The Republican Rematch in New Hampshire

For the second time in two nights, Republican presidential hopefuls took the stage last night in New Hampshire. The tone of last night’s debate was equally aggressive, however, its focus Sunday shifted away from one that seemed to exclusively focus on diminishing the hopes of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in a tag team effort towards a one-for-all and all-for-one last pitch to woo undecided voters.

Mitt Romney, while not escaping completely the attacks of his competition, seemed more ready Sunday to fight back and handle the swipes of his competitors. Sticking to his belief that the campaign should rest on issues and not personal attacks, Romney is now trying to embrace Iowa’s singular call for change by brandishing himself as the Washington outsider most likely to implement change. With the polls reflecting a gain by Senator John McCain over the weekend, Romney must do all he can between now and the close of polls Tuesday to convince the Granite state electorate he is their candidate.

Whereas Saturday night’s debate left Romney seeming helpless against the bullying attacks of his competition, Sunday allowed him to display his trademark cool and if not gain momentum going into Tuesday hopefully stop the bleeding that his fledgling campaign has displayed ever since the days leading up to Iowa.

Sunday’s Fox News debate is unlikely to have as much impact on New Hampshire voters as the previous night’s ABC and Facebook sponsored debate was for a few reasons. First, the casual voter wanting to invest their time wisely would have likely opted to tune in for Saturday’s Republican and Democratic double-header that saw each set of candidates debate for one and one half hour intervals one after the other. Secondly, the Sunday news cycle is a brisk one this time of year with the networks going head-to-head with their talk shows including NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, and CBS’s Face the Nation. Saturday’s debate was discussed at length in all of these talk shows and as a result of its occurring at night Fox’s debate will be left for the less fertile political grounds of ABC’s Good Morning America or NBC’s Today Show.

Finally, Fox News is unlikely to draw in as many independent voters as ABC was likely to have and it might be just this undecided, independent, portion of the electorate that may swing New Hampshire.

What this means is that Romney’s improved Sunday debate performance may not have the ability to overcome the damage that was done to him Saturday night. Senator John McCain is leading in most New Hampshire polls and Governor Mike Huckabee is even cutting into Romney’s numbers as Huckabee tries to make a long-shot attempt at second or third place in New Hampshire. Even withstanding Romney’s little discussed victory in Saturday’s Wyoming Caucus he must either win or have a strong, close, second place finish in New Hampshire to have the momentum to have any success in later states.

All the signs point against a Romney victory Tuesday; it is now up to him to do what he can between now and Tuesday night to prove the pundits wrong.