On Primary Day: Obama, McCain Look Solid (to Pundits)

By: E&P Staff If you can believe the pundits in the press -- not to mention the polls -- Barack Obama is coasting to a smashing victory in the first presidential primary of the season in New Hampshire today. John McCain is favored to beat -- though perhaps only edge -- Mitt Romney. John Edwards and Mike Huckabee are hoping for stronger-than-expected, third-place finishes. Indeed, Edwards could challenge Clinton.

The weather is unseasonably long and the voting is already brisk. One interesting train of thought emerging -- there are so many indie voters supposedly going for Obama this will hurt McCain and possibly lead to a Romney upset.

We will add latest press/online reports below from the top as they emerge. Come back tonight as Editor Greg Mitchell, as he did with the Iowa returns last Thursday, will "blog" here the New Hampshire results.

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Patrick Healy at The New York Times' The Caucus blog:

It was Hillary Clinton supporters vs. Ron Paul supporters at a school/polling site in Concord on Tuesday afternoon, as Mrs. Clinton stepped off her campaign bus to work the rope line ? and faced very loud catcalls, six feet away, of ?a vote for Hillary is a vote for war!?

Mr. Paul, a Republican presidential candidate, has developed a diehard, if modest-sized, following here. His supporters looked like they had all the money in the world this afternoon: They had more ?Ron Paul? placards than the Hillary supporters had placards for her, and they had a couple of huge banners to go toe-to-toe with similarly enormous Hillary signs.

And they were simply louder ? one Clinton volunteer tried to start a chant of ?Hill-a-ree, Hill-a-ree? but she and her allies were drowned out by the Paul supporters shouting, ?End the war, end the war? and ?Ron Paul Revolution, Give Us Back the Constitution.? A few minutes later, though, the Clinton supporters had a rallying cry of ?Hillary? underway.
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From Rick Pearson at the Chicago Tribune:

Not much has been heard recently from former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel as the candidate continues his long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, but he did gain attention with recent remarks on alcohol and drugs during a high school visit.

Gravel, 77, appeared Sunday night at the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter as part of a series in which candidates and candidate representatives were asked to speak to students about their campaigns. At one point Gravel, who has called the war on drugs a failure, offered the students some advice.

"I'm sure a lot of you have tripped out on alcohol," Gravel said. "It's a lot safer to do it on marijuana." Gravel, whose comments were recorded by WMUR-TV in Manchester, also told the students, "With respect to other drugs, if you've got a problem with coke, go to a doctor, get a prescription and get it filled at a drug store."
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From the On Politics blog at USA Today:

New Hampshire Deputy Secretary of State Dave Scanlan has told ABC News that the voter turnout in his state today is "absolutely huge."

And, ABC's Political Radar blog reports, "there are concerns about running out of ballots in towns like Portsmouth, Keene, Hudson and Pelham."

Political Radar adds that: "According to Scanlan, the ballot strain seems to be on Democratic ballots, which suggests that the undeclared voters are breaking for the Democratic primary. New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner predicted that 90,000 undeclared voters would vote in the Democratic primary compared to 60,000 voting in the Republican primary."
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Dana Milbank of The Washington Post, traveling with McCain:

As the bus rolls on, Time magazine's Jay Carney reads out a headline from the Drudge Report: "TALK OF HILLARY EXIT."

"I don't believe that," McCain retorts immediately. "My favorite Drudge was when I had the walk-on role in 'Wedding Crashers.' ... I log on to Drudge: 'MCCAIN STARS IN RAUNCHY BOOBS MOVIE.' So Leno called me up and said, 'I got a great response for you: In Washington, I get to work with boobs every single day.' "

Ladies and gentlemen, John McCain is back. Left for dead when his campaign ran out of cash last summer, he returned to his endless town hall meetings and freewheeling talks on his campaign bus -- and he's risen to the top of the Republican primary polls in New Hampshire, just as he did eight years ago.
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Tina Daunt, Los Angeles Times, on the Hollywood reaction:

Phones started ringing even before the junior senator from Illinois had completed his Iowa victory speech, which hardened political pros compared to legendary addresses given by the Kennedys, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Ronald Reagan. West of La Cienega, the clips on cable news were the best audition tapes anybody had seen in a long time. If Clinton loses in New Hampshire tonight, predicted longtime political operative turned Hollywood producer Brian Quintana, Hollywood ?will defect to Barack in droves.?

?It is not a question of loyalty; Barack is simply too close to making history for Hollywood not to be part of it,? Quintana said. ?For most of us, Hillary was our first choice, but she has come up short. Barack has become a movement.?

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Pat Grossmith, Manchester's Union-Leader:

Long lines of people formed inside some polls this morning minutes after they opened at 6 a.m. for the New Hampshire presidential primary. Louise Gosselin, Ward 6 moderator, said election officials expected about 150 people to vote each hour at St. Pius X on Candia Road.

Instead, about 300 people each hour were casting ballots. By 8 a.m., 602 people had voted. About 70 new voters were registered. "I believe if it continues this way we definitely will set a record," said Gosselin.
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Dan Balz, The Washington Post:

The Republican race appeared more competitive on primary eve, but the Democratic contest holds the greater significance, if only because of what it may say about the future of the couple who gave the party consecutive White House terms for the first time since Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency.

Top Clinton campaign officials and alarmed allies are braced for a defeat on Tuesday. Five days is not enough, they have argued, to slow and reverse the momentum Obama developed in Iowa. What they are looking to do is hold down his margin in New Hampshire and then try to restart the race on Wednesday, hoping to stay alive until Feb. 5, when many of the biggest states in the nation will hold primaries.

"Whatever happens tomorrow, we're going on," Clinton told CBS's Harry Smith on Monday morning.
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