Primary Battles Remain Wide-Open

Washington Post: Candidates Start Anew On The Road To The "Super Bowl" Of Primaries

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Dan Balz.

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Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain each left New Hampshire elated over their victories in Tuesday's primaries, but neither could look ahead with confidence at a compressed calendar that will culminate in the biggest primary day in history on Feb. 5.

"It's a wide-open, pitched battle," Democratic pollster Mark Mellman said of the Democratic race between Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). "I wouldn't give anybody a dime for their predictions."

"There is less certainty now about who the Republican front-runner is now than there was a year ago," Republican pollster Neil Newhouse said of the GOP campaign. "The race is just as wide-open as it was a year ago."

Although Obama could not repeat his Iowa victory in New Hampshire, he picked up key endorsements on Wednesday, including the Culinary Workers union in Nevada, and promised a tougher brand of politics in the week ahead.

Clinton, who stunned even her own advisers by winning on Tuesday, spent the day at her home in New York, catching a break from the intense pace of the campaign trail.

The Democratic field will lose another contender Thursday. Sources close to the campaign said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a candidate with a résumé that includes service as a congressman, as secretary of energy and as ambassador to the United Nations, will announce his withdrawal in Santa Fe after a fourth-place finish on Tuesday.

Clinton and Obama began readying for the next contests on the Democratic calendar, Nevada on Jan. 19 and South Carolina on Jan. 26; they are the first states in which minority voters will play a substantial role. But Feb. 5, with contests in California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Missouri, Georgia, Arkansas and elsewhere, looms for both campaigns as the Super Bowl event for which they are preparing.

Former senator John Edwards (N.C.), a distant third in New Hampshire after a second-place finish in Iowa, remains a factor in the Democratic race, particularly in South Carolina. He won the state in 2004.

In the Republican race, McCain, given up for dead six months ago, left here for Michigan. There he hopes to replicate his 2000 primary victory and give himself momentum heading toward South Carolina and its critical primary four days later.

But McCain faces potentially stiff competition in the next two states. In Michigan, he will be competing against former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who finished second in Iowa and New Hampshire after leading in both until recent weeks, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, the surprise winner in Iowa.

Romney seeks to avoid elimination by winning his home state of Michigan, and pulled down ads in Florida and South Carolina to concentrate his efforts there. Huckabee hopes for a strong showing in Michigan as a springboard to South Carolina, the first test in his native South. In South Carolina, he is looking for support from religious conservatives to help give him his second victory and deal McCain a setback.

Meanwhile, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, weakened from poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, has camped out in Florida in the hope that a victory there on Jan. 29 will revive his moribund campaign. Former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.), who won 1 percent of the vote on Tuesday, faces a last stand in South Carolina.

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Newhouse said that the top GOP candidates -- McCain, Huckabee, Romney and Giuliani -- still can paint plausible scenarios for winning the nomination, and that all four are flawed enough to keep the race as unpredictable as it has been almost from the start. "Somebody's scenario is going to come true," he said.

Clinton did a victory lap on the morning television shows Wednesday from her home in New York and continued to draw a contrast with Obama.

"I don't think of politics as a game; I think of it as a means to an end," the senator from New York said on NBC News's "Today" program. "I don't get up every morning to go out and make a great speech or shake a million hands, and then go to bed at night and say, 'Good for you.' I go out to say, 'What can I do for you? How can we make our country what it should be?' "

Obama held fundraisers in Boston and New York on Wednesday before holding a rally in New Jersey. Speaking to a boisterous, overflow crowd at Saint Peter's College in Jersey City, he said losing in New Hampshire was a sober reminder that his message of change will be met by fierce resistance.

[belker1-2009]

Balz is part of the WaPo''s anti-Hillary team. He is supposed to be a reporter.


If there is a way to a negative on Hillary, it will be done in the WaPo.


If all candidates are doing something the WaPo thinks is bad the negative headline will include only Hillary''s name. The opening paragraph will beat up on her. In the following paragraphs added as almost an after thought: Oh all the other candidates are doing it too.


Novak, Broder and Will are star Hilliary beaters.

The national media stars all need to go back to journalism school for a refresher course on basing your words on the facts -- not your "feeling!"

[realpatriot1]

Ron Paul wans to abolish the federal Reserve. I''ve been trying to wrap my mind around how that one would work. Would we allow the banks to print their own money and set their own interest rates? Would they set everyone''s APRs at 30%?

That sounds like just what our fragile economy needs. Go for it Professor Looney Tunes!

[tylenol6]

To all John McCain supporters, google
Sen. John McCain the ultimate rhinestone hero

In other words, John McWar is a FRAUD.......

[teamsterwif1]

HELLO! I WOULDN''T COUNT EDWARDS OUT FOLKS! Union endorsements don''t guarantee the rank and file vote, and Edwards is the guy for the rank and file! The media ignoring him doesn''t mean the people aren''t behind him. Clearly the pollsters were wrong in NH. He is the answer to what this country needs...True Leadership! GO JOHNNY GO!

[samthetvcat]

"Clinton and Obama began readying for the next contests on the Democratic calendar, Nevada on Jan. 19 and South Carolina on Jan. 26; they are the first states in which minority voters will play a substantial role."

I''m not so sure SC''s going to be the ''lock'' all the pundits are expecting since there''s a big ''black vote''. I don''t know . . . it'' just seems like blacks are aware that for a black candidate to be viable he needs to win without a ''black vote'' otherwise there''ll be backlash (?)

If Barack wins in SC, it might be because of the white vote, not the black vote. And blacks might actually shift to Clinton if Barack has a big win in NV just to shore her up . . . I don''t know though. I think the polls are still trustworthy - it sounds like they might have overestimated the youth vote and underestimated the senior vote and just ran out of time at the end (?) so it''ll be interesting to watch the shifts . . .

[davidmwe]

Ron Paul, he is the person for the job.

[bigsk8fan]

Having said that, there is only one candidate worth voting for and that''s Ron Paul. He isn''t in the pockets of any group. Posted by tuckerndfw

just one problem with this idea: no one knows who ron paul is! just look at the results in iowa and new hampshire.

[scarletphd]

What ever happened to Fred Thompson???

[toontown22]

Primary Battles Remain Wide-Open! Jeez, do you think?? Even after two small states?

[piercetheval]

t-barr where the hell were you in 2000 when we all got Bushwacked. You repugs are shakin'' ain''t cha''. Oh, how I love to watch you repugs squirm. Here comes Hillary! Here comes Hillary! No more Dubya'' Here comes Mrs. Bubba!

[merlgrey]

Posted by nolalou at 11:46 AM :
"doncooper588, Ron Paul is getting the coverage any candidate would get who finishes 4th or worse. The battle is for delegates, and so far , he has none!"

check the delegate scorecard.. so far giulianni is the only candidate with zero delegates.. even hunter has one, paul has two...

[radiob-2009]

If Hillaryous or Obama win the democratic nomination they will hand the election over to the republicans. Sad in a nation of 3 billion that we cannot have 1 or 2 decent candidates.

[nolalou]

doncooper588, Ron Paul is getting the coverage any candidate would get who finishes 4th or worse. The battle is for delegates, and so far , he has none!

huanaco, you claim Obama is a "Republcian Troyan Horse".
First, you show your ignorance since there is no such thing as a ''Troyan Horse'', (I assume you mean Trojan Horse!) but then you don''t explain your argument. What are you getting at when you say Obama a Republican Trojan Horse?

[abbe91]

Ouch! Fox really slams Obama in this video!
http://bravenewfilms.org/b
log/573-fox-attacks-obama
Posted by micma at 10:58 AM : Jan 10, 2008

Nothing new, but a good summary. Still waiting for the MSM to report about Giuliani links to 911 terrorists via his clients in Qatar ... Better a President who went to school in a muslim country than a president who betrayed his country. One is enough.

[antoniof123]

I get a charge out of the elections every four years they do monkey tricks to act on the greatest stage on Earth.

This year should provide a lot of entertainment. Watch out Hollywood you have some real competition this year.

[micma-2009]

Ouch! Fox really slams Obama in this video!



http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/573-fox-attacks-obama

[prinzowhales]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV6qAGigGYY

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Find-Freedom.htm?At=028740&From=News

http://www.product-reviews.net/2008/01/09/new-hampshire-vote-fraud-confirmed-ron-paul-votes-not-counted/

The miscount in New Hampshire is documented! Will Americans tolerate yet another rigged election by the Oligarchs? The machines used in South Carolina are even more susceptible to rigging than the ones in New Hampshire! THERE IS NO POINT EVEN DISCUSSING THE MERITS OF THE VARIOUS CANDIDATES IF THE ELECTIONS ARE RIGGED!!

[doncooper588]

I find it interesting that this article, like other major news media, still don''t mention Ron Paul. Ron Paul beat both Guiliani and Thompson in Iowa, beat Thompson again in New Hampshire and tied Guiliani. Paul beat both in fund raising last quarter and so far this quarter yet Thompson and Guiliani continue to be "treated" as legitimate contenders and Paul not. Pathetic.

[navyretired2]

"I don''t think of politics as a game; I think of it as a means to an end," the senator from New York said on NBC News''s "Today" program. "I don''t get up every morning to go out and make a great speech or shake a million hands, and then go to bed at night and say, ''Good for you.'' I go out to say, ''What can I do for you? How can we make our country what it should be?''" -- Hillary Clinton

Umm....does she REALLY believe that? Wow.

[huanaco]

OBAMA, DO AMERICA AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY A FAVOR, QUIT THIS RACE .YOU ARE NO MORE THAN A REPUBLICAN TROYAN HORSE.