Bits And Bites

A few items that caught my eye this morning regarding the Presidential races. If there is one character running that is a real turnoff, it's slick Mitt Romney. I've rarely seen a politician pander and morph to such a great degree, the guy is like a soulless chameleon, who takes shape, depending on the audience. Romney is unleashing his attacks on McCain, claiming that he is now the agent of change, the outsider, while McCain represents Washington, the status quo:

"There’s no way that Senator McCain is going to be able to come to New Hampshire and say that he’s the candidate that represents change -- that he’ll change Washington. He is Washington,” Mr. Romney said while speaking to reporters on Friday.

Another flip-flop, from the master of inconsistency:

In response to Romney's claim that there's "no way" McCain could present himself as the candidate of "change," the McCain campaign dug up an absolute gem that they're now circulating among reporters.

Camp McCain found a quote from 2002, when Romney was running for governor of Massachusetts, in which Romney said precisely the opposite thing about McCain -- that he has always represented change:

"One of the reasons the people of America honor Senator McCain and why I'm so proud to have him standing with me today is that he has brought American values to the debate on the issues we care about.
He has always stood for reform and change."

Ouch.

An American Research poll, released last night, has McCain at 35%, Romney at 25%. A note of caution, this is the same outfit that had Clinton with a good lead heading into the Iowa Caucus. Zogby has McCain leading by 2%, down from 4% the day prior. The Suffolk poll still shows Romney with a 4% lead. Tonight's debate on ABC will be real key. Rumor has it that McCain and Huckabee have a non-aggression pact, look for the Huckster to take on Romney tonight.

On the Democratic side, Obama is drawing overflow crowds, while Clinton actually had a few empty seats at one of her events yesterday. Last night, there was a New Hampshire Democratic dinner, which might speak to where the enthusiasm lies:

The aftermath of the Iowa earthquake wasn't pretty for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. The takeaway from the "100 Club" dinner Friday night in Milford, N.H., is simple enough to give Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., another round in the scorecard: Clinton was booed, while Obama's supporters were so energetic that organizers were worried about the security situation.

"Three thousand people packed the auditorium and it seems like there are many more Obama supporters than Clinton supporters," ABC's Eloise Harper and Sunlen Miller report.

"It was not Clinton's best performance."

And this was not the headline she wanted out of her first post-Iowa day: "Hillary Booed at NH Democratic Party Dinner." "When Obama, the dinner's last speaker, took the stage the crowd surged forward chanting 'O-bam-a' and 'Fired Up, Ready to Go!' " Time's Jay Newton-Small reports.


"So many people pressed toward the stage that an announcer asked people to 'please take their seats for safety concerns.' By comparison Hillary was twice booed."

Polls show Obama closing, the rolling averages should start to become indicative tomorrow. Edwards support might be eroding, which could be a deciding factor.

Turnout will be critical, and conventional wisdom assumes a large vote will favor Obama. With that in mind, the predictions of a record turnout are noteworthy:

Secretary of State Bill Gardner is predicting a record half million voters will turn out for Tuesday's presidential primary.

Gardner is predicting 260,000 residents will vote in the Democratic primary and 240,000 will vote in the Republican primary.

He predicts that 150,000 undeclared voters -- who can choose which primary to vote in -- will cast votes. Of those, he thinks 90,000 will choose to vote in the Democratic primary and 60,000 in the Republican.

He predicts that 50,000 New Hampshire residents will register to vote on election day.

The previous record of 396,000 voters was set in the 2000 primary.

Interesting to see how Obama performs in tonight's debate, and whether or not Clinton goes after him in a more direct way.

Found this picture, the one on the left is people waiting for an Obama rally, estimated at a staggering 4000 people:



Apparently, people are also being turned away from McCain's rallies, due to potential fire hazards. These little anecedotes are powerful indicators of who has the mo.

JV, of TPM, offers the following at an Obama rally:

I didn't get there until just before 10, and the place was jammed. I had to park in a church lot a half mile away. This is a new High School, with what must be the largest gym in the state. It was full to overflowing. The picture attached was the line waiting to get in a little after 10. The line extends as far back in the other direction too. Shortly after I took this photo, the line stopped for several minutes. When it started moving again, it was to let us into the "secondary gym" (which is about as large as most high school primary gyms) and they filled that one too. So we didn't get to see Obama, but we did get to hear him. When he finished, he briefly popped into our room to thank us for coming out. (video below) I've lived in NH for 27 years now. I've never seen a candidate pull crowds anything like this.