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Murphy Martin Commentary
January 10, 2007

"Off and Running in '08"

"Tonight we sure showed them what a comeback looks like!" Those were the words of Senator John McCain after he swept the Republican candidates in New Hampshire. The odds-on favorite, Mitt Romney from the neighboring state of Massachusetts ran second, Mike Huckabee, who led the GOP candidates in the Iowa caucus last week ran third and among those finishing with only single digit percentages was Fred Dalton Thompson who has yet to draw much attention for Republican hopefuls.

On the Democratic side of the half-million voters who turned out in New Hampshire, Senator Hillary Clinton turned Tuesday tears of disappointment into a victory over Barack Obama, getting about seven per cent more votes.

Now it's on to South Carolina on January 19th and the multi-state voting on February 5. The race is on and who knows which candidate will emerge as the standard-bearer for the two major political parties.

New Hampshire was not easy for McCain, nor Clinton. Despite his strong running in the state in 2000, many thought McCain was all but out. Having little money left, and a major-overhaul of his campaign staff just months ago, all this added to what some say is an age problem, many Republicans thought Romney might comfortably lead the New Hampshire voting with Huckabee, who swept the Iowa caucus, running second. Such was not the case.

Nor was it easy for Hillary Clinton. Although many Democrats thought she would easily lead the Demos, polling the day before Tuesday's voting showed her trailing Obama by two points. This led her to public tears as she spoke of how she had worked for "all my life" getting ready for the day she could "help change America for the better."

It would be interesting to know if the tears, which were shown on all television networks, reversed the shift to Obama and regained the lead for her. Or, did those tears at that moment for the reasons stated show a sign of weakness that a president should not have? Following her turnaround in New Hampshire her husband, the former President was quoted as saying: "My family is not known for quitting."

Most all of the candidates, Democrats and Republicans, say they will now focus attention on the South Carolina Primary on January 19th. However, Rudolph Giuliani, says he will focus on the January 29th Florida Primary.

South Carolina results may lead to some dropping out by those candidates not faring well at the polls thus far, although we would expect most of them to try to stay the course through the multi state voting on February 5th.


It should be noted that John McCain lost a brutal campaign to George W. Bush in South Carolina.
A presidential debate is scheduled for Myrtle Beach Thursday night. McCain's big win in New Hampshire may give him renewed vigor, new money and allow McCain to really prove himself to be "the comeback kid."

Time will tell. July nominating conventions may have some surprises yet!

That's my time, thank you for yours.

Murphy Martin

Your thoughts and comments forwarded to my website will be appreciated.

e-mail   murphy@murphymartin.com

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