So This Morning

It's just such a shame that everyone saw the blowout coming. Because Barack Obama's candidacy is still an unprecedented, unforeseen, and unpredictable phenomenon.

He sent his supporters an email today titled "we knew this would be hard."

There is still something special about the way people respond to Senator Obama and something special about the way he is framing his electoral coalition as something more powerful than simply being a democrat in the executive branch.

One thing that I want to understand better is the female vote and Hillary Clinton. This was the most glaring difference between Iowa and New Hampshire. In Iowa, Barack beat Clinton among women and in New Hampshire, Senator Clinton was the resounding choice of female voters. A lot of the pundits last night repeated over and over again that Hillary Clinton's crying incident clearly had an affect over the last 48 hours of the campaign. This morning, NPR spoke to some female voters that specifically cited that incident as a turning point for them.

Really? What's up with that?

I am not suggesting Clinton's crying moment was staged. I think it was sincere, actually. I related to her more, I guess. But, really? It caused a 15 point swing? Really? That easy?

Is Hillary Clinton's campaign strategy at this point to appeal to a sense of loyalty amongst female voters?

Would she decide ultimately to play up identity politics in the face of a rival, in Barack Obama, that has hinged his whole political persona as being the antithesis to identity politics?

Won't she ultimately lose with that type of message? Though, I guess we've learned the hard way that division helps some people win sometimes.

I also thought that calling Obama's inspirational campaign "false hopes" and saying his supporters are in need of a "reality check" would ultimately make Hillary and Bill Clinton look reactionary and spiteful. That may still happen if they decide to continue with those types of lines.

I have to go to work but I am looking forward for articles to emerge that place New Hampshire in a context more useful than, "wow, us mediafolk sure were taken for a ride."