What do the New Hampshire primary results mean?

Hello Merrydew, First, I'd like to welcome you to MyLot. I hope you enjoy your time here. As well, I hope to see much more of your thoughtful interraction. I hope you don't mind, but since you're new here I perused your other responses before formulating this reply. Mostly I was curious about your gender, but found myself sucked in to the great topics that you have chosen to respond to, and specifically to your responses. Well done! And, nicely done here! I may not be in full agreement with all of your conclusions, yet that's completely irrelevant. You clearly put your thinking cap on, and projected possible future trends & outcomes based on current data. Which is exactly what I had hoped people would do.

Hello Merrydew, You're welcome! As for the gender question -- I was pretty confident that my bet on male was safe after having read your remote control answer. Very funny! Thanks for your interest in my possible interpretation of the data. If you don't mind, it's my preference to hold off for a bit. I'm fairly confident that additional, enlightened responses will come in on this post. Rather than make this about what I think, I'd much prefer to learn how others are interpreting the data. As for the variety of American opinions and political leanings, you're right as rain! Though I suspect that the N.H. exit polling does offer some reliable clues into the comparative & contrasting data that will illuminate the probable outcome. At least on the GOP side. The Dem side is a bit more difficult to postulate because of the emotive interplay between Obama, Clinton & the media. In a world with so little certainty, I think I can say with some degree of confidence that this is going to be an interesting election cycle.

Hello LadyLuna, Thank you so much for the welcome to myLot. It's great to be here! I don't mind that you perused the discussions to which I have responded. I am still figuring out how I will contribute to myLot. I've responded to the topics that grabbed my attention, and that I could understand well enough to give some semi-intelligible response! (And I wasn't trying to obfuscate my gender (M). I just hadn't noticed that it wasn't being shown; which I've now rectified). I'd be interested in your interpretation of the data. Certainly this is a country with very varied opinions and backgrounds, which makes it hazardous to extrapolate the data from one or two states to the rest of the country, no?

Hello Adoniah, I have voted for my fair share of losers as well. So, I can relate. You allude to an interesting first in this election cycle. The election period is so long this time that it really increases the possibility that the individual candidates will trip themselves, and each other up. It also increases the chances that the candidates will develop genuine resentments toward their opponents (we're already seeing this from Huckabee's campaign staff). Statistical trending does seem to indicate that America's patience for negative campaigning has dwindled. So, my guess is that we'll hear less of "my esteemed collegue is or proposes ...", and more of "he is ..." and "she is ..." Of course, between the Dem's I suspect this will be a much easier fall from grace for Hillary than Obama. Thus far, he has done an impressive job of keeping his composure -- and 'on message'. Of course, I'm still not sure what that message is. In his concession speech last night Obama said over and over "We can", yet he never identified what we can do, why, or how it can be accomplished. Obama has capitalized on generalizations, but is thus far presenting very few specifics, as he stumps in these primaries. I can't imagine it will be too much longer before Hillary sees this as his achilles heel. You may be on to something about a GOP win, if as you suggest, the Dem top-tier continue to utter public gaffs on the campaign trail. Thus far, the only large GOP gaffs have come from Huckabee. Of course, there's still plenty of time!

Hello Sigma, You are sweet as pie for chiming in here. I know that you are not at all thrilled about so many aspects of this election season. So, thank for sharing your two cents worth. You may be uninspired and fatigued by it all, yet you still make some interesting observations & predictions about the pundits, the national trends, and the ineffectiveness of Congress. It may be early, but ya' done good, my friend!

Hello Drannhh, Funny thing is, Hubby told me last night that he'd deliberately mislead a pollster, just because. So, I doubt that you're alone in your overall reaction to pollsters. I would agree with the fact that they are ridiculously incomplete. Yet, statisitics are all about the interplay of the data. I find them both fascinating and illuminating. 'Course, that's a little strange, and I readily admit it.

Hello Rowena, Well, you certainly weren't the only one caught off guard by the results. You make a good point about voter vascillation. I was astonished to learn that the night before the primary a great many N.H. voters still hadn't made up their minds. Good observation!

Hello Uroborus, I'd like to welcome you to MyLot as well. I hope your really enjoy your time here. And, thank you for sharing your views with us. None could argue that both Clinton and Obama are reaching a certain segment of the country. How much of a segment remains to be seen. The only certainty is that next November someone will emerge victorious. Who the victor might be is anyone's guess.