) Chatting with the Obama and Clinton people on the ground, they made it clear that they were rooting for Romney because they felt like they could beat him.

Watching the results tonight will be interesting.

Posted in 2008 | New Hampshire — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:24am on Jan. 8, 2008 MI Morning Update: Off To New Hampshire - Michigan Presidential Primary Next

By saul anuzis

303 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

I’m on my way to New Hampshire to pitch Michigan as being “next”. I will be traveling to various candidate headquarters, victory parties and media venues with NH Chairman Fergus Cullen and meeting with NH Secretary of State Gardner to visit several polling places and discuss the presidential primary options for 2012 and beyond.

We are in the process of compiling a complete list of “party events” and “candidate appearances” around the state. If you have any additional information, please send it to our offices ASAP and we will update the list. The list is being sent to state and national media outlets regularly and updated on our web site and blog daily. To see the latest list go to:

Posted in Fergus Cullen | Michigan Primary | Michigan Republican Party | New Hampshire | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:37pm on Jan. 6, 2008 Mitt Romney's Finest Hour.

By Leon H Wolf

Although I have been a Romney supporter, I have not generally joined the chorus of Romney supporters who have claimed that he has won all the previous debates: he hasn't. Although he hasn't done poorly, exactly, I don't think he's had a debate where he actually shined, and stood out from the rest of the candidates - but he did tonight.

It's possible that Fred Thompson had the best objective performance of the debate, but let's be clear - for the purposes of New Hampshire, tonight was about who could win between McCain and Romney, and Romney was the clear winner. Although I have made peace with the possibility that McCain could win the nomination, and would cheerfully support him in the general, he did not perform well tonight. As contrasted with his widely criticized performance in last night's debate, McCain looked like he'd been force-fed Prozac before this debate. As a consequence, it was hard to remember at most points that he was even there, and when he was there, he was oddly and forcefully cheerful - a motif that just doesn't work for McCain. By way of contrast, Romney was clearly on his game, landing at least two solid blows against his old nemesis Huckabee, and on one occasion (when he interjected into Huckabee's immigration answer) provoking the temper that Huckabee has kept carefully hidden on the campaign trail, but which Arkansas know exist. Romney clearly impressed the focus groups, and spoke to issues that appeal to the folks of New Hampshire. And the thing that impressed me the most is that Romney let the "real Romney" out of the can a couple of times tonight - the guy that so many of us have been begging Romney to let out - this guy. The Romney who doesn't feel the need to be perfect and polished 100% of the time, the guy who you can believe actually gives a crap about the principles he is espousing. That guy has been conspicuously missing for too long (and I think the results in Iowa and polls in NH have reflected that), and it was good to see him tonight.

Although Romney has the resources to continue the race beyond New Hampshire even if he loses, the reality is that New Hampshire represents his last stand when it comes to having a realistic shot at winning the nomination. If Romney loses NH to McCain, he stands to lose MI to either Huckabee or McCain or both, and he won't get enough of a bump to take SC from Huckabee. So the real question from tonight was whether Romney could begin to swing the tide against McCain. If the Luntz group was any indication, he may have done just enough to accomplish that.

The next two days will tell us for sure, but the last two days may have righted the Romney ship in time.

Posted in 2008 | New Hampshire | Presidential Debates — Comments (101)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:21pm on Jan. 6, 2008 My Take On Last Night's Democratic Debate

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Barack Obama didn't make any serious mistakes, which means that he won the debate. John Edwards was his usual populist-with-a-smile self; one wonders whether it has finally dawned on him that his candidacy is going nowhere. Hillary Clinton went on about "making change" so much that I was tempted to ask if she could break a $20. Bill Richardson got off a good line about being in hostage negotiations that were more congenial but it was clear from the beginning that he was there just to run for Vice President. He should have just given copies of his resume to Clinton and Obama and then he should have left the stage.

Worst Moment: In response to clear evidence and a news story discussing the effectiveness of the surge, all four candidates essentially put their fingers in their ears and shouted "LalalalalalaIcan'thearyou!!!!!!" when Charlie Gibson tried to challenge them on their stated Iraq policies. Another triumph for "the reality-based community," I suppose.

Posted in 2008 | Democrats | New Hampshire | Presidential Debate — Comments (13)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:20pm on Jan. 6, 2008 My Take On Last Night's Republican Debate

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

It was a wild one. Quite obviously, no one likes Mitt Romney but even though I am not a supporter of his, I think that a lot of the attacks only served to make the attackers look bad. McCain looked peevish and cranky when he repeatedly and gleefully sought to put the boot into Romney time after time after time and it didn't take long before the whole thing got tiresome. Romney also hit back effectively against McCain, who apparently has decided to pull a John Edwards and make pharmaceutical companies into villains. In response to a Romney request not to make the drug companies into bad guys, McCain replied "They are." Fatuous nonsense, but I guess that McCain had to do what he had to do in order to get votes; if he loses in New Hampshire, his candidacy is as good as over.

Romney was also more in tune with reality when he clashed with Huckabee over the surge and over Huckabee's--yes, I am going to say it--astonishingly bad Foreign Affairs article in which Huckabee said that "[t]he Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad." Huckabee tried to weasel out by claiming that he wasn't referring to President Bush personally. That doesn't even pass the laugh test. Who does Huckabee think ultimately is responsible for the Bush Administration's foreign policy? The Undersecretary of State for Near East Asian Affairs? The White House Butler? Spot? Barney? Of course the attack was on the President and the more Republican voters are reminded of that, the less well Huckabee will do. It should be noted, of course, that Romney is not innocent of the charge of having piled on the Administration when it was politically convenient to do so. But at least in recent times, he hasn't been nearly as guilty of the charge as has Huckabee.

The big winners? For my money it was Fred for the content of his answers and Rudy for his energy. Between the two of them, they were the perfect candidate. Of course, I support Fred, so I am sure you expected to hear that. The one bad answer I heard from Fred was his apparent (I caught it at the end, so feel free to correct me if I am wrong) derision in response to Ron Paul's statement that if you want to combat inflation, you should stop printing money. Paul is right in making that comment and that is just Milton Friedman 101.

Posted in 2008 | New Hampshire | Presidential Debate | Republicans — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:06pm on Jan. 6, 2008 Huckabee's support more than Southern Evangelicals?

By Soren Dayton

I just finished a Mitt Romney townhall in Nashua, NH. He had around 400 people, according to the campaign. I had just come from a similar event in Windham, just down the road, where Mike Huckabee had over 600. The Huckabee event clearly had more energy than the Romney event.

One of the questions in this race is whether Mike Huckabee has a base of support beyond southern Evangelicals. Well, I found an Orthodox Jewish State Rep., Jason Bedrick. Watch Jason explain why he supports Huckabee. He also said that Huckabee could bring Reagan Democrats back to the party. Reagan did it by using cultural values and economic populism to cut into traditionally Democratic ethnic voting blocs ... like culturally conservative northeastern Jews. Could Huckabee?

If this energy is indicative, Rudy Giuliani could be in trouble. One reporter described his events to me as "intimate."

UPDATE: Moving fast, I botch the point. Really it was about economic hope. And Reagan offered a form of populism over Goldwater, who had a hard-line anti-deficit position. Rep. Bedrick made the point about offering something to the working class, which was my point. My bad for moving fast.

Posted in 2008 | Mike Huckabee | New Hampshire — Comments (38) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:05pm on Jan. 5, 2008 NH Debate Open Thread

By Mark I

The Republicans have been going at it for the past hour in New Hampshire on ABC. How's your guy doing? Discuss it here.

UPDATE: And it's over.

Quick reactions: Romney took a big hit. He looked desperate and flailing. McCain was a little subdued and fell to the temptation to kick Romney while he was down.

If only Fred Thompson had as much energy as he has gravitas. He needed to be a bit more aggressive.

Giuliani was characteristically solid. Huckabee managed to get through it without really saying much of anything. And then there was Paul.

My guess is that McCain and Giuliani go up, Romney and Huckabee go down, and Thompson stays the same.

Posted in 2008 | debates | New Hampshire | Primary | Republicans — Comments (259)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:56pm on Jan. 5, 2008 McCain's Peterborogh Townhall: "The Mac is Back"

By Soren Dayton

From 2008-01, NH

I just got to a computer after John McCain's most recent townhall in Peterborough in western New Hampshire. Peterborough was the location of McCain's famous 2000 town hall meeting that become a cover-story in Time Magazine.

This year, it was McCain's 100th town hall in New Hampshire. Apparently 750 showed up to standing-room only. 150 more were turned away by the fire marshall. Ramesh was there. So was Phil.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | John McCain | New Hampshire — Comments (24) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:54am on Jan. 5, 2008 A Romney NH townhall

By Soren Dayton

From 2008-01, NH

Last night I attended a Mitt Romney townhall in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Politico's Jonathan Martin has a report from the event.

Several things struck me getting to the event. First, it was packed. Probably 250 or so people. Given the time and place, downtown Manchester on a Friday night, this is good but not surprising. Second, unlike Rudy Giuliani and John McCain's events, the audience was mostly upper middle class, which as Fred Barnes has noticed, seems to be Romney's electoral base.

Read on after the jump.

Posted in 2008 | 2008 Presidential Campaign | Mitt Romney | New Hampshire — Comments (80) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:08pm on Jan. 4, 2008 That's an awful lot of money

By Soren Dayton

Byron York learned today:

I talked to a station official who told me that Mitt Romney was WHO's second biggest advertiser in 2007. Second biggest – behind the number-one advertiser, Monsanto farm chemicals, and ahead of the number-three advertiser, Bayer farm chemicals. WHO is by far the biggest radio station in Iowa,

Compare to New Hampshire. The Granite Prof tells us that Mitt Romney has spent nearly $4m on WMUR, the main New Hampshire TV station. By contrast, that is slightly more than Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama combined. More than the entire GOP field combined, outspending his nearest opponent, John McCain nearly 4-1. I am in New Hampshire right now. In 5 days, I have seen exactly 2 positive ads by Romney, and about 20 negative.

Just saying.

Posted in 2008 | Mitt Romney | New Hampshire — Comments (31) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:33am on Jan. 4, 2008 A view on Iowa from New Hampshire

By Soren Dayton

Mike Huckabee's stunning victory in Iowa will have a number of consequences in New Hampshire, where I am now. Last night John McCain flew from Iowa to New Hampshire for his caucus-watching party. At the same time, Rudy Giuliani left New Hampshire before the caucuses even began. It is not clear to me that he is coming back to New Hampshire.

Until a poll shows otherwise, this is still a John McCain versus Mitt Romney fight at the top, just like Iowa was a Romney versus Huckabee fight. Iowa's results seem to help McCain and hurt Romney in NH. At the same time, it endangers Rudy.

Mitt Romney took a hit. Look at the opening paragraph of the AP story:

Republican Mitt Romney failed Thursday to pick up the first of two back-to-back wins he hoped would propel him toward his party's presidential nomination, losing the Iowa caucuses five days before what is now for him a pivotal New Hampshire primary.

(That's actually significantly toned down from the first story that hit the wire) The Romney campaign, already down, can expect much more negative coverage from the media, which already dislikes him. It is certainly possible that there will be falling turnout at his events and fewer volunteers. Already down 6-9 points to McCain, this just makes his life harder.

McCain is trying to turn this environment tactically against Romney. Excerpts from his statement:

Negative campaigns don't work in IA and they don't work here in NH. ... 100th townhall tomorrow in NH. ... We put the old lightening back in the bottle. ... We will continue our positive campaigning.... Very confident of victory.

McCain is trying to remind the people of New Hampshire of his special relationship with them. The press is not reporting McCain's placement, and in 2000 he placed even lower. Local reporters and pundits expect no negative impact of McCain's showing.

The conclusion for the top-line race is this: McCain keeps his momentum, while Romney, his most likely challenger, will likely take a significant hit. Advantage McCain.

For the rest of the candidates, read on.

Posted in 2008 Presidential Campaign | Archived | Iowa | New Hampshire — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »