New Hampshire Tells Us the Message Matters

The New Hampshire primary leaves one clear impression. Whether you live on Main Street or work on Wall Street, Americans care about what happens in the real world. So candidates in this election have to provide answers, not rhetoric.

Voters in the Granite State turned out in record numbers to vote yesterday, and they favored the two candidates running on the message of experience vs. image: Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y).

Following the Iowa caucus, the media rushed to crown Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) the Democratic nominee. Oops, the media got it wrong. I wrote last week that the challengers would get revenge in New Hampshire, and indeed they did.

Clinton Spinmeister McAuliffe Dissects the Race

Obama's final campaign commercials in New Hampshire failed to address the issues. The campaign ran an ad full of still images of Obama and a single message of hope. The message from New Hampshire's voting: Hope doesn't put food on your table.

In fact, Clinton appeared to face tall odds over the final weekend. All of the last polls from New Hampshire had Obama winning the race by anywhere between 5% to 13%, but Clinton won 39% to 37%.

She clinched the win helped by undecided Democrats and women, who finally saw that Clinton cared about winning. Clinton opened up in the final five days of the race, taking time to talk to individual voters and answering every question. As she stated in her victory speech: "I have listened to you (New Hampshire voters)... I found my voice."

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