John McCain met expectations in Iowa by taking 13 percent in the caucuses, and now the focus is on New Hampshire's primary next Tuesday.
James Carney over at Time looks at what's ahead for the McCain campaign:
John McCain took home a modest fourth place finish in the Iowa caucuses, garnering 13% of the Republican vote. But he may be as big a winner as Mike Huckabee. Huckabee's knockout of Mitt Romney in the caucuses was exactly what the McCain campaign, which spent little time or money in Iowa, needed from the state. McCain decided several months ago to stake his entire campaign on New Hampshire, where he is ahead of Romney (who governed next door in Massachusetts) in the most recent polls. Now that Romney has been severely wounded in Iowa, and with New Hampshire's Republicans historically cool toward Christian conservatives, McCain is suddenly poised to win big on Jan. 8 — and, perhaps, beyond.
Read the whole thing.
McCain's looking to be the Comeback Kid of '08.
The Arizona Senator was leading national polls heading into Iowa (Pew Reseach had McCain up by a couple of points in a January 2 survey), and while some late polls show Mitt Romney getting a last-minute boost of support in the Granite State, the full-impact of the Romney Iowa debacle remains to be seen.
Of course Romney sees McCain as the big threat in New Hampshire, not Huckabee, so that might be a little clue as to the real campaign action forthcoming this weekend!
Photo Credit: New York Times
**********
UPDATE: Zogby's got a new poll, with new survey data through January 3 (via Memeorandum):
Republican John McCain has leapt into first place in the GOP primary race in New Hampshire, while Clinton holds on to a six–point edge in the first three–day Reuters/C–SPAN/Zogby telephone tracking poll of likely voters shows.
McCain’s lead is based on strength of support among moderates and independents, while Romney holds his own in what is, like Iowa, a two–man contest at this point in the GOP contest. Among moderates, McCain wins 53% support compared to 24% for Romney – and little significant support for anyone else on the GOP side. Among mainline conservatives, the two are evenly matched with Romney winning 32% and McCain winning 31%. Among self–described “very conservative” likely primary voters, Romney leads by a wide margin with 38%. Mike Huckabee is in second among the demographic group, with 21%. McCain is third with 19%.
Among men, McCain leads Romney, 35% to 30%, and among women, McCain has 32% support to Romney’s 30%. Huckabee is third and Giuliani a close fourth in both gender demographics.
I'll have more updates on the New Hampshire race over the weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment