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Clinton Edges Out a Win in New Hampshire
January 9th, 2008
Photo by Sian-Pierre Regis, BET News
By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Producer
NASHUA (Posted Jan. 8, 2008) – Now we know we’ve got a presidential race on our hands.
For anybody who cares anything about politics – and even for a few folks who might have thought they didn’t care – last night’s New Hampshire nail-biter was the kind of political brawl that was good to the last drop.
As late as Tuesday afternoon, most polls had Sen. Barack Obama at least 10 percentage points ahead of Sen. Hillary Clinton. In fact, some pundits had begun drafting political obituaries for Clinton and coronation speeches for Obama.
But by the end of the night, it was Clinton who was delivering a victory speech before an overflow crowd of exuberant campaign workers at Southern New Hampshire University. Obama, on the other hand, had to settle for delivering the obligatory message of hope to a sedate room of disappointed supporters.
From the moment the vote counts began pouring in, the two presidential hopefuls were neck-in-neck. For most of the night, Clinton maintained a 3-percent to 4-percent lead over Obama, but tallies from college towns, such as Hanover – which Obama supporters were counting on to carry the victory – were among the last counted. So the suspense was there, virtually to the end. But by the time 70 percent of the vote was in, Obama’s camp realized there were not enough votes in play to eat up the margin,
Clinton 111,383 39 percent
Obama 103,718 36 percent
Edwards 48213 17 percent
Richardson 13,073 5 percent
Kucinich 3,861 1 percent
Bidenl 625 0 percent
Republicans
McCain 87,082 37 percent
Romney 79,937 32 percent
Huckabee 26,204 11 percent
Giuliani 20,113 9 percent
Paul 17,893 8 percent
Thompson 2,849 1 percent
Nicole Alexander, who voted for Obama said, “He is in a good strategic position, I’m not disappointed, I think he’ll be OK.”
Unlike in Iowa last week, when Obama reaped a surprising upset over Clinton, exit polls Tuesday night showed that women gave Clinton the edge. Some 40 percent of women voters cast a ballot for Clinton, surveys revealed.
Obama also lost his advantage with Independent voters, according to reports. In Iowa, many Independents and some Republicans crossed over to throw their support behind the 46-year-old senator. But with a rejuvenated Sen. John McCain attracting large numbers of Independent voters in New Hampshire last night, he apparently pulled from Obama’s likely pool. McCain, who won by 7 percentage points over New Englander Mitt Romney in the Republican primary, had spent several weeks shoring up his supporters in the Granite State.
It appears that Obama continues to attract large numbers of young people, however. College students and graduates, made up 29 percent of the voters and narrowly choice Clinton. Clinton was able to get 38 percent to Obama’s 37 percent, according to polling done by CNN.
“I’m still in there, I’m still pumped – hope is the message that’s what we need,” Tracy Dye, from Nashus told me after Obama’s speech.
As he was before the voting began Tuesday night, Obama reminded voters that there is still a long race ahead.
“I am still fired up and ready to go,” Obama told the crowd. “With your voices, your votes, you made it clear something is happening in America.”
Following his electrifying speech, during which he pumped up the crowd with the refrain … “Yes We Can!” his wife, Michelle, gave him his routine kiss and embrace.
Tonight they both hung on just a little bit longer.
