Shea-Porter Says Obama Has Grassroots and the Other Thing, Too
BY CHOIRE SICHA
Four years ago, the New Hampshire State Democratic dinner had been packed for Howard Dean. Is that what happened last night for Barack Obama? One young woman at this year’s dinner said it was "all Facebook"–the massive turnout of young Obama people was accomplished by poking and friending. MORE …
Mike Murphy: Hillary is Muskie, Bloomberg a Non-Starter
BY CHOIRE SICHA
Ran into Mike Murphy, the Republican polical consultant and talking head, at the Radisson in Manchester this morning. "President Clinton? Never gonna happen," he said. "She loses here, but she keeps trying. She turns into Ed Muskie in a pantssuit. There’s your money quote." MORE …
Bill O’Reilly’s Advance Team: A Young Red-Headed Girl
BY JOHN KOBLIN
PENACOOK, N.H.—A little after 10 this morning, Hillary Clinton hosted a rally at a high school gym here. She had an unexpected guest.
The first question in a Q. and A. session was from a young girl with red hair. Bill O’Reilly, she said, had asked her how quickly troops could leave Iraq, and wouldn’t the Senator have a better answer for him than she? MORE …
Meet the HuffPo Twins
BY JOHN KOBLIN
MANCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 4—A pair of 26-year-old twins, Matthew and Peter Slutsky, are freelancing for The Huffington Post. They make short films and they’re up from Washington to document campaign events and to produce what they described as "serious journalism." MORE …
The Revolutionaries: Paul’s New Hampshire Brigade
BY CHOIRE SICHA
They haunt the streets of Manchester and lurk outside Hillary Clinton rallies—so let’s meet the Ron Paul supporters! MORE …
N.Y. Surrogates on the Anti-Anti-Obama Backlash
BY AZI PAYBARAH
So what about this notion of a backlash against Obama critics?
Local Obama supporters on a conference call with New York reporters earlier said that they’d count on a backlash for whoever goes negative, but that probing Obama’s legislative record is to be expected.
State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem said, “the lessons of Iowa is that folks are not interested in negative. Folks are interested in positive, folks are interested in a vision." MORE …
McAuliffe Guarantees Victory
BY AZI PAYBARAH
On a phone call with reporters just now, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said, “We’re excited about where we are.” MORE …
How Did Times, WaPo Miss This Hillary Availability?
BY JOHN KOBLIN
On the back of the Hillary press bus, the word spread quickly that she
might be able to do an "avail," meaning she might speak to the press during an unscheduled stop at Gala, a downtown Manchester coffee shop.
It’s been a rare thing for her to a presser, but as one reporter put it: "She has no other choice." It’s time to start talking! MORE …
Video: Tired Clintons Rally, Tired Press Watches
BY CHOIRE SICHA
Talking points, symbols, signs—and an exhausted media crew this morning in New Hampshire. MORE …
In New Hampshire, Media Cry Cabby Price-Gouging
BY JOHN KOBLIN
When sleepy Hillary-beat reporters got off a charter plane after 4 a.m. last night, they got a terrible little surprise: a $150 cab ride to go from the Manchester airport to whatever hotel they were looking for (total distance: 5 miles away). MORE …
Video: An Obama Brooklynite on Campaigning in New Hampshire
BY AZI PAYBARAH
Here’s Obama supporter Conrad Woody told talking to me last night at the Obama rally on Gold Street about his experience campaign last week in New Hampshire. He also said his borough and the Granite State are pretty different, but that they’re both cold. MORE …
Ron Paul’s Haves, Dennis Kucinich’s Have-Nots
BY CHOIRE SICHA
Scruffy Ron Paul supporters are distributing these attractive bound copies of the Constitution at the corner of Elm and Merrimack. Next to them are Kucinich Kids, one of whom is wearily muttering "War is over if you want it…." MORE …
Crazytime in New Hampshire, Sagging New Yorkers
BY KATHARINE JOSE
Choire Sicha, in Manchester, sends the following: "Hillary Clinton is on her second stop of the day, at a sandwich shop in Manchester on Elm Street. A local couple having coffee, hunkering under a cameraman standing on a chair, report that this year it’s twice as intense as four years ago." MORE …
Axelrod Pre-Spins the Coming Clinton Attacks
BY STEVE KORNACKI
David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s chief strategist, says his campaign is fully prepared for an onslaught of attacks from Hillary Clinton—and that Obama will not fall victim to them the way Paul Tsongas did in 1992.MORE …
Obama Makes a Clinton-Campaign Joke
BY STEVE KORNACKI
Inside an old airplane hangar at what used to be Pease Airforce Base in Portsmouth, Barack Obama made his first New Hampshire appearance since his Iowa victory.
He recited his standard stump speech, but there was a confident, almost giddy, spirit in his voice and among the crowd of a few hundred supporters. MORE …
Jetlagged! Hillary and Her Reporting Retinue Straggle Into New Hampshire
BY JOHN KOBLIN
NASHUA, N.H.—The rushed primary schedule gives reporters only five days in New Hampshire, with virtually no sleep since they finished up in Iowa late last night. This morning in New Hampshire, they were feeling it. MORE …
Big-Ticket New York Campaigns Marked Down
BY CHOIRE SICHA
Air Hillary pulled in a few hours ago and her press pack was crowded in a hangar at the airstrip in Nashua, NH. A few hundred supporters were carefully displayed before an enormous American flag.
But pity the reporters: their franchise is "fucked," as one member of the traveling press said. MORE …
On Plane to N.H., Penn Makes the Giuliani Argument
BY JASON HOROWITZ
Suddenly, the Hillary Clinton campaign sounds a lot like the Rudy Giuliani campaign.
On the campaign plane to New Hampshire after a devastating third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses—nine percentage points behind winner Barack Obama—chief strategist and pollster Mark Penn said, “We need to win February 5."
Speaking for more than a half-an-hour, Penn suggested that Clinton could get all the way to Feb. 5 without a single primary victory and still win the nomination. MORE …
Dennis Kucinich Owns New Hampshire
BY CHOIRE SICHA
What awaits the hordes inbound from Iowa? The sprawl of the Dennis Kucinich headquarters on Elm Street here in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire. (Also lots of snow. And fear.) MORE …
David Broder Not in Iowa for Warped 2008 Caucuses
BY CHOIRE SICHA
In today’s Washington Post, David Broder wrote that "New Hampshire is a more reliable, less distorted lens through which to view the presidential landscape than Iowa." Wait for New Hampshire, the headline requested. Mr. Broder is not only waiting for New Hampshire, he’s waiting in New Hampshire. MORE …
