Politics –
New Hampshire Primary 2016:
No Surprise

The results are in from Tuesday’s New Hampshire Primary 2016.  The big surprise of the night was — there were no surprises.

Politics
As expected, Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders handily beat his lone rival, former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton.  Bernie ended the night winning 59.6% of the vote, to Hillary’s 38.5%. Since Sen. Sanders is himself a New Englander and represents the neighboring State of Vermont, his victory was widely expected for weeks.

“Because of huge voter turnout — and I say huge! — we won,” Sanders told a jubilant crowd of supporters gathered at a local high school gymnasium. “We harnessed the energy and the excitement that the Democratic Party will need to succeed in November.”

Sanders then thanked his supporters for helping to deliver a message that he believes will “echo from Wall Street to Washington, from Maine to California.”

“And that is that the government of our great country belongs to all of the people, and not just a handful of wealthy campaign contributors and their super PACS,” he added.

After winning last week’s Iowa Caucus by a razor-thin .04% and then losing to Sanders in the New Hampshire Primary, Hillary Clinton recognizes her campaign has major issues, particularly with energizing young voters. During her concession speech on Tuesday night, Mrs. Clinton openly acknowledged that she has her work cut out for her.

“I know I have some work to do, particularly with young people,” she said. “Now we take this campaign to the entire country. We’re going to fight for every vote in every state.”

Mrs. Clinton will need to double-down on her efforts, since throngs of females are not flocking to support her candidacy as was expected. Over the weekend, the Clinton Campaign pulled out feminist Gloria Steinem and America’s first female Secretary of State, Madeline Albright., in a failed attempt to stir up female power. Based on public sentiment and the New Hampshire Primary results, their efforts on behalf of the campaign have provided zero results.

Politics
On the Republican side, Donald Trump finally enjoyed his first electoral victory, winning the New Hampshire Primary with 34.5% of the vote.

“We are going to make America great again,” Trump shouted to supporters packed inside his Manchester victory rally.

“Do we have a ground game or what? You know, we learned a lot about ground games in one week, I have to tell you that,” Trump said, referring to his surprise loss to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Iowa, who had a much more superior ground organization.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was that Ohio Gov. John Kasich came in 2nd place, with 16.4% of the vote.

“When the media kept saying, ‘well, how are you going to do this? Can you finish high?’ You know what I said?” Kasich told a crowd of supporters. “I have an insurance policy. It’s you,” a surprised but happy Kasich told his New Hampshire supporters.

Sadly, Iowa Caucus winner Ted Cruz finished 3rd with 11.5%, while Jeb Bush came in 4th with 11.2%.  Still, each man believes they have a chance as others fall by the wayside.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who many believed was the perfect anti-Trump “establishment” candidate, finished pitifully in 5th place, winning only 10.5% of the vote.

“I’m disappointed with tonight,” Rubio told supporters Tuesday night. “But I want you to understand something. Our disappointment is not on you. It’s on me. I did not do so well Saturday night [at the Republican Debate], so listen to this: that will never happen again.”

With Sen. Rand Paul dropping out of the Republican contest after a poor showing in Iowa, the clock is now ticking for  Gov. Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina and Dr. Ben Carson who are each failing to gain traction. Christie, was was scheduled to fly to South Carolina right after the New Hampshire vote, instead flew back home to New Jersey to “reassess” his campaign going forward.

“I have won elections that I was supposed to lose, and I lost elections that I was supposed to win,” Christie said, adding “It means you never know. It’s both the magic and the mystery of politics.”

It will come as no surprise if Christie or any of the other lesser candidates decide to drop out prior to the South Carolina primary election on February 27th.

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OK WASSUP! covers politics.  Today’s article:
No surprises in the 2016 New Hampshire Primary.