by Fox News says that John McCain is the winner in New Hampshire’s Republican primary as he’s leading by a comfortable 9 point margin with 29% of the state’s precincts reporting.
This makes the race for the GOP’s nomination that much more interesting with Mitt Romney barely ahead of Mike Huckabee in Michigan next week and Huckabee expected to come in ahead of McCain in South Carolina soon after.
Will McCain get a boost from New Hampshire? Personally I don’t think so. His performance in the past weekend’s debates was decent but not inspiring. Also, I don’t believe that many people in either Michigan or S.C. care what the folks in New Hampshire thing. I’m sure that they’re all fine folks and all, but let’s be straight with each other: They vote strangely in the Granite State, perhaps on purpose, to liven things up.
How else can I explain Fred Thompson’s measly 2% of the pie after his excellent performance in the Fox debate? Maybe he didn’t spend much time or money in New Hampshire, but come on! He rocked and that’s worth 2%?
Nah. New Hampshire is in no way representative of the rest of the U.S. and I think this will be demonstrated over the next month.
I do think that N.H. signals the beginning – or middle – of the end of Mr. Thompson, although the corpse of his campaign may struggle awkwardly onward for a while. His fate is both unfortunate and undeserved; Thompson has far more to offer the country than most of his competitors.
