New Hampshire’s presidential primary results are in and CNN has them:
The New Hampshire primary is over and Sen. Bernie Sanders has been named the victor with 26% of the vote with 94% of precincts reporting.
Pete Buttigieg received 24% of the vote, Amy Klobuchar 20%, Elizabeth Warren 9%, and Joe Biden 8%, with other candidates receiving much smaller percentages of the vote. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the end for Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard’s campaigns. According to party rules, neither Biden nor Warren will receive any delegates from New Hampshire (that requires 15% of the vote).
Neither Iowa nor New Hampshire look a great deal like the United States and even less like the Democratic Party. For that we’ll need to wait for South Carolina which heightens the importance of the state’s primary on February 29. If Elizabeth Warren captures no delegates there or Joe Biden craters, it’s hard to see how their campaigns can carry on. Much of Biden’s appeal resides in a) name recognition and b) that elusive quality of electability.
The state that comes closest to a microcosm of the whole country from the standpoint of racial demographics is, of course, Illinois, where the primary is on March 17. I would not be a bit surprised if brawls broke out in Southwest Side polling places. Have you ever been on the Southwest Side of Chicago on March 17? I have.
If you think the field is too old or too inexperienced, it has to be one of the women, right? I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard the Mayor speak, but he must be pretty good.
I’ve been to South Bend, mainly eating at an Irish Pub and driving around Notre Dame, and wouldn’t have guessed it was close to 100,000 population; maybe half that? Coolest part of South Bend is that the downtown has a kayaking course.
My dad’s 81 and exhibiting definite mental decline, probably hastened by mobility issues arising from post-polio symptoms. The tell is that he pushes the conversation more aggressively than before, less asking questions, less comfortable with the give-and-take flow of exchange. People obviously age differently, but how would we know whether these candidates and Trump are experiencing declines in fluid intelligence that are likely to be worsened by the Presidency? Our debates are like speeches, our interviews are either soft or prone to filibustering.
That’s pretty much my assessment. I like Tulsi Gabbard’s non-interventionism but I’m okay with Amy Klobuchar. I would have preferred John Hickenlooper.
A key point to remember is that 2/3s of blacks are either moderates or conservatives. Without a substantial black turnout there will be no Democratic victory in November.
There is only 2 days from the South Carolina primary to Super Tuesday – so it’s ability to create momentum for a candidate may be weakened.
I assume anyone who didn’t drop out last night will stick it out until Super Tuesday.
The problem will be money. At this point Sanders, Buttigieg, Warren, Klobuchar, and Biden have each won some delegates, Sanders and Buttigieg by far the most. Running Democratic presidential campaigns is expensive. If donors abandon Warren, Biden, or Klobuchar, their campaigns will fold in short order. They might still be on the ballots but their campaigns will be over. Bloomberg doesn’t need donors.
“That’s pretty much my assessment. I like Tulsi Gabbard’s non-interventionism but I’m okay with Amy Klobuchar. I would have preferred John Hickenlooper.”
Hickenlooper was my choice too, but he will very likely beat Gardner for one of Colorado’s Senate seats. If Trump wins a second term I can see him running again in four years, but by that point, he may be way too moderate for the Democratic party. But if the Democrats lose to Trump, whoa boy, it’s going to get ugly.
I guess Amy would be my choice at the moment.
As an aside, would the Democrats please run candidates with more easily pronounceable names?
What’s hard to pronounce about Buttigieg? If you’re Maltese, anyway. My recollection is that Pat Lang said it meant “poultry vendor” in Maltese Arabic.
And, of course, Hickenlooper is pronounced just the way it’s spelled.
If there is a Democratic Party. The party has already jettisoned its history.
“If you’re Maltese, anyway.”
Might be in my family’s future, or alternatively New Zealand if America keeps circling the drain.
“If there is a Democratic Party.”
That’s kind of what I was getting at if Trump wins. But at this point, I think the parties are too big to fail, so the “party” will just become an empty vessel.
I think many of the Democratic poobahs are already looking towards 2024. They want to somehow keep the party together until then on the expectation that the Republican party after Trump will shatter like theirs is doing now into Pro-Trump, Never-Trump, and Squeezed in the Middle. One plus for the Democrats is that the Clintons will likely be permanently out of the political picture by then. One minus is that the Obamas and their remaining bureaucratic and MSM allies won’t be and will still be trying to exert control, if ineffectually. Another minus is that the Communist wing will likely be in full ascendancy, with AOC and Buttigieg dueling to the death for the candidacy with the likes of Abrams and Northam. Bloomberg and Hickenlooper might as well be Mr. H as far as that gang are concerned. Can the Democrats concoct a winning ticket in 2024? IMO it depends more on the Republicans than themselves.