Home-Field Advantage Is Only Part of Sanders's Appeal in New Hampshire

[Purveyor]

The Vermont senator has made significant inroads with women voters in the Granite State.

By Mark Niquette, Arit John
February 8, 2016 — 8:15 AM EST

ust a week after turning 2008's loss in the Iowa caucuses into a 2016 win, Hillary Clinton could be headed for the opposite fate in New Hampshire, where polls show she now trails Bernie Sanders by double digits.

Her campaign has advanced a rationale even promoted by Bill Clinton himself: “Nobody from a state bordering New Hampshire has ever lost a Democratic primary to a non-incumbent president.”

Even as Clinton looks forward to upcoming contests to solidify her anticipated march to the Democratic nomination, her struggle to repeat her 2008 victory in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary is about more than just home-field advantage for the Vermont senator.

Polling suggests that trust in Clinton, as well as her support among women and those earning less than $50,000 a year, has eroded since Granite State voters gave her that triumph in 2008. The New Hampshire electorate also has changed, with fewer blue-collar Democrats who served as a staple of Clinton's coalition in 2008 and her husband's in 1992 when he won the presidency.

“Hillary Clinton is not the Hillary Clinton of 2008. New Hampshire is not the New Hampshire of 2008,” said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-02-08/home-field-advantage-is-only-part-of-sanders-s-appeal-in-new-hampshire

[jfern]

1. He had 3% of the vote in this poll

https://cola.unh.edu/sites/cola.unh.edu/files/research_publications/gsp2014_fall_primary100914.pdf

Not exactly a home field advantage there.

[pangaia]

2. “Hillary Clinton is not the Hillary Clinton of 2008."

Oh yes she is.

Maybe she has conveniently changed positions, but she is the same person she was then. And that is what will sink her.