Tuesday morning was
the day of the primary. Our only real plans
were to check out some polling places to see some candidates; we hadn’t seen
either Ben Carson or John Kasich and had to check them off our list. Ben Carson was having an event at a diner; we
went, had breakfast and saw the back of Ben Carson’s head. He teleported out of the diner before I was
able to take his picture; at least breakfast was nice. We did manage to get to a polling place where
Kasich was still speaking to the media; it included someone from the Russian
media.
Nuggets of Wisdom for Denmark
The evening was taken up
by the Clinton victory party. The doors
opened after we got their, so we ended up in a queue in the cold. I overheard someone at the lineup saying that
she hadn’t volunteered yet for Hillary; I am thinking she is a little late.
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| Hillary Concedes |
Sadly, there was no
wifi at the auditorium, the phone coverage was terrible and no-one at the event
set up a television to broadcast the result.
Effectively during the first hour after the polls closed Alan and I were
effectively in radio silence. Someone
nearby was able to connect to the outside world, so we knew that Hillary had
lost on Democratic side and that Trump won on the Republican side. Neither of the results was surprising, but
many, myself included, wanted something different.
The concession speech
was good. She was defiant and she
promised to continue on; she said she was knocked down, but she will get up
again (but she never said anything about being left down). The audience was excited and cheering her
on. The next stop for Hillary is Nevada
and South Carolina; she has to win those.
On the way out, we got
an illustration of how much media there is in New Hampshire during primary
time. Some roving reporter with a camera
got an interview with Alan; he was from Danish television. I’m
guessing that Danes will be getting some nuggets of wisdom about New Hampshire
from some random Canadian dude.
What it all Means
The results were
interesting. Trump won and won big; that
size of his win was a bit of a surprise.
Kashich’s second place wasn’t surprising; he did well in the debate and
had been covering the state a lot. Rubio’s
bad debate performance mattered; he came in 5th place right below
Bush. Cruz eked out third place. Christie came in 6th; he destroyed
Marco Rubio in the debate, but it did not help him. He says he is going to South Carolina today,
but if his flight connects through Newark, he might deplane.
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| Bernie at a Campaign Event on the Weekend |
The Democratic results
were a bit of a shock. Bernie was always
going to win, but the polls were narrowing. But the actual results had Bernie 22% ahead of
Hillary. No amount of spin can make that
result look good. I still think that
Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States; I am just less
sure of that now than I was yesterday.
On the Republican side we know that Christie is going home; news is that
he is stopping in New Jersey. Fiorina
and Carson may claim that they are continuing; they won’t be getting any
coverage, won’t be getting debate spots and won’t be able to raise any more money. Rubio is in deep trouble; he will not be able
to fund raise off his New Hampshire result and for people not named Trump,
campaigns run on other people’s money.
Kasich is out of money, but his result will let him raise lots to let
him continue. As for Cruz, 3rd
is a great result; he wasn’t expecting to do well and came out in a respectable
3rd place. His campaign may
have legs in the south. Bush has money
and he did somewhat better than expected.
Given that Graham has endorsed him, my guess is that his plan is to put
lots of resources in South Carolina and that his plan depends on him winning
there. If Bush does, he will be the
candidate; if Bush doesn’t, I have no clue what will happen.
We leave today to head
back home. Both Alan and I had fun, and
we may do it again in 4 years.
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