New Hampshire

Absolutely fascinating. The one thought I had going to bed last night was that, for once, we New Yorkers (and Californians) were actually going to have a say in who gets to be our next President, given that the race is definitely going to be tight up through our primaries on Super Tuesday. That'll be a nice change.

One quick note on something that I found incredibly offensive last night: both Andrea Mitchell and Chris Matthews floated the idea that perhaps women voters had flocked to Hillary because they didn't like the way Edwards and Obama were "ganging up on her" in the debate. I thought that exchange was clearly pivotal, but it's just absurd to think that people vote for Presidential candidates because they feel sorry for them. Isn't it much more likely that the women voters liked the powerful and impassioned way she stood up to Edwards and Obama when they united in their attacks on her "status quo" campaign? She had a great set of counterpunches, I thought, and her later line about her likability ("Now you've hurt my feelings") was as deft and funny and original as anything that had been said in the debate.

Anyhow, this is going to be fun to watch. I've said all along that the best thing about this 08 Democrat field is that the roster of candidates across the board is very appealing -- they're all, in their different ways, top of their class. I'm pulling for Obama, and still think he'll end up winning. But if these first few days are any indication, it's going to be an extraordinary year.

Comments

[akatsuki]

No more offensive than people who say that Bush got elected because he was "a guy they could have a beer with..."