The pundits, pollsters and talking heads are tripping over each other trying to figure out how Hillary Clinton defied the polls and narrowly grabbed the win in the New Hampshire primary last night. Apparently there were quite a few factors that went into play including the women’s vote.

Women turned out in droves in NH to vote and they voted resoundingly for Hillary Clinton. Some say the beating she took from the media played into that, I would tend to agree. Clinton also captured the lower income vote as well, while the higher income voters veered towards Obama. That factor in the exit polls seemed puzzling to me, but if more women voted for Clinton, it makes sense, we still make less money than men. I’m not professing to even remotely understand the exit polls in the way the experts and pundits do, but they provide an interesting look at the vote in NH.

Ari Melber notes another factor in his piece, “Inside Clinton’s Narrow Comeback,” that was in play in New Hampshire for the Clinton campaign, it’s what I would call “The Whouley Effect.” Michael Whouley who is credited with Kerry’s ‘04 comeback, was on the ground in New Hampshire, working his magic for Hillary Clinton:

The Clintons shared another political asset in New Hampshire, though farther offstage. Michael Whouley, the most respected field strategist in Democratic politics, was dispatched to overhaul the mobilization program in the state. Clinton aides had debated whether to deploy him in Iowa, where he had helped engineer John Kerry’s huge comeback in 2004, or task him with fortifying the famous “firewall.” Some feared that his efforts would simply be wasted in New Hampshire if Clinton lost Iowa, but the “Plan B” advocates won, and now they look pretty shrewd.

Skippy also picked up (like minds) on “The Whouley Effect,” while Jeff at Shakesville thinks it’s “The Angry Women Effect.” And speaking of like minds, Taylor Marsh’s headline, “Iron This,” is a thought that flashed though my head earlier tonight thinking back to the incident in New Hampshire yesterday that reeked of sexism.

What ever happened in New Hampshire last night, no one seems to have seen it coming. The New Hampshire turnout was a whopping “500,000 voters overall, including 276,000 who participated in the Democratic contest, up from 220,000 four years ago.” After 7 years of George W. Bush, people are so ready for change.

We have a real horse race now folks. Let’s hope the voters let this play out across the country as it should.

Filed under: In The News | Get Permalink or trackback |