The hunt for independents in freshly blue New Hampshire

[snowbear]

- - -

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois throws a snowball at a campaign staff member Thursday after a roundtable campaign stop in Exeter, N.H.

AP / Jim Cole

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, December 23, 2007

The hunt for independents in freshly blue New Hampshire

By Scott MacKay

Journal Staff Writer

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Nearly 200 hands shot up when U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois asked how many of the 700 voters jammed into a cavernous downtown armory were still undecided in New Hampshire’s presidential primary.

Among those with arms raised were Brad and Julia Haley, a married couple, both 37, who moved from the Washington, D.C., suburbs two years ago to take marketing jobs in New Hampshire.

About to cast her first New Hampshire ballot, Julia Haley is torn between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. Brad Haley says his decision comes down to Obama or Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware.

As the days dwindle to the Jan. 8 election, voters such as the Haleys are crucial to winning New Hampshire’s leadoff primary: Convincing undecided voters, many of them new to the state, will be key.

A study released last week by the University of New Hampshire confirms what those who follow or work in politics here have long known: that the state’s changing population is forging a New New Hampshire in politics. The old view of the state as a Republican bastion has crumbled, meeting the same fate as the state’s symbol, the fallen Old Man of the Mountain rock formation.

Continued > http://www.projo.com/news/content/NEW_NH_12-23-07_EO8BPPP_v95.29934c0.html

~ ~

[countmyvote4real]

1. Eww. Not progressively blue enough for me. n/t

[catnhatnh]

2. Just WOW!

That Scot McKay piece manages to insult just about every citizen in my state. From the part that refers to my area as being a suburb of Boston, to the part that compares the loss of a beloved state symbol to the Republican party,to the part that calls questioners of the candidates cranks....The sad part is that most of the broad strokes of the piece are very insightful.It feels like seeing someone carefully studying something you find beautiful,describing it well and then cynically dismissing it as worthless.