Wednesday, January 9, 2008

New Hampshire, the Aftermath

A night of surprises in New Hampshire leads to another blog post about the winners and losers in the aftermath.

Winners

- Hillary Clinton. She needed a win and got it. It wasn't nearly as decisive as it could have been, but any victory you can walk away from is a good one for Hillary. But I wouldn't read too much into the "stunning upset" angle because it was so close.

- Barack Obama. A second place finish in New Hampshire wasn't what he was looking for, but by keeping it close (2%), he established himself as a real candidate, not a flash in the pan. Combine this with the number of Hollywood liberals looking to back him and Obama comes out a winner.

- Mitt Romney. A second place finish is also good for Romney for 2 reasons. First, he's still getting delegates. As long as the people who manage to beat him in these high profile primaries fail to impress in other primaries and as long as Romney continues to get second place, it won't matter how many second place finishes he gets.

- Rudy Giuliani. Again, he pulls out a decent showing (4th place) in spite of not campaigning that much in New Hampshire. As much as people have questioned his strategy, to date, it's turning out to be a pretty sound one.

- John McCain. He was in a similar position as Hillary Clinton. He needed a win to remain viable, and he won, but...

Losers

- John McCain. ...it won't matter. McCain still trails in the national polls and in the polls in the upcoming caucuses and primaries. One victory does not constitute a comeback, especially when it was pretty much a fait accompli. Come back when you stun the Republican field after New Hampshire.

- Mike Huckabee. Remember how the media fawned over Huckabee and said the Iowa Caucuses would propel him to the Republican candidacy? It propelled him all right...to third place in New Hampshire. And it wasn't even close. Romney beat him by TWENTY POINTS, and he only beat Giuliani by 2%. The Huckaboom...has become a Huckabust.

- John Edwards. A third place finish out of a race that is essentially a three person race for the Democrats. And it wasn't even close (20%). At some point, Edwards is going to realize that he's third banana in this situation and will either waste money to stay in or get out and hope for a VP slot.

- Fred Thompson. After beating McCain in Iowa, he barely showed up on the radar in New Hampshire. If he's going to be seen as a serious candidate, he needs to place in the top three on a more consistent basis.

- Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel. Why are you two even in the Democrat race? Kucinich barely beat Gravel, Chris Dodd, and Joe Biden in percent of votes cast for him, and the latter two aren't even running anymore! And Gravel coming in behind Biden in the vote count has to hurt. You guys aren't even also-rans. You're more like also-limps.

As it stands, after two "events" as it were, Obama and Romney are still the strongest of their respective fields, and no amount of spin and "upset victories" will change that.

3 comments:

TLindaman said...

And just to beat Anonymous to the punch...

47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq.

The Iraqi government currently employs 1.2 million Iraqi people.

3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 new schools are now under construction, and 38 new schools have been completed in Iraq .

Iraq 's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers, all currently operating.

25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2005 for the re-established Fulbright program.

The Iraqi Navy is operational. They have 5 -100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.

Iraq 's Air Force consists of three operational squadrons, which includes 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft (under Iraqi operational control) which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers.

Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion.

The Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers.

There are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers every 8 weeks.

Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq. They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.

96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations.

4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October.

There are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq snd phone use has gone up 158%.

Iraq has an independent media that consists of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations.

The Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004.

2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a televised debate recently.

Anonymous said...

Baghdad

- Around 7 a.m., gunmen assassinated an officer of the ministry of interior “ Mohammad Aziz Al-Gatia in his car in Zafrania neighborhood ( east Baghdad) .

- Around 7 30 a.m., gunmen assassinated the deputy of Mansour taxes department in Diragh district in Mansour neighborhood ( west Baghdad).

- Around 11 a.m., an IED was planted inside the car of the head of Yarmouk council ( Dr.Falah Mansour Hussein ) who was killed in the incident with two other people who were injured .

- Around 3 p.m., a suicide bomber wearing a vest filled with explosives targeted a police check point at Al-Medain district ( south of Baghdad) killing one policeman and injuring three ( one policeman and two civilians).

- Around 3 p.m., two mortars hit Medain district ( south of Baghdad ) injuring 2 people.

- Around 3 .30 p.m., a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Rashid camp neighborhood ( south east Baghdad) . No casualties reported.

- Police found 5 unidentified dead bodies in the following neighborhood in Baghdad: ( 3 ) dead bodies were found in west Baghdad ( Karkh bank ) ; 1 in Doura , 1 in Bayaa and Amil . While ( 2 ) were found in east Baghdad ( Risafa bank) ; 1 in Ubaidi and 1 in Fudhailiyah.

Diyala

- Tuesday morning, a roadside bomb exploded at a house in Jalwla ( east of Baquba) killing a woman who was the owner of the house.

Anonymous said...

TLindaman said...
And just to beat Anonymous to the punch...

{Internet Urban Myth from 2005}

http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/combatend.asp

Something a little more current:

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. refugee agency on Tuesday called for $261 million this year to help hundreds of thousands of Iraqis driven from their homes by violence.

The money is needed to provide health care, financial support and other assistance to the most vulnerable of the 2 million Iraqis who have fled the country, as well as to help some 400,000 of those who have left their homes but remain in Iraq, said a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

UNHCR estimates that a total of 2.2 million people are displaced in Iraq.

"Getting help to many of them is extremely difficult because of insecurity in much of the country," said Ron Redmond.

Most of the Iraqis who fled to other countries live in urban areas in Syria and Jordan, Redmond said.

"Many of them are running out of money and finding it increasingly difficult to get by," he told reporters.

Redmond said the agency was unable to confirm Iraqi government reports that at least 30,000 families returned in late 2007. He said the U.N. doesn't encourage Iraqi refugees to return home because of the security situation but supports Iraqi government efforts to help those who return voluntarily.

The agency also helps neighboring nations strained by the influx of Iraqi refugees, he said. Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and several of Gulf states, in addition to Jordan and Syria, are hosting refugees from Iraq.

The money will enable another 100,000 Iraqi refugee children to go to school this year, twice as many as last year, Redmond said.

UNHCR also assists around 41,000 non-Iraqi refugees in the country, including Iranians and Turks, but is particularly concerned about 13,000 Palestinians targeted by armed groups and unable to enter neighboring countries, he said.

The Palestinian community in Iraq has become a target for persecution in recent years, largely because they are seen as having been favored under Saddam Hussein's regime. Redmond said UNHCR hoped to resettle the most vulnerable Palestinians.

In 2007, UNHCR, which has nearly 350 staff working on programs for Iraq and the region, received more than $152 million to help uprooted Iraqis and refugees in Iraq.