The Huckster wins; Obama wins

Yes, our predictions were wrong (no one said we were Michael Barone). The Huckster won on the GOP side, and Obama won on the Democrat side.

Yes, Romney lost, but his loss is a minor sting compared to Hillary's third place finish. Obama beat her by about 7 percent, and she barely mustered 30%. Hugh's right -- she's been running there since 1992, and she barely pulls the 30% she got. Not good. The Huckster can ride this momentum into New Hampshire, but the uppercut Obama delivered to Hillary was just nasty.

Predictions for New Hampshire -- the Huckster is against a wall, and will be expected to perform well there. As for the Democrats, Hillary's going to go negative and she'll pull out the long knives for Obama. If Romney flounders in New Hampshire, his people are going to bolt and split between McCain and Rudy. Fred was the biggest winner of the evening, in our opinion, because he comes in third. He's shown voters he's int he race and that could translate well to the next stop.

But we all need to remember that the real race starts on 5 February. If Rudy or Mitt sweep those states, the Huckster's gone, so is Paul, and so is McCain. Fred can weather the storm, and could very well keep this a three-person race running up to the nomination. The remaining primary states will determine who wins and who loses. On the Democrat side, Hillary must right her ship over the next three to five primary states, or she is done.

Publius II