On Tuesday [February 9, 2016], over half a million voters made their way to election polls to cast their ballots in the New Hampshire primaries
As predicted, Bernie Sanders (D) and Donald Trump (R) emerged on top as the anti-establishment picks for their parties, respectively. And while the picks weren’t the least bit surprising, they’ve confirmed a significant shift of the political atmosphere.
On the Right, John Kasich (R) finished behind Mr. Trump in second place, perhaps the biggest shock of all. Bumping down contenders Ted Cruz (R) and Jeb Bush (R), Kasich has proven his traditional conservatism could very well place him as a top establishment foe for Donald Trump.
Least surprising of them all, however, was the Marco Rubio campaign we’ve watched go up in flames. Following a strong and unexpected third place finish in Iowa, Marco Rubio was ready to take his place among top contenders in the Republican race.
However, following a less than promising appearance in Saturday’s debate in which Rubio recited the same line about President Obama four times as Chris Christie (R) incessantly attacked the Florida Senator, the nation got a glimpse of the rehearsed weaknesses Rubio has created for himself.
Taking a huge blow from third place to fifth put Marco Rubio at just 10 percent of the vote, not being able to squeeze past Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, whose numbers were identical.
But, what’s to be said about the Democratic party? Simple. Things are looking very good for Bernie Sanders and very bad for Hillary Clinton (D).
Hillary Clinton finished at 38 percent, over 20 percent less than her foe Bernie Sanders. Her biggest support came from men, waned in women, and was practically undetectable in young adults.
But, where did Clinton go wrong? Perhaps when her campaign and surrogates decided to alienate women who supported Sanders as being traitors to their gender.
Exit polls reported among the voters who cared most about honesty and trustworthiness, five percent voted for Clinton. And the younger the voters got, the smaller her support got, receiving only 16 percent of the vote from voters under 29.
It seems the past truly has no weight on the future as New Hampshire was once a critical and always supportive state of the Clintons. It was the state that pushed former President Bill Clinton to the Democratic nomination and victory in the general elections of 1992 and 1996.
In 2008, Hillary Clinton took New Hampshire up against President Obama and John Edwards (D) with 112,404 votes. This year the former Secretary of State only managed to garner 89,000 votes in comparison to Bernie Sander’s 139,000.
So, what does this all mean in the long-run? Nothing really.
We’ve seen both in Iowa and New Hampshire how quickly things can change in politics, and with four months to go before all voting has ceased, these candidates still have a lot more work to do.
