Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Clinton Wins in New Hampshire: Egg on My Face (for Now)

I thought that Barack Obama would beat Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire today...and handily. That wasn't to be. Why?

Apparently, female voters went for Clinton in a big way today. But the reason for that isn't manifestly obvious to me. Most of the Baby Boomer, college-educated women I know have said that, while they want to vote for a Democrat for president this year, they will never vote for Clinton. They don't trust her.200

Perhaps that mistrust of Clinton exists even among many of the women who voted for her in New Hampshire yesterday. But things happened over the weekend. One was the appearance that Obama and former Senator John Edwards ganged up on her during the debate on Saturday night. The other was her response to the question of a New Hampshire questioner who wondered how she was able to keep going on.

I have no doubt that response was genuine and perhaps, it caused many women to feel that they needed to stand with Clinton as she faced off against opponents they perceived to be bullying her. (If that's the case, then New Hampshire women rallied around Clinton the way that New York women rallied to her side in the face of apparent bullying by her Republican opponent in her 2000 Senate race.)

I still believe that Obama will be the Democratic nominee this year. But New Hampshire has given the Clinton campaign a reprieve for now.

1 comment:

Michele Scaparrotti said...

Perhaps I am mistaken, but I think the figures I saw were Clinton 39% and Obama 37%. I don't think that is a landslide. I really do not think she is going to be able to win if she runs for the Dems. Most of my female friends think she made a deal with the devil on the day she overlooked Slick's first affair. Unfortunately, I also think Obama is too young and has zero experience. So where does that leave us? It's with the Republicans. Lord help this nation. We need a true statesman/ executive more than ever. In my opinion, we got no choices again this year.