John McCain, Hillary Clinton Win in New Hampshire

As Bill Clinton said at an informal gathering I attended last weekend in Plymouth, New Hampshire, "This election can go any way." As of 8:30 pm after the NH polls closed, however, it appears as though his wife is going to get her way and win the democratic vote in NH.

Not even Hillary supporters were convinced their candidate was going to win today. I asked Hillary supporter, "Janet" this morning if she thought Hillary was going to pull off a win today. Janet was holding what my husband calls a "Hillary totem"- a polling stake with not one, but 3 or four Hillary sign stapled to it. "Not today... I don't think so," she said, indicating she thought Barack Obama was going to win in NH. Right now just hours after the polls closed , the Fox News Election Ticker reports that Hillary Clintonhas 40% of the votes. Barack Obama is second at has 36%. However, Fox News also reported that eit polls in Nh showed that Hillary lost to Obama by a small margin, and so Hillary has not yet been officially declared the winner of this primary.

With only 26% of the NH precinct results counted, John McCain, with 37% is the projected republican winner of the NH primary. Mitt Romney is second to McCain, pulling in 28% of the vote. Mike Huckabee is at 12%.

After doing statistical analysis, Michael Barrone of U.S. News and World Report thinks there is a real possibly that Hillary could win this state.

With unseasonably warm weather throughout New Hampshire, there was record voter turnout in this state today. Voter trurnout was predicted to be at a record high, and many elementary schools, the traditional place to hold the vote were closed today in anticipation of the large turnout.

At large in New Hampshire- I visited several polling spots today, counting signs and talking to the poll-standers standing just outside the booths to take the pulse of the voters in Grafton County, NH.

"Plymouth is for Obama," said a woman holding an over-sized Obama sign at the Plymouth poll. "Really?" I said, thinking about the overwhelming blight of Hillary signs that have populated downtown Plymouth. "What about all those signs?" The Obama woman then told me that their signs had only recently come in, and they had been focusing on phone calls instead.

I held a sign for John McCain today, and enjoyed civil political conversation with one Bill Richardson, one Hillary and one Ron Paul supporter. The Ron Paul supporter was convinced that his candidate was going to win in NH today. All of my fellow poll-standers wanted out of the war in Iraq.

Historically, New Hampshire has tended to vote republican in presidential and gubernatorial election. However, the recent tide of residents moving up from Massachusetts to southern New Hampshire has had an effect of "liberalizing" the vote in presidential election. NH voters narrowly voted for the democratic candidate in the last presidential election.