Clinton, McCain comeback twins
Hillary Clinton and John McCain may be poles apart on the political spectrum, but they were in the winner’s circle in New Hampshire last Tuesday.
Confounding their critics and perplexing the pundits, Clinton and McCain staged stunning victories over their respective opponents in the New Hampshire primaries. How they managed to pull it all off is still being analyzed by the same so-called ‘experts’ who got it so wrong in the run-up to the showdown on Jan. 8.
Sen. Clinton may have been most surprised by her success. On the eve of the elections she was trailing her nemesis Barack Obama by double digits in most polls. However, in the only polls that counted that day, she barely beat Obama, 39 to 37 percent. Saying she had ‘listened to the people ‘ and found my own voice,’ Sen. Clinton relished her hard-earned win and vowed to capitalize on her victory by staying in the race ‘for the long run.’
Meanwhile, Obama learned the hard way what it means to lose. He had counted on independents, women and young voters to help him replicate his Iowa victory. Instead, the independents split their votes, the women went more for Clinton, and young voters were not enough to seal the victory for him. Former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards finished a distant third, with 17 percent of the votes cast.
The big winner in the race last week was clearly Arizona Sen. John McCain. He went from down and out to up and running with a decisive 37-31 percent win over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. His remarkable comeback suggests the Republican race remains wide open at this point.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee got about 11 percent of the vote. Still, he ‘surpassed expectations,’ and vowed to continue on. The big loser among Republicans was Fred Thompson, with about 1 percent of the votes cast. He needs to win in South Carolina to be a credible contender.
In the warm after-glow of victory, or the cold reality of defeat, the candidates and the country, too, could use a little sense of proportion on all this. After all, less than 1 percent of the primary and caucus votes nation-wide have been counted. The race for the White House in 2008 has been likened to a ‘marathon.’ Actually, it is more like many marathons, with some ‘demolition derbies’ along the way as well. Today’s front-runner could be tomorrow’s footnote.
The herd of presidential hopefuls had already begun to thin. It continued to do so last Thursday, with the departure of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. He was arguably among the best qualified of the Democratic candidates, but he never gained any real momentum.
The pivotal primary test comes on ‘Super-Tuesday’ ‘ Feb. 5 ‘ when nearly half the states, including Tennessee, hold their respective primaries and caucuses. Then we should know who’s the last man-or woman- standing in each party. After that, the real race continues on the road to the White House.
Retired Army Col. Thomas B. Vaughn can be reached at [email protected].