Heart Tops Change in New Hampshire

In one of the bigger political upsets in recent memory, Hillary Clinton, facing predictions of a defeat that some predicted would reach double-digits and cripple her 2008 chances, soared back to the top of the Democratic standings last night with a hard-fought victory over Illinois Senator Barack Obama. The Clinton victory, 40%-36%, over Obama breathed necessary life into the New York senator’s campaign and allows her to remain in a neck-and-neck battle with Obama for her party’s nomination.

Brandishing herself as the candidate with “heart,” Clinton carved her way to victory beginning with a Saturday night debate performance that saw her alternate between a candidate willing to attack those labeling her as the “status quo” and one willing to admit somewhat jokingly that her feelings were hurt when she was labeled as unlikable. This performance combined with a Monday speech that saw Clinton’s emotions bring her to the brink of tears seemed to be the fuel that energized Clinton to victory in New Hampshire.

Clinton is likely to continue championing herself as the candidate with “heart” while Obama continues to define himself as the candidate most willing to embrace “change.” The emails each candidate sent today reflect these themes with Clinton’s subject of “thank you from the bottom of my heart” and Obama’s attempting to emphasize the difficulty in creating change by stating “we knew this would be hard.”

Finishing in his familiar third place position, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards lagged far behind Clinton and Obama with only 17% of the Granite State electorate. Vowing to stay in the race, Edwards enthusiastically told supporters “we’re in this until the convention.”

Not withstanding next week’s Michigan Primary, The focus of the Democrats seems to have shifted towards the January 19 Nevada Primary and the South Carolina Primary to be held one week later. Michigan is caught in a battle with the Democratic National Committee over deciding to move their primary forward and ahead of traditional front-of-the-line deciders such as South Carolina. Because of this, the DNC is threatening to strip Michigan of some of its convention delegates. This threat is keeping most of the Democrats public attention away from Michigan.