Both the Democratic and the Republican anti-establishment candidates won the New Hampshire primary. According to the counts at this moment (which are likely to change, but this gives you an idea), Bernie Sanders has 57% of the vote, to Hillary Clinton’s 40%.
Donald Trump has 34%. The second place winner, as of now, may be a surprise: John Kasich with 16%. Bush has 12%, Iowa winner Cruz has 11.5%, and mainstream-darling-before-his-disastrous-debate-performance Rubio has 10%.
Again, it really could be the socialist Sanders vs. the capitalist Trump. The Clinton campaign is in a state of crisis. The Republican alternative to Trump is no clearer.
Have we overlooked Kasich, who may be the most qualified and experienced candidate, with his long career as lawmaker and governor, his common-sense moderation, and his kind, avuncular manner?
From Trump, Sanders projected to win New Hampshire primary – The Washington Post:
Sen. Bernie Sanders and billionaire Donald Trump have been projected as the winners of the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries in New Hampshire – a remarkable victory for two outsiders who tapped into voter anger at the two parties’ establishments, each promising massive government actions to provide working people with an economic boost.
In very early returns, the three Republicans running behind Trump were Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), who won the Iowa caucuses last week. Behind all of them was Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), who had been seen as the strongest challenger to Trump until a disastrous debate performance on Saturday, in which New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie attacked Rubio and the senator responded by repeating the same talking point over and over.
But if Christie’s attack had hurt Rubio, it didn’t seem to have helped Christie himself: Christie was running behind Rubio in the early returns, last among the four “establishment” candidates who’d each been trying to consolidate the party’s leaders for a challenge to Trump.
In the Democratic race, Sanders was projected as the winner over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who had been seen as her party’s prohibitive favorite a year ago.
Sanders was a self-identified “democratic socialist,” little known outside Washington and his home state of Vermont. But he built a massive movement with rousing attacks on the power of Wall Street, and a promise of a “political revolution” that would provide universal, government-run health insurance and free public-college tuition.
Sanders was also helped by Clinton’s struggles to explain why she’d used a private email server to handle government business while she was secretary of state, a scandal that has hung over her candidacy for months.
Clinton’s defeat in New Hampshire was so resounding – and so long in coming – that Clinton’s campaign conceded immediately when the polls closed at 8 p.m. The campaign sent out a statement downplaying the importance of New Hampshire, which Clinton won in 2008. Her campaign promised to fight on through March, including the next-up contests in Nevada and South Carolina. The next states, Clinton’s campaign said, would be more likely to turn out her way.
[Keep reading. . .]
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In