Barack, Expectations and Winning New Hampshire
Despite being the candidate willing to be photographed inside of a Dunkin, Obama's post-Iowa aura of inevitability has been pretty well tarnished tonight. Part of that is that the young turnout didn't go as high as it did in Iowa and another part is gains Clinton made with women voters (way to work that wavery-voiced moment!). Independents definitely turned out in droves, and they seem to have voted for Obama more often than Hillary (according to Fox News polls) but not enough to override the Democratic party machine. Also, Clinton did better among the less well-off and union voters. Oops! Sorry, Barry!
The most depressing part of the night, though, was when (black) Fox News commentator Juan Williams pointed out that, despite the Obama campaign's active recruitment of black church leaders in the South, said church leaders are still siding with Hillary because they think she's more likely to win, sort of like Robertson and his ilk siding with Giuliani instead of the evangelical Huckabee. Basically, they don't care, either, about "change" or the first African-American president, just about maintaining access to the halls of power. Just out of curiosity, when did the church folk get to be all about political power rather than saving souls or whatever it is they're supposed to do?