RED MASSACHUSETTS?
3/20/2008 2:30 PM
Could our beloved, true-blue state actually vote Republican this November?
Probably not. Then again, take a look at the intriguing results of our latest Survey USA Fast Track measuring Massachusetts support for John McCain in matchups with either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
Clinton predictably cruises to a 55-42% win, a margin driven by overwhelming support among women and Democrats. But the McCain-Obama matchup is a dead heat, 47-all. McCain improves on his showing among women, romps with men, and takes 25% of Democrats. In Massachusetts! He beats Obama among independents and grabs 23% of self-described liberals.
Yikes.
Email Jon your comments and feedback
What A Comeback For Hillary Clinton!
1/9/2008 3:03 AM
It's 2:58 am we're feeding in our story on Hillary's comeback for the morning show - still running on adrenaline and hope it doesn't wear off any time soon!!!
All I'd hoped for was to be able to cover a close race - and it doesn't get much more dynamic than the Democrats delivered tonight.
What a privalege it's been to cover these candidates - each one working to win over the hearts and minds of New Hampshire - each one with hopes and dreams to make the country better. And along the way... like Hillary... many find a voice in NH.
What A Night For Hillary Clinton!
1/9/2008 1:37 AM
What a night for Hillary Clinton!
A day that started with thoughts of a second place finish, ended with confetti and a roaring crowd. "New Hampshire helped me find my voice." Hillary told the crowd at Southern New Hampshire University. She was clearly losing her voice and exhausted from the grueling last 4 days. She told us after the event that it was some of the hardest days of her life.
The event held in a small gym was dressed for disaster with polls and pundits giving her little chance to pull it off. The numbers started to come in and she developed a pretty big lead. Still, people were saying it was to close to call. Later on, Nashua, Manchester, Derry, all in but too close to call. They were waiting for Durham and Dartmouth. See, the youth vote was what they were worried about. Hillary didn't do very well in Iowa with the youth. The campaign waited for the voice of the youth, but they never came. Hillary won Dartmouth and Durham! By then speeches started to begin.
Edwards... Then Obama... Then a deafening crowd greeting Hillary, Chelsea, and Pres. Bill. They came out and took it all in. Hillary was clearly moved by the outpouring of support. She took the clapping and sign waving for about 5 minutes and then gave a speech that killed the one she gave in Iowa. She was at the top of her game.
I was ready for the worst, and got a night to remember. That's pretty good for an old fashioned news guy.....
Karen got a couple of questions to her as she shook hands with supporters then as we were shooting cover for our story, we were whisked away behind the scenes. Taken upstairs to get one last one on one interview before she moves on to the other 48 states. Iowa done.... New Hampshire won......
Very cool to cover politics in NH. We met some very nice people from each of the campaigns. I wish them well in their future endeavors. I will be waiting for 4 years from now when we can do it again.... Thanks
Blog Central From Hillary's Headquarters
1/8/2008 6:54 PM
Blog central from Hillary for presidents headquarters....
Tons of cameras, producers, cable, reporters, lights, and just bag lunches from Boston. We saw Hillary this morning at my polling place in Derry. She arrived and talked to voters, but there were more cameras than voters... We got a one on one interview where she talked about the hard issue of maybe having to look past New Hampshire.
Notice that Karen forgot her necklace When you see her on T.V. She is obsessing about it...!
Well, for now I am going to go and find the chat room on our website. So see you there!!!!!!
And The Beat Goes On:
1/7/2008 12:06 PM
Things are always changing on the campaign trail... After all, "change" is the new in word around these parts. One of the big changes for me is Karen and I are now full time with the Hillary Clinton campaign. You will find that we are fully staffed up in NH with reporters assigned to cover at least the big 6 names out there. We have producers and photographers gathering also so we don't short change any of them.
Yesterday I was in Nashua. I don't know if you have ever been to Nashua North High school but it was amazing for me to see the overflow crowd outside the event. When I arrived at about 11am for the 12:30 event there was a line about 3 football fields long of people waiting to get into the gym to see Hillary. Hillary said the estimate was at around 3,500 people. I know that the line grew after I got in there so that number could be right. Anyway, a very impressive crowd!
The event itself started like any other campaign event with Hillary talking policy and how she was better than Obama with a better record than Obama. She then did something I haven't seen from her campaign yet. She took questions!!! She took so many questions that people started to leave after about 2 hours of it. She answered all of them and drove home that she had a plan for every subject brought up. She also took a page out of the John Edwards handbook and made sure people knew she was passionate about serving, and needed people to know that she was in it to serve, not just to be president.
Behind the scenes we got 5 minutes with Hillary one on one. She has always been cool to deal with one-on-one. One of her new bullet points is how George W. got elected on the "I would like to have a beer with him", stance... I told her off camera that she probably would be fun to have a beer with too. She said not to tell anyone but she is a pretty fun gal....... That wasn't off the record, so I guess I can tell you that.....
Today, I am right now writing from Hillary's Dover event. We are waiting for it to start. I will be here, then her Salem event tonight where we will do our liveshot from... After that on to Manchester where she will be with the First Man....
Oh yeah, Big thanks goes out to Kathy and the rest of the crew at Mary Ann's Diner in Derry for letting us do live T.V. during the breakfast rush. What fun, and great food!
Don't forget to vote tomorrow!!!!!!!
Busy Day In New Hampshire
1/6/2008 6:38 PM
After two and a half hours sleep - we were back on the campaign trail - starting our day at Mary Ann's Diner in Derry. It was our chance to hear from voters two days before the election at a place where candidates love to stop. We found people backing just about everyone - a sign of just how many candidates people feel are qualified. People told us their top issues are health care and taxes, as well as national security - and more than one person told me the wish they would take qualities for different candidates to make the perfect choice. We found plenty of undecided voters, too - the ones everyone is trying to reach between now and Tuesday. Thanks to the great staff for a fun morning with lots of laugh - you guys are terrific - and are very informed!
Then it was on to catch up with Hillary at Nashua North High School. She's got a new style on the stump - talking less and taking more questions from both voters and the press. We also talked with Hillary 1 on 1 - you can see the full interview as well as our story online - check it out.
Here's some of what Hillary had to say when I asked her about Obama's record: it's important to know some of She says he spends a lot of time railing against the special interests and lobbyists, and in fact the chair of his campaign here in NH is a lobbyist. She says he makes his speech against the war in Iraq, which was a very effective speech, when he goes to the senate, he votes to fund the war in Iraq despite saying he wouldn't. And she claims despite saying he won't vote for the Patriot Act, he voted for the Patriot Act.
I called the Obama campaign for a response - here is it: "This is an effort to distract and divide and is the same type of politics that people are rejecting and that's why Obama's doing so well."
And here's their response to each claim:
Patriot Act - he filibustered the Patriot act and only voted for it once it contained civil liberties protections he was pushing for.
War Funding - he's consistently opposed a blank check for Iraq, opposed the war from the start, and has led the efforts in Congress to begin withdrawing our troops.
State Co-Chair - Jim Demers is a state lobbyist. As a senator and has president, Obama has and would have no jurisdiction over state lobbyists. Jim has deep roots in New Hampshire as a former state legislator.
Gotta run to get some sleep before another marathon day.
The Debate
1:30 am Matt and I are here at our NH Bureau in Manchester working a story for the morning news about tonight's debate. ABC embargoed the debate until 2 am, so we couldn't use the video for our 11 pm news. We were able to get some reaction from the Spin Room from some familiar faces: Mike Dennehey for McCain, Tom Rath for Romney, Mayor Guinta for Giuliani, Congressman Hodes for Obama, Doug Hattaway for Clinton, and Ron Paul for himself! (you can see what they had to say for yourself here on the website.) And thanks to my talented photographer/editor - we got it on tv.
Here's the wrap from the debate - it was designed to be more like a dining room conversation than a traditional debate. All eyes were on Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton tonight... to see how they would try to rebound from Iowa. Mitt spent much of the night fending off attacks from all sides, and Hillary found herself in an intense moment trying to defend her ability to bring change.
In the end... many people told me afterwards there wasn't very much "new" that they learned about the candidates... it only firmed up some of their other thoughts.
Off to sleep for a few hours and then up again to go to Mary Ann's diner for our morning show... on at 7 am!! And come on down - we're looking for voters!!!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
One more thing... check out the new WMUR UNH poll... Clinton and Obama neck and neck...
Democrats
Republicans
Holy Cow things are moving fast!
Jan 05, 2008 2:19 pm
Holy Cow things are moving fast!
Since Iowa, the pace has increased drastically. Yesterday, Karen and I were assigned the Republicans for the day. A very tired looking Romney had a pancake in Portsmouth then gave us a media availability at the Sheraton. It is clear he felt the second place finish in Iowa. He keeps saying that he still beat the big guys in that race. The big guys being McCain, Thompson, and Giuliani. But as far as I know at least two of them didn't even give Iowa their time. I know McCain has been up here in NH and Giuliani has been in Florida most of the time. So he really beat guys not running for votes in Iowa and still came in second.
Then McCain made a stop in Hollis. It was only suppose to be a "stop" but it turned into a circus. McCain has so much media with him now that he will need to find larger venues other than the local drug store. It was so packed in the Hollis drug store that you really couldn't move! Between the supporters that came out like Charlie Bass, and the throngs of media... It was just good to get him outside where we could all get a shot of him.
Something worth mentioning: At the end of the stop, his people tried to tell us that there wouldn't be time for him to talk to the media. The Senator changed that real quick and said "No, we will do it right now." He pulled us over in front of the Straight Talk Express and held a ten minute avail. I think he knew he needed to get some face time because he hadn't been seen yet yesterday, and there was some mud flying from Romney. It is nice to see a candidate take charge instead of being led around by his campaign staffers.
Then we went on to Jam with Huck and Chuck in Henniker. I must admit I didn't see most of the event because I was editing for the 5 and 6pm shows but I think it is cool to see candidates step outside the politics and show a little more of themselves. Huckabee always says he tries to have fun.... You can watch Christina Hager and Photographer Chris Gobeille's report on that event.
Now today: The debates are tonight and I am excited to see the gloves come off. Candidates like Hillary and Rudy will have to bring something strong to stay in the race. Obama has a huge swell he is riding out of Iowa and seems to be leaving the Dems in the dust. The Republicans seems to be a little more interesting because they all are calling Huckabees win a one time thing. So, the rest is still up for grabs. McCain is well liked in NH and may win here. That will leave the money spending Romney with no wins and less money to come back.
They are all tired, so watch for a blunder or two from each of them. I think we all are tired at this point, but the adrenaline has kicked in so that along with a trip to the double D for some caffeine and we should get along for a couple more days.
And as of 2:17pm, I have had 2 calls at home from the John Edwards campaign asking for my support. No body else yet....
Another Swing
John
McCain's counter attack... the campaign says it was waiting for Romney's ad...
with this.
More On The McCain/Romney Battle
Another zinger in the McCain Romney battle... check this out... it's an un-aired ad said to be made by McCain.
